Mafia Collateral: A Deal With The Devil

Tampered

Luca

"Yes gather every thing you can. I want to know everything from dance recitals to great grandparents maiden names by morning." I hung up on Franco, my head of security. I wanted a full report and background check on Miss. Olivia Carozza.

She is standing in front of my desk with wobbly knees trembling in fear. This is what I want, it's part of my reputation. It's who I am. I shoot her an impatient glance lifting both of my eyebrows letting her know to get to the point.

"The forms you asked for." Her voice shakes as she hands me the papers our hands touch. Her skin is soft and creamy but her touch is warm as our skin touches she gasped and yanks her hand away.

"Fast tracked, I can appreciate that. Thank you Miss. Carozza." I certainly appreciate that she didn't stall in bringing me what I asked for. Promptness and punctuation are two things I highly approve of.

"Please call me Olivia." Her voice like raw honey and velvet but her posture doesn't waver.

"Very well Olivia. I will view the footage and get back with you. That will be all tonight thank you." I nod my head once and dismissed her and like a flash of lightening she is gone. I type away on the computer and pull up the footage bound and determined to get to the bottom of the complication here at my hotel.

Hours and several times viewing the footage later and the paperwork doesn't line up, somethings not right. I glance at the screen and notice the time frame jumps forward so I rewind it to make sure I didn't miss it and sure enough it fast forwarded three hours, meaning my software has been tampered with. So I have to dig deeper sighing in frustration that this isn't going to just be a bump and click fix like I was hoping for. It usually never is though.

"Pierre, Marino here. Send Marco to the Marino Suites. Yes I am aware of what time it is. No I don't care that he is with his family. The security footage has been tampered with and I need him to figure out how and why. Now." I spit through clenched teeth anger fueling me.

Ten minutes later Pierre and Marco both appear in my office.

"That will be all Pierre, also next time I give you an order, happily oblige and spare me with the backtalk especially since I sign your checks, got it?" I spit my tone laced with venom. Pierre's eyes widen before he nods practically squirming where he was standing. I waved him out of my office.

"I need you to log into the service and search the motherboards and hard drives and find out how and why my system was hacked." I command and get up from my desk giving him access to my computer.

"I'll be back in a couple hours. Call me when you find something." I climb into the backseat of the same SUV Franco is sitting inside of, the same one I got of hours ago.

"Back to the bunker sir?" He asks curiously and I briefly nod and he starts to drive.

Back in my office at the underground bunker below New York City I pour my finest scotch into a crystal glass and sip it pacing and back and forth so much I'm pretty sure I left a rut of my path. My mind was racing a million miles an hour. My software has been tampered with and there is a thief at my hotel. My lifestyle comes with these sort of threats and problems. I'm aware of that. I'm a hands on kind of boss, I don't leave these kinds of complications for my employees to fix, I deal with them myself.

Do I assume it's Maria who is claiming people are stealing the money is actually the one doing it? Or do I assume it's the head manager, someone I put in charge to run my establishment in my absence? Maria has worked for me for nearly ten years, she's got a husband and three kids. I know she needs this job but at the end of the day it's business not personal.

I don't know a single beat on Olivia and that pisses me off and intrigues me at the same time. Her honey colored eyes begging me to take her side and her pouty lips while she spoke haunted me. I need her background check as soon as possible. I hired her simply because of her experience alone. So if she is the one stealing it's my own fault. She was the only candidate who applied for the job that had a decent job experience that qualified for the job.

I poured more scotch into my glass and sipped on its contents before I made my rounds around the casino waiting to hear back from Marco which thankfully didn't take too long, he is my tech wizard after all for this specific reason.

"See right here it shows a time jump, it wasn't easy but I managed to get an IP address for the computer it came from. I entered it into a personal analysis database and sir you're not going to like this-" His voice trails off uneasily and while he may be right I'll more than likely be floored I need to know.

"Just tell me Marco." I demand and he nods briefly before continuing.

"The home address that popped up belongs to Maria Gonzalez. I hacked into their computers hard drive and sure enough it pulled up months worth of them hacking into your hotel software. I logged into the cloud server and downloaded the hard footage and it hasn't been tampered with and take a look." He pulls up the footage and fast forwards to where the incident took place.

I watched it roll and sure enough the only employee that enters and exits the rooms that have been listed in the reports is Maria Gonzalez. I'm more than floored, I'm livid, angry, venomous, you name it. Not only has this woman been lying about someone stealing her money she had the audacity to blame another employee, someone so innocent. The way her brown eyes danced with fear swimming in them, the way she trembled in the chair in front of my desk seconds away from having an accident no doubt.

"Great job Marco. That will be all tonight. Please send my sincere apologies to Angie I know it's late. Go home and get some rest tomorrow I want you to figure out what else they hacked into, if they got into the cameras I'm sure there's more to it."

"Thank you Mr. Marino. Glad I could help. I'll see you bright and early." He left my office and guilt fills my veins which is a new feeling for me. Earlier I was torn between between the two women, each an employee of mine well for now anyway. One won't work for me much longer and the other well I wouldn't blame her if she quit. My phone starts to ring and I immediately picked it up placing it against my ear.

"Sir I've got the background check on Miss. Carozza, I think there's something you may want to know."