Lorenzo: A Mafia Boss Series

Chapter 3 ~ Psycho Gene

~Lorenzo POV~



My mouth must have remained open in complete shock after Carmen casually mentioned my little twist in the copy room with Paula White.

She chuckled in amusement, “By your facial expression, I guess she was telling the truth.”

“Who?” I croaked, praying that Victor had not gotten a hold of this story.

Carmen teased, “Who do you think, Lorenzo!”

She looked at me with a satisfactory little smirk before flicking her fingers, gesturing for me to move out of her way. I stepped aside after a long while without saying a word. Carmen was the least of my problems as I could not figure out how Paula was already spreading this little “grab and go” session we had nearly five minutes ago. By all accounts, she had every reason to keep it quiet due to her engagement, but here it was the main topic around the water cooler. Though I was annoyed, I could not help leering at Carmen’s cute round ass as she walked away from me. Damn, she was sexy. She was the only woman that seemed to be immune to my charm offensive.

Carmen was the executive assistant for Rinacista, the fashion company that my cousin-in-law, Isabella Rossi-Bernardi created. Isabella was the daughter of our most notorious mafia rival, Don Rossi. She and Victor were united by an arranged marriage six months ago now and though their unlikely pairing and subsequent love story was compelling, it was better left told by them and not me. Rinascita was a newer acquisition of Bernardi Corp., and the office space was a two-floor unit located on the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth floor. I figured that since Carmen was up here, where Victor’s office was located, she and Bella must be having their monthly corporate meeting with him. Victor ran a tight ship and had monthly meetings with all the affiliates, reviewing key performance metrics and projections. Despite Victor and Bella being madly in love with one another, she was not exempt from this monthly inquisition. He had the innate ability to separate his affection for her from his CEO persona and prickly asshole demeanor that got people to s**t their pants in fear whenever they were near him.

As the day carried on, I could see that my time with Paula had already sunk into the corporate gossip mill, as evidenced by the eyes that were on me constantly, only to quickly shift when I looked directly at them. The hush tones and snickering that followed me wherever I went did not go unnoticed either. After three hours of this, I had had enough. I was going to ring Paula’s neck. I had promised Victor that I was not going to fraternize with any of the female employees here, and though that didn’t leave too many women who I had not had some form of entanglement with prior to my employment, I was still on a strict code of conduct that my cousin would not hesitate to punish me for if I failed to follow it. My phone buzzed just then, and I soon placed two fingers on the bridge of my nose when I saw who it was from.

It was a text from Victor: Bring your ass here, Now!

I placed my phone back in my pocket, choosing not to reply, and I made my way to Victor’s office. As I got off the elevator to the 41st floor, I saw Paula sitting at her desk directly in front of the double doors of Victor’s office, trying her best not to make eye contact with me. I have been calling and texting her for the last three hours to no avail.

I walked toward her desk and slammed my hand onto it, startling her. “Where have you been, Paula!” I gritted out.

She didn’t look at me but whimpered a barely audible response, “I have been busy and—”

Before I could say a word, the double doors swung open behind her and there stood a visibly angry Victor appearing like the f*****g devil he was.

“I asked you to come and see me, not threaten my secretary, Lorenzo!” he spat, and I narrowed my eyes at Paula before straightening up and walking into the office past him. I heard the door slam closed behind me and I swallowed hard.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before turning to face him. I began, “Vic, I know you probably have heard—"

He cut me off, “Shut your f*****g mouth!”

I couldn’t help taking another nervous breath. This was not going to be pretty. My cousin Victor was eight years older than me and had the unique ability to be calm, deliberate and calculating, priding himself on being three steps ahead of an opponent or enemy, but at times when triggered, he had a psycho gene that could turn him into an unpredictable monster. As the head of the biggest mafia, this was crucial in order to keeping enemies and rival families from moving against us, but as family, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that this asshole did not sometimes scare the s**t out of me. Though Victor and I were like brothers, I never made the mistake of thinking that the affections we had for one another could save me from an ass beating. It never had before. As I looked at his pissed off face, this was indeed one of those times. I knew my best recourse was to keep my smart mouth shut or risk finding a gun in my face… again.

“So, Lorenzo, when did you become this stupid?” Victor began in a calm and casual tone that was scary given just a second ago he was yelling.

I hesitated, not quite knowing if this was a rhetorical question or did he expect me to answer.

Victor snarled in frustration. “I’m f*****g asking you a question!” he shouted.

My eyes widened. Ok… Not rhetorical. I took a deep breath and replied, “Vic, this Paula thing was nothing—-“

He scoffed, cutting me off. “NOTHING! You call it nothing when the whole company is gossiping about the newest associate, who happens to be a Bernardi who just can’t keep it in his pants.”

I gave out an annoyed breath but chose to keep quiet. Victor was slightly taller than me at six-feet-four-inches. He had the Bernardi good looks, which he kept in a well-groomed appearance with short black hair, chiseled jaw and distinct blue eyes. Unlike me, he had the dark features which everyone in the family had. I was the fairer of the bunch, with light brown hair and grayish brown eyes. It was so jarring that growing up, it was a family joke that I must have been adopted or the child of an extramarital affair. Both of which my mom has not come clean about. At this very moment, I wished I was.

