"A threat?" I whimpered, but my meds were kicking in fast. "Ugh, thirty minutes my ass."
"It's nothing you have to worry about," Gio said standing up. "I promise. I'm going to take care of everything."
There was a sweetness in his voice that comforted me and made my drowsiness double. I suddenly felt much less stressed.
I trusted Giovanni.
"Hey… Can I ask you a question?" I forced out through my hazy mind.
"Anything," Gio replied.
My head settled even deeper into the pillows beneath me and my eyelids got too heavy to keep open, and the second they closed, before I could get my question out, I drifted off to sleep.
32
GIO
As much as I didn't want to leave Avion when I'd only just gotten access to her again, knowing it was my name listed as her emergency contact, that Milli was going to hang back and make sure she was safe, and that I had to make things safe for both her, and my empire, I left to take care of business. I didn't know what question she wanted to ask me, but that curiosity would have to wait.
If I didn't act immediately, it could be too late.
Once I was in my car, I started making a mental list of all of the things I had to act on immediately. My soldiers in the street and inroads in sharking would be fine; there wasn’t much the Narzand Brothers could do with those even if they wanted to. My underlings knew well how to protect themselves, and even if the Narzands ran around killing everyone I’d loaned money out to, I already had collateral or assets held on all of my customers who weren’t notable figures. Any celebrities or government officials I dealt with received loans on good will, but that was because I charged them well over 500 percent interest on anything I lent out and knew of a scandal or two on each of them that could cripple them in an instant.
Curtis was a unique case because I met Avion before I took anything of note from him, but he was too embroiled with the brothers to be of use to me anyway. I already had Avion, and for me that was enough of a repayment; even if my father didn’t think so. I had money to cover that gap from my legal businesses, but they were in much more trouble.
The first thing I had to deal with was KGP. Though my architecture company was a very elaborate front, it was also a legal and very successful business. All it would take was for the Narzands to burn down the building or steal records of my clients for them to bring the entire operation to its knees.
It was early morning and the sun was just coming up, so I knew I had some wiggle room to work with before my employees started showing up for the day. I beelined my way from the hospital to KGP, pulling my car into the underground garage, and then making my way up to the lobby floor from the elevator there. Once I’d reached the lobby, I disabled the elevator access from the parking garage floor, then walked over to the reception desk and activated the security system, which lowered steel, bulletproof grates both in front of and behind all the windows and doors. It was some of the most fortified security material in the world.
I had my relationship with Apex Founders Technology to thank for that.
Not thirty seconds after the security system had been activated, the front desk phone rang. I picked it up after a single ring. “Hello?”
“Hello This is Apex Founders Technology’s security department. Please provide your company’s passcode.”
“G-K-P-K-G-P,” I said.
“Thank you sir,” she replied. “Our records indicate that your security system was activated and we wanted to know if this was in error?”
“No. The security system has intentionally been activated, and it will stay activated until further notice. A threat has been levied against the building,” I explained calmly.
“I see, sir. Would you like us to call the authorities?”
“No. I’m already working with a detective. Just please make sure that all surveillance is reviewed regularly and that the C.E.O. is notified immediately if anything untoward is spotted.” Though I was the C.E.O., things went smoother when people didn’t know they were talking to the big guns.
“Of course, sir. Do you need anything else at this time.”
“No. Thank you.”
“Yes sir. Have a wonderful day.”
“You as well.” I hung up the phone just in time for my cell phone to start ringing, and I noticed Kelly was calling. It wasn’t quite the order I wanted to handle things in, but thinking about it, it would make dealing with everything easier if I had some help. “Hey,” I said, answering the phone.
“Are you at the office?” she said, a tone of panic in her voice. “I just got an email that the security system was activated.”
“Yeah.” I sunk down into the office chair behind the receptionist’s desk. “Avion was shot last night.”
“What?!” Kelly screeched. “Is she--”
