Accardi Chapter 36

Genevieve made one final sweep of her office with the bug detector Becca had sent her. The “radio frequency” detector was supposed to be one of the best on the market according to Becca’s contacts. Gen hoped she was right because after multiple sweeps of her apartment and now office, she’d found zilch. The noise outside her office door suddenly stopped, drawing her attention. Gen stood up and glanced around. Everyone seemed to be staring down the hallway. A flurry of movement caught her attention. She looked just in time to see Kaitlin running down the hall from where Alexander stood waiting for his boss. Kaitlin appeared in Gen’s doorway.

“Miss Sinclair, I have some important things you need to sign urgently!” Kaitlin squeaked as she maneuvered Gen further into the room and closed the door. 

“What on Earth is happening?” Gen asked, craning her neck to try to see down the hallway.

Kaitlin pulled her to the desk. “Not sure what you mean, these are just very important and…”

“Kaitlin,” Gen said in a soothing tone. “What papers? You don’t have any.”

Kaitlin held her hands palm up and stared down at them dumbstruck. “Wow, I can be such a ditz. You stay. I’ll go find some.”

Gen grabbed her arm. “What the heck is…”

That’s when Gen finally spotted what everyone was staring at. Two impeccably dressed men were walking down the hallway. It wasn’t Matteo that had everyone’s attention though, it was the man walking beside him. She’d seen him once before on the night Matteo disappeared while she watched from her apartment window.

He had olive skin, dark eyes and even darker hair. He was somehow several inches taller than Matteo with an air of superiority that could inflate a blimp. His threatening expression caused goosebumps to form along her skin. While everyone’s eyes were drawn to him like a magnet, Gen only spared him a glance before she was pulled to her own opposite charge. 

Genevieve’s stomach churned as she observed Matteo through the glass of her office. Something was wrong. She hadn’t seen him since he’d shown her the rooftop garden. She’d waited up for him all that night in order to share her pasta with him. Instead she woke up on the stool in front of her kitchen island in a pool of her own drool and a crick in her neck. When he didn’t arrive to work on Monday morning, Alexander had informed Kaitlin he had family in town. Gen was forced to give her preliminary presentation for the meeting with Emmett O’Brien to the lawyers and the PR rep. 

Matteo and the stranger walked by her office. She wasn’t sure what reaction she’d expected but she certainly wasn’t prepared for him to continue onward without a single glance her way. He kept his gaze pinned forward while his jaw visibly ticked and his fists flexed at his side. She clicked her tongue when she noticed his knuckles were no longer bandaged and had a new rawness to them. She could feel the stranger’s stare scorching the planes of her face but she remained focused on the enigma she’d become infatuated with. 

As soon as they disappeared out of sight, Gen heard Kaitlin let out a breath of relief. 

Gen turned to her assistant and crossed her arms. “Who was that?”

“That’s Mr. Palladino.” Kaitlin gave her a hard stare and lowered her voice. “You know, like, the *Palladino* family from Italy? One of the original three?”

“Is that why you were so concerned with locking me in my office? Is he known for going on homicidal rampages in domestic office settings?” Gen started going through her checklist for the day. 

“Oh, no, you’ll never have to worry about security so long as you’re in this building. Plus no one would dare go against Mr. Accardi, family or not.”

“Hm,” Gen muttered while scanning the first account she’d flagged as being suspicious.

“Alexander got a message from Mr. Accardi telling him to make sure you were invisible. He got the message right as Mr. Accardi walked through the door, hence the chaos.” Kaitlin shrugged as she walked toward the door to answer her phone. 

“Wait…” Gen said, her head snapping up. “Mr. Accardi told Alexander to hide me?”

Kaitlin’s face paled then flamed. “Right, I wasn’t supposed to say that. Shoot. Well, I…” Kaitlin sprinted for the phone before Gen could force her to spill any other secrets. 

Geneveive glanced around. While the entrance of the two mafia Dons had certainly silenced the office, it hadn’t caused anyone to run for cover. She noticed Mrs. Tutt and Bella talking by Bella’s office door. They hadn’t been told to hide. She walked toward the corner of her office, pretending to be browsing book titles on her shelf while she glanced over to Matteo’s office. The windows were tinted. She sighed and dropped the act in order to instead drop into her office chair. She started realigning the numbers in the account to their original deliverer when a knock came at her back. 

“Yes?” 

“Um, that was Alexander,” Kaitlin began in a nervous voice. “Mr. Accardi wants you to attend the meeting with Mr. O’Brien today.”

Gen snorted as she pulled a pen from behind her ear to jot down a note. “I’m an accountant. What does he need me there for?”

“Um, he didn’t say,” Kaitlin said, sounding even more nervous than before. “He just wants you to be ready by 11:45.”

“Please inform Mr. Accardi that I won’t be able to come. I have meetings starting at 11.”

“Cancel them,” the familiar voice ordered from the doorway. 

