Page 15 of Ruthless Lord

Stefano

“ Y ou pulled me away from my own wedding for this ?”

The trucking depot is dark this late at night. The outside floodlights send long shadows across the empty lot. Security cameras stare down balefully from the roofline.

“Didn’t think you needed a better reason.

” Luca picks his way over broken glass and lightly taps the ruined back door with his toe.

It’s hanging on by a single hinge, and the second he touches the edge, it clatters down to the ground with a loud crash.

He looks back at me, eyebrows raised. “What more did you need?”

“A few dead bodies would be nice. Wouldn’t complain about gold bars.”

“Who the hell has gold bars these days?”

“Pirates.”

“Right.” Luca steps into the darkened back hallway. “Come on. It gets worse.”

I follow him inside. The place looks normal at first. We flip on lights as we go.

The main depot area is quiet for the night.

More security cameras are placed at strategic areas, and a high-end alarm system is currently inactive.

Otherwise, the place would be going crazy from motion sensor trip wires.

There are several trucks in the main bay. Nothing looks out of place. Several Marino soldiers linger around, looking grim and bored. They nod respectfully as we walk past.

Luca takes me to the back hallway. I slow and stop, staring in surprise. The office door is standing wide open, and past it, the room’s a complete wreck.

“Someone flipped it,” I say, eyes roaming over papers tossed to the side, a computer smashed and missing its hard drive, the shelves torn to shreds, drawer upended and junk scattered all over. “They did it in a hurry.”

“Maybe,” Luca says quietly as he picks his way through the room. He carefully kneels down in the very back corner and gestures for me to join him.

The safe is tucked back against the wall. It’s a heavy motherfucker. I’d know because I helped install it. Pure titanium outer shell with a state-of-the-art biometric locking system. Davide, our tech wizard, swore up and down nobody would ever be able to open it.

There’s a hole drilled straight through the top.

“Now how in the fuck did someone do that ?” I poke a finger inside. The sides are still warm, like the metal’s holding on to whatever monstrosity pulled off this miracle.

“Starting to understand?” Luca slumps back into a chair. The seat was slashed right down the middle, and some of the stuffing’s poking out.

I stare at the safe, teeth grinding together. “That bastard was such a pain in the ass to haul in here. I’m not doing it again.”

Luca snorts and kicks some of the debris. “ That’s your problem? You’re not wondering how in the fuck this happened?”

I look around and don’t answer. Because he’s right. The thought occurred to me the second we walked through that door.

The depot’s locked down tight when we’re not around. Davide’s very good at what he does, and he installed the security system himself. Multiple levels of protection were layered on top of each other, such that if one failed, another would catch any intruders.

“What’s on the camera tape?”

“Static. Not even subtle.”

“Any other data? Davide’s gotta have something.”

“He’s currently kicking around his lair, cursing up a storm and acting like it’s the end times.”

“In his mind, that’s probably how it feels.”

“Someone broke in here, Stefano.” Luca’s face gets hard as he stares at me. “They used your wedding as cover.”

Well, fuck.

I sit back against the wall and glare at the ruined office.

A part of me is actually kind of happy this happened.

Now maybe I won’t have to sit in here for hours a day doing mundane paperwork to keep this place afloat.

I told Luca from the start that I wasn’t cut out for this desk life, but he insisted it had to be me. He said he couldn’t trust anyone else.

Now look at this place.

I’m the boss, and this total fuck-up happens on my watch.

I cross my arms, trying to keep my anger under control. A big part of me wants to go on a rampage and smash the shit out of the rest of the building. But the smarter, more rational side knows I’d better keep it together before I make this trouble worse.

“What’s missing?” I finally ask. The question I’ve been avoiding.

“Everything from the safe. Some shipping manifestos. Mostly Davide says the stuff’s clean.”

“We don’t keep the obviously cooked paperwork on the premises.”

“Which is smart.”

“But.” I look down at the safe. An ugly feeling churns my guts.

Luca’s gaze follows mine. “But?”

“Some of the files in there aren’t exactly legit. If whoever took them is as smart as I’m afraid they are, they’ll be able to make certain connections.”

“Like what kind of connections?”

“Trucks taking routes that weren’t planned. Carrying cargo nobody accounted for. That sort of thing. It’s subtle, but—” I gesture in the air at the mess.

Luca sighs heavily and leans his head back. “That’s not good.”

“Could be worse.” I push off the wall and crunch over papers toward the door. “They could’ve gotten my gold bars.”

“Where are you going?” Luca calls after me.

“Back to my fucking wedding.” I stomp out into the hall, frustration welling up like black oil bubbling from the ground.

There’s no way in hell this should’ve happened.

And the worst part is, it’s my fault at the end of the day.

The depot’s supposed to be my domain, and I’m the one making the decisions.

Which means anything that goes wrong is ultimately on me.

I’ll own that to Don Marino. If anyone’s taking a hit for this, it’ll be me.

“Hold on.” Luca hurries after. “We still have work to do.”

“Not right now.”

“This depot’s a major part of our operations. It’s the heart of our distribution center. If someone’s sniffing around—” He moves to grab my shoulder, but I slap his hand and shove it away.

He stares at me in surprise.

“I’m going back to my wedding,” I say softly, meeting his gaze. “My wife’s waiting for me.”

“I didn’t know you care about that.”

“Now you do.”

“I thought I was doing you a favor. Weddings aren’t usually your thing. Especially not your own wedding.”

I start walking again. I don’t want to get into a conflict with Luca. He’s one of my closest friends, but I have new priorities. My world tilted and shifted, and I can’t pretend like I haven’t started thinking about my future in a completely different light.

“Normally, you’re right, but I don’t want to fuck this one up.”

Luca seems thoughtful as he matches my pace back outside. I expect him to chew into me, and he’d be right to. Weddings are important, but this depot break-in is absolutely huge.

“You like the girl, don’t you?”

I shake my head. “It’s not her.”

“No? I guess you’re rushing back to your wedding for some other reason then?”

“I liked the food.”

“There’s no shame in liking your wife. Honestly, most of the time, it’s encouraged.”

“She’s a responsibility.” I open my truck door. “Just like what happened in there. I’ll find whoever did it, Luca. I’ll get back whatever they took. And I’ll make sure the whole fucking city knows they can’t fuck with our Famiglia like that again.” I meet his gaze and hold it. “I promise you that.”

“I believe you.” He seems amused as he pats the hood of my truck. “Tell the new wife I said hello and send my apologies. Somebody’s got to clean this up tonight.”

I start the engine. Right now, it’ll be him.

But in the morning?

This shitstorm’s going to be all mine.