DeLuca (Mafia Romance)

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“Fuck!” I shouted, slumping into my chair.

We had been at this for hours, and we were getting nowhere. Someone, probably the Russians, had managed to fuck our transport out of southern California. There was no way we could use the trucks we usually did, all the cops along the west coast had been tipped off to what we were moving and which trucks we used to move it. That meant I had more than my fair share of dirty pigs looking for an extra bonus for their cooperation. I needed to find another way to move my shipment without costing myself a small fortune in payoffs above what I had already expected.

“Boss, we could always do smaller transports, in domestic vehicles,” Al suggested.

“Too risky, too many variables. I can’t split a shipment this big like that, it would be too difficult to track. Not to mention manage that many drivers without one of them getting pinched by the cops,” I said, my head tilted toward the ceiling, eyes squeezed shut in exhaustion.

“What about refrigerated transport?” Mia’s sweet voice floated above the grumblings of the men in the room.

My head snapped up. I hadn’t heard her come into my office, and from the startled looks of my men, they hadn’t either.

She sauntered into the room, well aware all eyes were on her, and took a seat on the edge of my desk. She crossed her legs and leaned back on her hands, causing her skirt to hike up a bit.

Jesus, I thought. I missed those legs. I wanted to feel her, to be inside her again. I hadn’t been able to touch her the way I wanted in far too long. I sat back in my chair and studied her. I knew she was extremely intelligent but I never thought she would want to be involved in my illegitimate dealings. Certainly not sitting around trying to come up with a way to move over 5 million worth of cocaine up the western seaboard. A glance around the room confirmed my men were confused about her involvement in the conversation but were just as curious as to find out what she had to say.

“Explain.”

A glint of fire lit in her eyes at my words and a sly smile stretched across her red coated lips before she spoke, “Refrigerated transport, the big tankers that transport liquid gas?”

“Like gasoline?” Sal asked.

“No,” She responded sharply, taking even me by surprise. She was taking charge. I had seen this side of her a few times before, it was sexy as hell.

Hopping off my desk she stalked across the room before turning to address the group again. “Like liquid nitrogen. It’s transported in large refrigerated tankers and not checked the same way a normal tanker would be because you can’t just open the top and peek inside. You have to have special equipment to handle liquid gas, special equipment the state does not supply to weigh stations. Therefore, the tanks are weighed and rolled. No surprise inspections.”

“Yeah okay, but how are we going to get our hands on a refrigerated tanker?” Al snorted, obviously thinking he had just outsmarted her.

Mia just smiled sweetly and turned to me, “I happen to know of a privately owned refrigerated transport company based out of Eugene that is known to travel all the way up and down the I-5 corridor.”

“Yeah well, sweetie, it’s a lot more complicated than just finding a company on the google,” Al snorted again.

I was getting irritated at his blatant disrespect of Mia, but I wanted to see how she would handle the situation so I let it play out.

She calmly walked over to where Al was sitting, hiked one leg on the table in front of him keeping her right foot on the ground and leaned down into his personal space. “If you interrupt me one more time, I WILL CUT YOUR FUCKING TONGUE OUT OF YOUR FAT FUCKING FACE!” she screamed the last part with her nose an inch from his.

In a split second she pulled a triangular push dagger from her thigh holster, leaning back out of his face so she could swing her arm and drill his hand to the table with her knife. Her outburst caused all the men in the room to jump in surprise. No one had seen Mia like this. Ruthless, cold, calculating, exactly like she had been the first day we met, the same look on her face now that she had when she took the gun from my hand and killed her father.

A grin spread across my face and my dick twitched. I know it’s fucked up, but watching her stab a man that had disrespected her was the sexiest fucking thing I had ever seen. Al was groaning and swearing while trying to free his bloody mess of a hand. Mia simply popped up off the table and smoothed out her skirt as she turned to address the men again.

“As I was saying,” she cast a disapproving glance at Al and his blubbering before continuing. “I happen to know that the owners of this small transport company, a husband and wife, are currently struggling financially to keep their business a float while paying for their son to finish school at Northwestern.” She said the last part with a smirk in my direction. BINGO she had an in, and it was perfect.

…

I was glad to have Mia back and out of her vegetative state, even if she seemed a little harder than before. We were in a good place before Gina’s death and I wanted to get back there. Not just for the sex, although I did miss it, I just missed her more. We were in this sort of limbo. I just hoped we would find our way back to each other sooner rather than later.