The Prince of Chicago

Chapter 7

Angelo

Isabelle had agreed to work for the family, although not before giving me the run around, which I was not surprised about. It seemed like I’d be going toe to toe with her quite a bit; she was a firecracker. I had to admit I enjoyed the challenge, though. Most women just did whatever I said, eager to please. It was boring, really. But Isabelle, she had a mind of her own.

I felt a little lighter after finally revealing my true identity to her. She asked for some of her personal items after agreeing to stay and begin working, and I felt that was only fair; I wanted her to feel comfortable and welcome. This was going to be her home for now, after all. Besides, she had been in those club clothes for almost 48 hours now and couldn’t wear them forever, although she did look damn good in the getup. I headed downstairs to eat dinner after leaving Isabelle in her room, and then I’d gather a cohort to go over to her place and get some clothes and other personal effects.

* * *

I sat in the back of the car as Marco, Denver and Caleb chatted amongst themselves. The three were among some of my most trusted men, and since they were almost always around the penthouse when I was home, it was easy to snatch them up for this ride to Isabelle’s apartment to get her stuff. As I stared out the window, we continued deeper into the southwest side of the city. I knew her apartment wasn’t in the best neighborhood after looking up the address, but I hadn’t realized just how bad of an area it was in. Bars on windows, boarded up buildings, unsavory characters lurking about… it was probably for the best that she was to be living with me, nothing good would happen to her living here. I made a mental note to find her an apartment better suited to a woman living alone if the day ever came that I trusted her to move out.

“So the girl agreed to work with us, boss?” Marco’s question pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, she agreed earlier this evening,” I responded.

“And?” Caleb asked

“And what?” I replied, a bit annoyed.

“Well, what’s she going to be doing?” asked Caleb. “She’s been in that spare room for two days and you’ve spent hours looking into her. But you gave us almost no info when you told us you were offering her a job. We’re curious what her deal is, boss,” he finished.

I sighed. Part of the reason I had kept her in the room for so long was because of that concussion she had, I wanted adequate time for her to heal away from any bright lights, loud noises, or other irritants. And then, of course, there was the whole issue of not knowing what to do with her too.

“Why’s it matter?” I asked in a rigid tone. I didn’t like them prodding into her business like that, or mine for that matter.

“We just wanted to know if we’d be working with her, that’s all,” Dever said in a calm tone. He was always the levelheaded one when things got tense. It was one of the reasons I valued him so much.

“None of you will be working with her,” I said coolly. “She’s going to be running the offices that handle all my legal businesses, she was very adamant that she didn’t want to get into any of the Outfit’s more… underground dealings.” Not that I’d let her run anything related to the Outfit anyway. I felt a need to shade her from that side of my life, it could be dangerous.

“Damn, that’s too bad. We would’ve loved some new eye candy around the warehouses, ain’t that right boys?” Caleb chuckled at his statement, and the other two joined in. I felt a heat rising thinking about them, and the rest of my men, pursuing her, undressing her with their eyes. It infuriated me.

“Watch it!” I said sharply. “If I catch you, or anyone for that matter, looking at her the wrong way, you won’t like the consequences.” My tone was dangerous and low, I meant business. She wasn’t any of their eye candy.

“Whoah, we were just joking around, boss,” Caleb responded, throwing his hands up and trying to look innocent.

“I think someone’s taken a fondness to his new houseguest,” Denver said, corners of his lips pulling upward into a slight smile. At that moment, we pulled up to the curb in front of the apartment complex.

“We’re here,” I said evenly, opening the door and putting the subject to rest without any further comment.

* * *

After letting ourselves in with the keys I had found in Isabelle’s purse, we were met with a tiny, run-down studio apartment filled with mostly packed boxes. Besides a bed, two folding chairs, and a small kitchen table, the room was bare of furniture.

“Yikes,” said Marco, looking around. “This place is a mess.”

