As I left the room, I could hear my father's voice in the back of my mind. I was going soft. He didn't raise me to be that kind of man who bows to a woman's every wish. Or to be moved by any of her tears and tantrums. I needed to pull myself together.
I walked to my study/home office and saw that my breakfast had been placed there. I opened the plate and hummed.
I settled into my seat and I bit into the croissant set on my table as I flipped through the files with my left hand. Yes I was supposed to be resting after a long flight but I did not have the time. There was so much work to catch up with.
I was busy taking a sip of my coffee when a knock on my door came.
"Come in." I said just loud enough for the person on the other side to hear me.
Tomas walked in shortly after. I was expecting him.
"Don," he bowed slightly.
I nodded in acknowledgement of his salute.
"How are you?" I asked.
"Well. How are you?"
"Never been better."
He grinned slightly. "I thought you weren't a man of lies."
"You're calling your boss a liar?" I asked, leaning back on my swivel chair and raising a brow at him.
"You look exhausted." He pointed out.
I nodded in agreement. "I am."
I was and in all honesty, I didn't know how to rest. There was so much on my plate at the moment.
"How about taking a vacation?"
I chuckled deeply. "With everything going on? You know that's not possible. Besides I just got back from Rome."
"You and I know that was far from a vacation. In fact, it meant more work."
He was correct. Every time I was in Rome, there was a lot more strain on me.
"I'm fine." I insisted.
"If you say so." He shrugged. "I saw the article."
"A Don's gotta do what he has to." I said, leaning back to puff on my cigarette.
"You think it's a good idea to put yourself out there?" He seemed unsure.
"It's just for a while. I need to clean up some bad publicity." I explained to him.
"Alright then." He said with a hesitant nod.
"What's going on with the Castillos?" I asked, sitting back up. It was time for serious business.
"They haven't tried anything yet but we are constantly alert. Eyes and ears on the ground ready for anything."
"They messed with the wrong Romano." I muttered.
~~~
My corporate job was the most boring part of my life. It lacked the thrill I needed. I had to be forced to be unnecessarily polite to people I did not give two shits about because I was trying to keep up a certain image all because I did not want to blow my cover as a gangster.
It was a good thing these people knew how to stay within their boundaries so I would not have to react a certain way.
I was at the office for the first time in weeks for yet another board meeting.
It was the end of a quarter and the board had to review numbers. Again.
I listened to the presentations halfheartedly, checking my phone every now and then for updates from my main occupation.
"Sir?"
I looked up when someone called for my attention.
"Yes?" I answered, trying to mask my irritation with a plain face.
"The marketing team has suggested that we have more social media campaigns."
"Yes you should do that."
"The social media team may need you for some appearances just to boost engagement."
I sat back and stared at her sternly.
"I run several businesses. I'm hardly ever in one place. How do you expect me to make myself available for your little dance videos?"
I almost felt insulted by the suggestion. These Gen Z staff were getting unnecessarily bold.
"Sorry sir." She immediately apologized.
A notification came in from Mira. She had just followed me on Insta. I smirked. This was perfect timing.
"I have someone that can help you with that." I said, smiling slightly knowing that Mira would throw a fit about this.
I watched everyone exchange glances and mutter a few things I did not care to know about.
"Okay sir." The girl whose name I didn't care to find out finally responded to me.
"I'll send her in by Monday." I added as I got on my feet.
It was the middle of the work week already so starting off the next week was perfect.
Since she wanted to be out of the house so bad then this was the chance she needed.
I dismissed them and walked out of the meeting. I went up to my office which was basically redundant because I was barely ever in there.
It was cleaned up as always. I stood by the floor to ceiling window and stared at the New York skyline. The city was buzzing with life underneath.
Looking around the place, I inhaled. My father used to come here once in a while as well. It would have been a nice place to work. But I had too many shady things going on and I couldn't bring my transactions here for the sake of discretion.
I looked around the wide office space. It would not be a bad idea to have Mira work here.
There was a private elevator so she could enter and exit the building without anyone noticing and I could always have a few guards follow her to work. It was perfect for her.
I picked up the telephone and called my secretary. She barely had to do anything for me as I was mostly unavailable so I'm sure she was surprised to hear the intercom ring on her end.
"Sir," she sounded out of breath like she had run to the phone or something.
"I need you to get the office ready for my wife."