Dangerous Numbers

Chapter 5

VITTORIO

I wake up to the constant ringing of the phone, who the fuck is it? It's still dark outside. I get up and grab my phone, it's 4.15 am and I already have another three missed calls from Alberto, one of my best agents back home, in Italy. I get up and head out of the bedroom. I spot a female silhouette laying on the bed sleeping the moment I turn to close the door behind me.

"You better have some good news," I say answering the call.

"We've located him. How do you want it, slow or fast?"

I snort upon hearing Alberto's words. "Make it slow and painful. This bastard has been causing me trouble for months, I won't give him the pleasure of a quick death. Torture him as you like and then cut off his head. I expect evidence when I come back in two days."

"You got it," Alberto says and hung up the phone.

I would never question Alberto's loyalty, he has saved my ass quite a few times, he's one of my best after all. But we make sure that new members also hear these conversations in order to stay loyal, otherwise, they're dead. Angelo, my head of security in London, appears on the door frame of the living room.

"Is everything alright boss?"

"Yes, all good." I nod to him and get out of the living room. I head to my wardrobe. After I get dressed, I get back to Angelo.

"I'll be in my office but when she wakes up tell her that I left, and she must also do the same," I told him and left the apartment.

My office was on the upper floor. I didn't want to be connected with the rest of the apartment in case things go wrong anytime. There was a secret passage though but I intend to keep it that way so no one except me knows about it and where it is.

The elevator doors open and the view of London at night strikes my sight through the huge window glasses covering one side of the room. I sit behind my desk, and I let out a sigh of relief. We had some issues lately at the port back in Italy, but now we have the culprit, and everything will run back to normal. That was a huge deal, and no one will ruin my plans.

My eyes fall on the thin folder placed on my desk. Damien must have sent me the candidates' profiles for the next phase. I open it and take out a small pile of papers, photographs and some pieces from newspapers. I take a deep breath and start browsing through the details of each candidate.

I should have delegated Susan my head of HR to do the job but for what I intend to do with them I must be the one to choose. I asked Damien off the record to do some background checks on each candidate. I want to know exactly who I'm dealing with.

I start feeling disappointed, all so far are good but none of them is inspiring trust. Some seem already too scared from the photographs, imagine if they know their real job description. I feel the blood pressure rising within me until I find her.

Her CV is good and her working experience even better. She has clients from many industries and as my people informed me, all were not easy ones. She speaks some languages as well and Italian is one of them, this will be very useful. After I finish reading her resume, I get the background check info. EXTREMELY INTROVERTED is written with a red ink pen on the header.

"That's good," I tell myself. If things go wrong, I can easily dispose of her, no friends will look for her apart from one Mrs Collins that appears to be a neighbour, and her only family member is in Greece. I then pick up the photographs and my eyes widen with surprise. She's the one I bumped into on the day of the test and the very same one I cross paths with the last two weeks or so.

From the moment I led eyes on her, she got me. When I first saw her, I thought I'm lost in some kind of fairytale and I'm looking at a version of Snow White, a sexy Snow, with dark hazel wavy hair reaching almost at her chest level, warm obsidian-like eyes, alabaster skin and a pair of full red lips, dressed in a black suit and heels.