Chapter 6

Antonio loved the silence of the night. He lived in a quiet neighborhood at the best of times, but when the clock went into the early hours it often felt like a long-deserted ghost town outside.

As Antonio sat at his grand desk in the study, he looked to the side and out of the floor to ceiling window that gave him a perfect view of the street below. Other than a flickering streetlight there was nothing of note to see. But sometimes Antonio liked it like this. His life was full of so many complex equations to solve, each decision likely to have a potentially huge impact on people’s lives.

Antonio looked around the study. With the wall-to-wall bookcases and fine Persian rugs, it was an elegant and subtle room. Perhaps the only sign of anything approaching glamor was the antique chandelier that hung from the ceiling and provided light when Antonio needed it most. But for tonight, Antonio was happy to make do with his desk light. There was a lot on his mind, and his eyes were growing weary from pouring over articles about Detective Niall Sloane…

I know a corrupt Detective when I see one.

But he’s good too.

I’m dealing with one slippery motherfucker.

Antonio had experienced his fair share of corrupt cops who were, on balance, probably far more immoral criminals than most of Antonio’s mafia associates. But there was something about the way that Sloane operated that was different.

After doing some digging into Sloane’s background, it became clear that he very much came from different stock to most cops. A graduate of Harvard’s famed law school and with a Major in Literature, it was quite apparent that Sloane hadn’t come up on the tough street of New York.

Sloane’s career path had seen him fly up the ranks at a pace that was suspiciously quick even taking into account his impressive academic record.

There was something going on, and Antonio knew that he had to find out what. With no black marks or public warnings on Sloane’s record, Antonio knew that it would be very difficult for even the best mob lawyers to successfully question Sloane’s integrity in a court of law.

This was going to be complex.

And with an empty glass of whiskey by his hand, Antonio knew that it was going to be another couple of hours before he could even think about turning in to his bedroom and catching some sleep.

Antonio got up from the desk and walked over toward the bookshelf on the opposite side of the study. But as Antonio walked, he heard the unmistakable sound of creaking floorboards. Except they weren’t the floorboards in the study…

The boy doesn’t know when to quit.

Up and out of his bed…

That brat is asking for a damn spanking.

Antonio shook his head and laughed wryly. Antonio had told Lyle to stay in the annex until morning, but clearly Lyle wasn’t aware of precisely who he was dealing with.

The obvious thing to do in this situation would be to storm upstairs and throw the boy over his lap for a long, hard spanking. That would certainly put Lyle in his place and make him realize who was in charge. But Antonio rarely took the obvious choice.

Antonio decided that he would let the boy snoop around.

What better way than to lure the boy into a false sense of security than let him think he can get away with whatever he wants? And then once Lyle felt totally at ease, Antonio could begin to use the boy for all he was worth. With his position at the New York Tribune, Lyle was a valuable asset, and Antonio wasn’t about to let that source of information go untapped.

As the creaking floorboards went silent again, Antonio smiled. The boy had clearly seen enough for one night and headed back to bed.

As for Antonio… it was time to get back to work.

Antonio’s eyes opened moments before his alarm went off. It was 6:00AM and Antonio was ready for the new day. He may only have got about three hours sleep, but that was more than enough.

Just like clockwork, the electric powered curtains in the bedroom slowly and smoothly began to open. The dawn light burst into the room and filled it immediately.

For the master suite, the bedroom was every bit as big as it should be. But Antonio had always kept it sparsely furnished. A bed, a side table, and a single mirror was all that he needed. The hardwood floor did have one deep purple, red, and blue Persian rug on it, but other than that it was a minimalist, borderline lifeless room.

‘Just like my fucking love life,’ Antonio said, a sly smile on his face.

Antonio didn’t mind being single. The thought of having someone else in his bed every morning wasn’t all that appealing. And worse – a boy would probably want to fill the bedroom with all kinds of clutter and unnecessary crap.

Antonio shook his head at even the thought of it. And this was without even contemplating the amount of clothes that would take up valuable space in his perfectly arranged closet. Nothing about this appealed to Antonio at all.

Antonio hopped out of bed and immediately dropped to the floor and hammered out fifty push-ups. This was part of Antonio’s morning routine and next on the agenda was downing a full liter of distilled water. Antonio may have been forty-nine years old, but he wasn’t ready to accept old age yet.

Anyway, exercise and eating and drinking right was a big part of how he kept himself mentally sharp too. But before leaving his bedroom, Antonio took a moment check his phone.

‘No news is good news,’ Antonio said, seeing that no one had emailed or messaged during the night with any new problems or situations that needed clearing up. ‘Now for some water. Followed swiftly by a triple espresso.’