“She just moved here a few days ago,” I responded, rifling through some of the open boxes. Books, some dishes, silverware… What could she possibly want from here? I regretted not asking her more directly. I moved on to a new box. Sheesh, this girl sure owned a lot of books.

“So what are we grabbing?” asked Denver.

“Uh… I don’t know. Clothes for sure, maybe some other stuff,” I responded, preoccupied with a box filled with what looked like photo albums.

“You mean you didn’t ask her what she needed?” Marco chimed in, looking through empty kitchen cabinets, so dilapidated that they seemed like they’d fall off the wall at any moment.

“No, I didn’t,” I said sternly. “Let’s just look through the boxes and take what we think looks important.” Silence ensued for a while as we rummaged through her stuff. I pulled out one of the albums and began flipping through it. I saw photos of a young child with flowing, honey-brown hair and freckles dotting her nose. That must be Isabelle. There was also a woman in many of them, I’m assuming her mother, who looked a lot like Isabelle, except she was a little more fair skinned. But their eyes were the same deep pools of green. I wondered if Isabelle would look like that as the years went by.

As I continued flipping through albums, I felt like a voyeur, like I was spying on her without her knowledge or consent. But then again, I had already done that by going through her purse when she was unconscious and searching for information on her, her family, and her friends on every corner of the internet, including the dark web. I tried to shrug off the feeling, but it wasn’t sitting right that we were all here, violating her privacy. I really should’ve just brought her myself, then she could’ve found whatever she thought she needed so badly and my men wouldn’t be getting such an intimate look into her life. As I settled on that thought, I realized that was what was bothering me: my men being here, looking through her things. It was too close for my comfort. Fighting my urge to yell at all of them to get out, I looked up from the album to find Caleb rummaging through a suitcase across the room and whistling.

“Well, would you look at that,” he said, smirking. He raised up a lacy green thong looped between either thumb. I shot daggers at him, my eyes ice.

“Everyone out! NOW!” I bellowed, causing Caleb to immediately drop the panties. All three of them scrambled to the door, tripping over one another. They were fiercely loyal to me, but they knew when I meant business. “I’ll finish here myself! Make yourselves useful somewhere else!” My voice carried as they hustled out the door. I stood up, focusing my attention on the mess of a room running my hands through my hair. God, what had I gotten myself into?

* * *

A little over an hour later, we were back in the car headed home. In the trunk there were three boxes, filled with clothes, a few pairs of shoes, some toiletry items like makeup remover and face wash, and a few photo albums I decided to throw in too. I thought they might make her feel a little more at home. There were still a lot of items I couldn’t find in her stuff but figured she’d need, like shampoo, conditioner, a hairbrush… the list went on. I started making a list on my phone and sent off a message to Rose, our housekeeper, asking her to run out the next day and get all those things and anything else she thought Isabelle may need.

The three clowns that came with me actually ended up being very useful after I had kicked them out. They spent the time I was still in the apartment out in the parking lot discussing payment for the apartment with the landlord, which would now go through me. I figured we’d keep it as storage for the time being, and then later could decide what to do with the rest of her stuff, whether that was moving it to a new apartment or into my own place. I had to admit I liked the latter option better. I wanted to keep her close to me, not just because she currently posed a threat to our entire organization, but also because I kind of enjoyed having her around. She provided a sort of challenge for me every time we spoke, it was entertaining to try and read her as we went back and forth. She was a spitfire, and while she tried her best to mask her emotions, they would seep out if I riled her up enough. And I had to admit, the whole place felt warmer since she had been around the past two days. I didn’t like the thought of that somehow going away, though I’d never tell anyone.

As we pulled into the garage under my building, I told Marco, Caleb, and Denver to carry up the boxes and put them outside Isabelle’s room. It was a bit late, but I didn’t think she’d be sleeping quite yet. I wanted to surprise her with her personal effects and talk about her first day of work, which would be tomorrow. I let out an exhale, almost in relief. Things finally seemed to be falling into place.