The irony of this little sit-down that my cousin Victor was having with me was not missed by me. He was a player himself. By all accounts, my cousin could have a longer rap sheet than me. I have seen countless women fall at his feet. He had such a cult following that we named them the Vic-Lovers. I didn’t know if this was a good time to mention the hypocrisy of this whole conversation, as Victor, himself, was f*****g his personal assistant, Angie, up until a few months ago before his arranged marriage.

Victor closed his distance and grabbed me by the neck collar, causing me to think long and hard about my next words and, as I chose self-preservation, I decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to mention Angie.

He gritted out, “Do you know what kind of risk you have put me in by your behavior? This isn’t a frat house, Lorenzo! There are real-life consequences to your actions. What happens if Paula puts out a s****l harassment claim on you and then to me by extension? Did you forget that this is the same Paula who hated your guts a second ago and has every reason to f**k you over for what you did with her sister?”

My eyes widened in disbelief, and I couldn’t help wondering if I was set up. ‘Could this have been a revenge ploy by Paula all along?’ It seemed that Victor saw that I had finally got it, and he scoffed at my foolishness before pushing me back and letting go of my neck collar.

I quickly muttered, “Vic, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to have any of this go down. It just happened and at the time, I didn’t think…”

He interjected with a sarcastic laugh, “Yeah, you didn’t think. So, to cut this at the knees, I reported both of you to HR for disciplinary action.”

“What! —Disciplinary action?” I choked out. This has never been something I have been used to all my life and being the literal f*****g killer I was, to now be subjected to a f*****g disciplinary action by f*****g Human Resources was laughable.

I responded with a pleading tone, “Victor, this will never happen again! s**t the only urge I have right now is to strangle the b***h…”

He shook his head as he walked toward his desk but halted to turn back to look at me. “This is not that simple, Lorenzo. Like I said. There are real life consequences for your actions, and in this world, under the constraints of my f*****g company, we play by the rules."

My eyes widen in disbelief, looking at him as he had three heads and I choked out with disdain, “RULES!”

Victor raised an eyebrow at my response but seemed to have cooled off a bit, probably finding amusement in my sudden discomfort with playing by the rules.

He responded, impassively, “Yes, RULES, Lorenzo. Maybe you are how you are because you have never needed to follow rules in your life…”

I let out a mocking laugh, not giving a f**k any longer in saying all the right things. “Oh, God, Vic, we do what we do, and you dare tell me about RULES!”

Victor sighed in exasperation, “f**k Renz, even out there, there are f*****g rules! That’s what keeps you and the family safe, so don’t f*****g act like there are no rules and codes that we live by. You just pick and choose which ones you will adhere to. Well, not anymore.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I get that," I said in irritation.

Victor snorts, “I hope so.”

I shook my head. “What does this disciplinary action look like?” I asked, still not buying this nonsense.

He did not immediately respond but rather turned to sit down behind his desk, prolonging the suspense. He took his time to adjust to a comfortable position in his leather seat before he casually said, “I don’t know.”

My jaw clenched, “What do you mean you don’t know? Don’t you think you may just want to f*****g find out!”

He narrowed his eyes, giving me the opportunity to cool my tone. Historically, my disrespect would have been met with an elbow at the throat and me being scaled up the nearest wall. But it appeared by in large Victor was actually in a good mood, or at least his initial anger had simmered over. The fact that I could still smell Isabella’s lingering perfume in his office, possibly right off him, and the faint smudge of lipstick on his neck collar told me the reason why. Yet another example of his hypocrisy to be f*****g her in his office, albeit she was his wife, but still the clear double standards were jarring to say the least. He was either oblivious to it or plainly did not care.

Victor smiled coyly before saying, “I’m staying out of it. I have to remain impartial and can’t be seen looking as if I’m giving you a tap on your wrist. If this gets overlooked, Paula can turn around and claim s****l harassment down the road. Here, with both of you getting discipline for improper conduct, she can’t do that.”

I muffled to myself, “This is f*****g ridiculous.”

Victor clipped back in a terse tone, “Your f*****g behavior was f*****g ridiculous! I warned you, but like always, you have to test the limits. It doesn’t matter, anyway. This is out of my hands. Marcy Sandwell, head of Human Resources, will be deciding on a disciplinary action.”

As if right on cue, my phone rang, and I noticed that it was the Bernardi Corp, main line. I answered it and a shrill voice said, “Hello, is this Mr. Lorenzo Bernardi-Giordano?”

I replied in irritation, “Yes, this is me.”

The voice answered in what sounded like relief, “Great. I’m Marcy Sandwell from Human Resources and an allegation of misconduct has been brought to my attention. I would like to see you first thing Monday morning at my office… at 8 AM.”

I took a deep breath and said, “Fine.” Hanging up, not waiting to hear anymore.