Antonio put on his short, black robe and walked down the twisting staircase and into the kitchen. But if Antonio thought he would be completing his morning routine undisturbed, he had another thing coming…

‘Wait, you’re awake?’ Antonio said, taken aback by the sight of Lyle sitting at the breakfast table in his briefs as he sipped on a big glass of oat milk while also reading the news on Antonio’s iPad. ‘Well, you clearly feel at home.’

‘I hope you don’t mind,’ Lyle said, his eyes maintaining their laser focus on the iPad screen. ‘Reading the news is the first thing I do when I wake up. Global politics never sleeps. Whatever time of night it is in New York, it’s always daytime somewhere else on planet earth, right?’

‘Hmm, that’s true,’ Antonio said, not wanting to give away how pleasantly surprised he was by Lyle’s words. ‘The world never sleeps. Not really. There’s always a plot being formed, or a plan being put into place. You don’t have to tell me that, young man.’

As Antonio began to make his espresso, he couldn’t help but think just how impressive Lyle was. Most boys that Antonio met in clubs or bars were simply far too obsessed with frivolity or playing games to have serious interests. Maybe Antonio had just never met the right boys up to this point, but Lyle seemed like he was cut from a different cloth to other subs.

The boy’s smart.

He’s sharp, switched on.

Just like… Gio.

With the espresso machine making its customary puffing and wheezing sound as it prepared to pour Antonio’s cup, Antonio remembered how Gio was different to the other boys too. Gio had been career focused in a way that Antonio had never seen in another boy. There was no job that Gio wouldn’t take on, and no amount of preparation that he wouldn’t put into ensuring a criminal act was successful as possible.

But Gio had paid the ultimate price for living a life of crime.

Antonio couldn’t help but wonder whether Gio would still be alive to this day had he not taken his career ambitions so seriously. Antonio had even offered Gio the chance to give up his life of crime. After all, as a true Dom he was more than happy to make sure that Gio was housed, fed, and able to live as fun a life as he wanted.

But that wasn’t Gio.

Gio flat out refused to take Antonio up on his offer, and the rest was history. Back in the present day, Antonio was undoubtedly impressed by Lyle and his apparent commitment to his career as a journalist. But with memories of Gio raging in his mind, Antonio couldn’t help but feel a little bit conflicted.

‘So, I assume it’s another day looking for stories to break?’ Antonio said, taking the first sip of his espresso.

‘Half a day,’ Lyle replied, looking up from the iPad. ‘My boss says that I’ve got some holiday time that I apparently have to take. Some Human Resources policy.’

‘Right. I can’t say I understand. But whatever,’ Antonio replied, arching his eyebrow. ‘You’ll have to excuse my ignorance. My line of work doesn’t come with a Human resources department.’

The two of them shared a moment of laughter. Sometimes it was possible to say a lot without actually saying any words.

Antonio wanted to know what Lyle would be doing once he had finished work but decided to wait and see if Lyle would offer up that information himself. It would be a good sign of how comfortable he was feeling around Antonio.

Antonio didn’t have to wait long for Lyle to offer up the information on his plans…

‘I’m meeting my friend at the Velvet Iron,’ Lyle said. ‘It’s a place where people like me can go and just be ourselves.’

‘I know of this place,’ Antonio said, recalling a couple of visits there to meet up with Damian who would have been there with his boy, Jake. ‘It’s good you’ve got a place like that. It’s a tough world, sometimes I think far too harsh. Everyone should have somewhere they can go to unwind and be themselves.’

‘Is that what Balthazar Bar is for you?’ Lyle replied.

‘God, no,’ Antonio said. ‘Too many people. Too many people by far. I have my own place. But that’s just for me.’

Antonio wasn’t about to reveal any more about his secret office. If not even his closest allies knew its location, Antonio was hardly likely to reveal any more details to a boy he barely knew.

‘Time for one more espresso,’ Antonio said, swiftly changing the subject.

‘Your machine is way old!’ Lyle said, giggling as the hulking espresso machine chugged and crunched the coffee beans into fine powder.

Antonio let that sass slide.

But Antonio couldn’t help question Lyle’s sudden bratty turn. Was this Lyle’s way of flirting with him? Or an attempt to lure Antonio into losing his cool and perhaps revealing something of his true personality?

‘What’s older, you or the espresso machine?’ Lyle giggled as he stood up from the kitchen table. ‘I’m going to shower now. Then I’ll be off to work. I’ve left my cell number on your iPad Notes app. Okay?’

Antonio growled.

The boy was pushing him, testing to see what his limits might be.

As Lyle walked away, his perfectly peachy butt cheeks just poking out from the edges of his briefs, Antonio couldn’t help his Dom side from bubbling up again.

Those cheeks need a fucking paddling.

The boy needs to learn some respect.

He’s on thin ice… and it’s ready to crack at any moment.