Gen pretended to continue writing as if his sudden order spoken with an edge of frustration hadn’t made her legs clench together.

“I don’t believe my services are required, Mr. Accardi,” Gen responded while still jotting down nonsense. “These meetings are important in ensuring that…”

“Testarda, no?” a third voice echoed around the room.

Gen’s pen finally stilled. She swiveled in her chair to find Kaitlin nervously wringing her hands, Matteo staring at her with a tight jaw, and the Italian man grinning at her with a flirtatious glint in his eye. She narrowed her own as she stood up. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I had such a large audience.”

“Perhaps you should reorient your desk,” the Italian noted, bobbing his head toward her chair facing away from the door. “Easier to see danger coming.”

Gen’s glare turned to Matteo who had rolled his eyes so hard she was shocked they didn’t get stuck. She looked back at the Italian and crossed her arms. “You’re the one who sent the weasel?” The Italian cocked an eyebrow in question. “The strawberry-blond who likes to play detective? He said the same thing practically word for word.”

“We’re Italian, we don’t like taking chances,” the man said. He took a few steps into the room and with each step Matteo’s body visibly clenched tighter. “Alessio Palladino, at your service,” he said, extending his hand. She eyed Matteo whose glare was focused on Alessio’s hand.

“You’re not going to kiss it, are you?” she asked.

Alessio’s grin grew. “I don’t wish to make the same mistake as my poor second, no,” he said, his thick accent making his words hard to decipher. 

Gen finally relented and shook his hand before quickly pulling it back and tucking it under her arm. She glanced at Matteo who looked as though he were about to go into a rage. 

“Mr. Accardi,” Alexander called from the door. 

“What?” he growled.

“I have a call and…”

“I’ll call them back.”

“It’s Mr. O’Brien…”

Matteo released a long sigh. “Andarsene, Palladino,” he ordered.

Alessio kept his smiling face on Genevieve. “Tra un minuto, Cugino.”

Matteo huffed as he stalked from the room. Right before he went out of sight he turned his eyes on Gen. His gaze shifted quickly between her and Alessio: a silent warning to be careful. She looked back at Alessio whose smile was slowly fading from his face. 

“Um, Miss Sinclair…”

“It’s okay, Kaitlin. How about you go cancel my meetings? Explain to them what’s going on and make sure they know who made the call,” she told her assistant while maintaining eye contact with the man whose body language was changing before her very eyes. 

“Okay, I’ll be right outside,” she said, her nerves making her voice shake. 

Kaitlin left the door open as she raced across to her desk. Genevieve wanted to show she wasn’t intimidated by the man now glancing around her office like a predator left in a new enclosure at the zoo. She turned her back on him and went back to her desk. The move didn’t go unnoticed because she heard him let out a dark chuckle from behind her. 

“I know who you are to him,” he said, his voice low and threatening.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gen said with a sigh.

She could feel his heat behind her chair. He lowered himself so his mouth was close to her ear. Gen sat absolutely still, glaring forward. 

“Accardi is the closest thing I have to a brother. If you hurt him, in any way, shape, or form… I’ll kill you myself. I’ll make your four roommates watch. I’ll even have your dad, Gerome, and your step-sister, Jada, there to witness it. When I’m done, I’ll present your heart to him in a fucking box. Do I make myself clear?”

“Get *the fuck* away from me,” she demanded, her voice so clogged with anger, disgust, and fear it was a fight to get the words past her windpipe. She shoved her chair back and felt the wheels roll over his Italian leather shoes. He hissed slightly but stepped back as she’d wanted. Geneveive stood and stepped to the side of the desk so he couldn’t pin her again. “Why don’t you do as he said and leave. Now.”

Alessio’s brows lifted in surprise. “Parli Italiano, huh?”

She crossed her arms and kept her eyes locked with his so as to not show weakness. “I’ve been learning. That’s what a girl does when she wants to impress a man she has feelings for.” At her last words, Alessio’s eyes widened. Gen’s mouth dropped and she felt heat crawl up her chest. “I mean…”

He took two long strides toward her and Gen stumbled backward. “You will end this now if you know what’s good for you,” he warned, still advancing. “He may not be strong enough right now but I am. Stay away from him, do you hear me?”

Despite the glass walls and open doorway, Gen felt fear creeping up her spine. It took everything in her to stall her feet and drop her shoulders back to look up at Alessio’s stern expression. “No,” Gen said with finality. “If he wants me gone, Matteo can tell me so himself.”

Alessio’s expression shattered. His mouth dropped and his olive skin lightened by two shades. “He… he told you his name?”

“Genevieve.”

Gen looked over Alessio’s shoulder to where Matteo stood in the doorway. Alessio made no move to turn around, his shocked eyes were still fastened on Gen. Matteo’s gaze softened a fraction as she stared at him for help. 

“O’Brien has moved the lunch up. We are leaving now. Come,” he said, urging her forward by holding his hand out.