The Badass Mafia Boss Queen

“The plane would obviously have other passengers, innocent people. Bombing it would mean spilling a lot of blood and it would attract the media.” I said looking at both brothers.

“Yes, it will.” Maxine agreed, speaking for the first time since I entered the room.

“But the media might be unable to get anything tangible since the location of the bombing would put the plane in the sea.” Hollis added.

“Yes, true.” I agreed. “But what if the transporters like you call them are not carrying a lot of molly. Let’s look at it this way, from your conversation, you said there will be a few transporters on the plane. Now these transporters will only carry a few kilogram of Molly at a time. When you get the possible figures of the transporters and get the amount of Molly they are carrying, do you think it would be worth bombing the plane for that amount of Molly.”

“Good point.” Hollis hummed. “So, what better alternative do you have?”

“If you really need to stop the transporters, you could identify them and neutralize them before they head to their destinations from the airport. Get a family member, anything to force their cooperation.”

“Or shot the motherfuckers down.” Maxine slid in.

“There is that too. But, I believe there are other less bloody approaches.” I fused in.

Hollis stared at me from under his lashes and Maxine chuckled. “I knew you had it in you, the Boss spirit.” He said to a confused me. Looking at his brother, he shook his head to the side in the ‘I told you so’ pattern. “Bad Ass.” He said.

Hollis stared at me for a while and tapped me gently on the arm. “Eat your food, Ugo.”

I looked at him and then his brother. Then It finally clicked. It was a trap. Their conversation was a set-trap. They wanted to note my reaction. A trap and I failed. Gosh!

Refusing to kill myself with worry, I turned to my food. The food, though, God, the food was impeccable. I was actually a bit jealous that Hollis could cook that well.

Rocco was the one to clear the table. And then, Hollis asked me to join them downstairs so that he can take me round the house. Over the roof with joy, I fell in step behind him but he pulled me to his side and held my hand until we got to the overly large corridor downstairs.

“Come, I’ll show you around.” Hollis said, dragging me gently, before curling his hand at the small of my back.

By the time I realized the position of his hand, he was already drawing me closer. Maxine smiled at me and left with Rocco.

“Where are we exactly.” I probed.

“Willowbrook.”

“Were not in Lilycity anymore.” I said before I had time to take the shock out of my voice.

He peered from the corner of his eye. Willowbrook is a different state, yes.”

“Okay,” I said slowly and took a breath while he kept his eye on my expression.

“This is your home, I guess.”

He nodded. “And yours too, while you’re here. This place was basically just a barn when I bought it, but I had it fixed up. Pulled it all to the floor, and redid it from scratch. Everything here is new.” He led me through the back door, past a kitchen, toward a hallway.

“Rocco, Nero, Castello.” He pointed out as we passed each of the three doors on our left.

He pushed Rocco’s door open. The room looked untouched. The bed was made up so tight that you could bounce a dime off it.

“Who’s Nero and Castello?”

“You can’t miss Nero,” he chuckled, “He’s one of my best men. Tough and friendly.”

“And Castello?”

“My cousin. He’s not around at the moment. He travelled, for a course.”

“Castello, sounds nice.” I said and caught him slightly rolling his eyes.

“Oh well, let’s be grateful he’s not home.” He hummed.

I chuckled. “So Maxine doesn’t have a room here?”

“Nope. His house isn’t too far from here. He prefers his space. But he uses one of the guestrooms if there’s need for that.” He explained as he opened one of the double doors at the end of the hall.

When we walked through the double-doors, Hollis watched as my chin dropped. It was a room of tall bookshelves and pale suede chairs and couch. The high ceiling had exposed dark wood beams that ran across it.

There was a fireplace between the two long windows that faced the back of the property, and the opposite wall was layered of soft gray and rose stones.

“It’s gorgeous,” I whispered, instinctively letting my hand slide over the stones as I strolled deeper into the room.

“Nobody ever uses this room,” he said after a barely audible clearing of his throat. “I brought some of your books here. All your books, actually.” He said, pointing to the shelves.

“Wow!” I gasped, totally short of words. I didn’t know if it was best to pick offence at the intrusion or not. But, I was happy. Having my books meant reading as much as necessary.

I folded my arms and investigated the books on the shelves, rising up and down on my tiptoes, while Hollis stood by. Every single thing was there.

“There’s a piano in the corner. You can come here and play whenever you want,” he told me.

“I wouldn’t put anyone through that kind of torture.” I murmured.

“What! don’t you play, I saw a piano at your home?”

There was accusation in his tone and I could feel myself reddening as I understood he must have gone through the stress of getting a piano because he thought I play.

“I went through annoying piano lessons all through my childhood courtesy of mum and her music-tutor friend Miss Calista.” I explained dully. “My mum believed that I’ve got the fingers of a good pianist and Miss Calista believed I was created to be a lot of amazing things but being a pianist was not one of it.

Hollis chuckled. “She ended up running off one day, accusing me of purposefully being tone deaf. Mum said she had a nervous breakdown afterwards.”

Hollis eyes widened, and suddenly a full bellowed laugh escaped him. It was so unexpected, that I took a step back. I noticed something different about him, something that had been there since he arrived that morning, something that had only intensified since we got downstairs. The tired and anxious creases around his eyes were almost gone and he looked decidedly younger.

It was like a mask had been taken off or put on. I couldn’t be sure but I liked it more than I ought to. We headed back through the foyer and continued on our way.