10. Dante

Chapter 10

Dante

I was catching up with one of the delayed meetings for the day with my financial director when Ellie pushed the intercom button. She knew better than to disturb me during a meeting so it had to be urgent.

“What is it?”

“Zola Leone called. She said that she’ll be here with a loaded gun in five minutes if you don't call her back. Should I contact Security, Sir?"

For the first time in a really long while a smile came to my face. “No. Show her in when she arrives.”

I set down the phone and returned to my meeting, but I couldn’t concentrate. It dawned on me that I was really looking forward to seeing her again.

I ended my meeting and sat looking out of the window at the sea of skyscrapers. She would be annoyed at my interference at her workplace for sure, but I had no choice. She wasn’t taking the very real dangers surrounding her as seriously as I wanted her to.

Half an hour later Ellie announced her arrival. To be honest I was surprised that she had even bothered to stop outside. I’d almost expected her to barge in and point a gun straight at my head.

I tapped my fingers on the table as Ellie showed her in.

“Miss Leone, Sir,” Ellie said and directed her to one of the seats in front of my desk. Ignoring Ellie, she glared at me.

Ellie didn’t linger. She shut the door behind her and I turned my full attention to the woman before me. Her face was pale, and she was dressed in a fitted skirt and linen shirt but all in black. She probably thought she looked as if she was in mourning, she had no idea that she looked like the sexiest woman alive. If the circumstances were different …

“You’re smiling. Is this all amusing to you?” she raged.

“I thought you were bringing a gun,” I said and settled more comfortably into the chair.

“What did you think you were doing?” she asked, and tears of anger and frustration were welling up in her eyes. “Do you know what you took from me today? That job was my last lifeline. I wanted to hold on to it and find a way slowly to stay alive and you took that away. Why?”

Every trace of amusement immediately left me. She was in pain, immense and heartbreaking pain and I understood that. I knew what the pain of loss felt like.

I softened my tone, something I couldn’t ever recall doing.

“Zola, I don’t know how I can make you believe it, but you are in extreme danger and it was the only way I knew to protect you.”

At my words, the pain in her eyes turned to a murderous fury. “All of a sudden I’m supposed to believe you care for me?”

I told her the truth because I didn't know how else to get to her.

“Not you, but your father. If anything happened to you, I’d never forgive myself.”

“So, in order to protect your golden conscience you took my job away?”

The way she was putting it didn’t make me feel good, but there was no way she could convince me that I had done the wrong thing.

“You might not believe this but I owe your father everything. I am here today … because of him.”

“And where is my father?” she asked. “Because of you, he is gone, and yet you’re still not willing to leave me alone? How can I make myself clear? Oh yeah, stay the fuck away from me.”

It was obvious to me that exchanging words in this way would not be productive so I got straight to the crux of my offer. “There are rumors going around that you might be able to identify the murderer which makes it certain there is a hit out for you right now.”

She sank into the chair nearest to her and stared at me with a mixture of horror and disbelief at her situation.

“I can protect you, Zola, and it’s very frustrating to sit here and not be given the chance, but it’s either me or the witness protection program, and trust me they will not be able to protect you the way I can.”

She shook her head as if in a daze. “Why does everyone keep assuming I saw something? I haven’t made any such claims to the police when they interviewed me so why is there even an offer that I should join the witness protection program?”

I studied her. “It doesn’t matter whether you saw something or not … you’re not someone they want alive. You were with your father before he died so they must take into account that he could have given you some information that none of us are aware of. Actually, there could be a hundred different speculations, but what I’m trying to say is they don’t need a hundred and they don’t need one either. The moment they have a suspicion about a possible threat, they immediately eliminate it. Their motto has always been better safe than sorry.”

She sighed, but I could tell that rather than agreeing with me she was simply trying to control her temper.

“I’m going to give you one last warning to stay away from me. If you don’t, I’m going to give testimony alright and it’s going to be against you.”

She stood and started to walk out of the room.

“Your father wanted to defend me,” I said.

At first, she kept going, but then her steps slowed until she came to a complete stop.

“What the hell does that mean?” she asked as she glowered at me. “Are you trying to shift blame from yourself?”

“No,” I replied directly. “It is my burden to bear, but here is a little history for you. I was once falsely accused of murder. Like you, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time so I knew it was only a matter of time before they also tried to get rid of me. The dead don’t talk.

“I knew how to take care of myself. That was no problem, but I didn’t know how to stop them from throwing me in prison and letting me rot in there for the rest of my life … until your father believed in my innocence and was genuine in his kindness, he footed the entire cost of defending me and worked tirelessly to ensure I came out a winner in the end.

“I owe him my life and I’ll forever be grateful to him for that. So … I also feel his loss deeply. His presence had been something I’d treasured for so long. The world was a better place because he was in it.

“I don’t know what your father told you, but I did not hire him to work on my case. I would never put him in danger. For precisely that reason I gave the job to someone else, but he kept working on it on his own steam. It was he who uncovered the whistleblower. Then I had to listen to him. All I could do was try to protect him the best way I could, but because of a momentary lapse in judgement, I failed in that and it’s a scar I will always hold.”

“Instead of defending you, he should have been with me,” Zola muttered inconsolably.

“I’m sorry for your loss, but you have to understand, your father held his work in high regard. He would always go to great lengths to defend those who had been accused but didn’t have anyone to fight for them. Do you know why his dedication was so immense?”

She shook her head slowly, her eyes full of curiosity.

“He was so focused and driven because early on in his career, before he opened his own firm, he had been part of a defense team to represent a murderer, but they had not prepared well and they lost the case. The result was the mother of three was taken from her kids and sent to prison. The woman died in prison and your father was devastated. It haunted him for years. And then …”

I hesitated briefly but decided to continue.

“And then he lost your mother. In the depths of his broken heart, he considered it retribution for taking that mother from her three kids.

“I’m not trying to gain your understanding or compassion, but you shouldn’t refuse my protection because you ultimately judge your father’s murder to be my fault. Whether I liked it or not, the moment your father heard of my case he was going to take it because he saw me as his own. And now that he’s no more I have to be a source of strength and protection for you, but I need your cooperation even in the smallest way to make that happen. You cannot be out and about right now because it’s still too dangerous. Ugo, my boss before the time I met your father, is behind this, and believe me when I tell you, he is an evil psychopath. He could cut your throat with a song in his heart. And he could do it for no other reason than he felt like it.”

I had said much more than I wanted to, but I was sure this could be the last chance I was going to get. I needed her to at least hear and consider my words.

For a second neither of us said anything, then she turned around and fled from my office. I picked up my phone and called Luca.

“She’s leaving the building. Double your team and keep your eyes on her at all times. Ensure that nothing happens to her. And for fuck’s sake, find me that informant.”

“I believe we’ll have word on him today, Boss,” Luca said. “Rocco and his team found the motel he had booked into a few days ago. We suspect he’s severely injured from trying to escape Ugo’s men. We’ll find him.”

My fingers drummed the desk surface. “So, he truly is an informant and not part of Ugo’s men?”

“Looks like it, Boss.”

“Alright,” I said. “Update me as soon as you have him.”