Silent Puppet

One of the necessities for people who worked nights, was blackout curtains. Gio often had his programmed to let in the light at early evening. Most days he cursed when they opened up, but that day, Gio woke up with a smile.

How could he not, Elle was in bed with him, still fast asleep. Gio had seen her in various states of undress and the two of them had done the deed in positions that would make an acrobat jealous, but none of those compared to what Gio was seeing.

Elle asleep by his side. Elle in daylight, five years together and he had only ever seen her under artificial lights. 

In natural light, Elle's beauty did not diminish but instead it amplified. The light caught her blonde hair, making each strand seem like it was made of spun gold. Her skin seemed to glow in all the shades of the evening sun.

It was like looking at an ethereal being and for several long minutes all Gio could do was stare, transfixed. And even with that simple action he felt as though he were intruding. Such beauty could not have been meant for a person as unworthy as he was. But Gio wanted, boy did he want. He wanted her not just for her physical beauty, but for her inner beauty as well.

The woman next to him had not hesitated to rush into a situation where they were outnumbered and try to save him. Even after Gio had disposed of the useless trash that had come into club M in a very violent manner, Elle had not looked at him differently.

The dark, malicious part of himself that he kept hidden had exposed itself to her, and she had accepted it as easily as she had accepted all other parts of him.

In the past Gio had dated women who were all for being seen hanging off the arm of the Romano don. But they had all bolted when things got too real. Just a hint of what being a crime boss actually meant and they ran for the hills and never looked back.

But Elle had not done that, she had run towards him, not away from him. She had clung to him for comfort, and then had let him pleasure her with the very hands she had watched him take lives with.

Women like that… kind, loyal, understanding the need for the darkness in the world without getting swept up in it were rare.

Just looking at her, Gio wanted to poke her, or maybe pull her hair to see if she was really real, or if she was a figment of his imagination.

Elle chose that moment to stir, throwing an arm over his chest as she did. It was a warm, solid weight…she was real. Beautiful, brave, fierce Elle, his Elle.

Before his thoughts could get any sappier, Gio gently removed Elle's arm from his chest and snuck out of bed. He did not shower in his en suite, choosing instead to go to a different so that the water did not wake her, he even went as far as taking a change of clothes with him.

Shower done, Gio made his way to his home office. On a normal day, most of his early evening would be spent checking on various Romano investments, making deals and handling other day to day things that kept the empire running smoothly. 

But it was not an ordinary day, so the first thing Gio did was call Big L.

The other man picked up on the first ring,

"Boss," He sounded remarkably alert for someone who no doubt had gotten no sleep whatsoever after nearly being gunned down.

"Report," Gio leaned against his chair as he listened. Thirty seconds in, he was massaging his temples. Alcohol on an empty stomach was a bad idea, but the longer Big L talked, the more tempting a glass of scotch became.

"You mean to tell me that not a single one of them had a tattoo?"

"Yes, boss,"

"The one live guy we have has yet to say a word despite having his toenails ripped out," 

"Yes, boss," Gio sighed, sinking deeper into his chair.

"No one is taking responsibility for the attack, which means the attack could have come from one or two groups, or it could be someone new,"

"Yes, boss," A glass of whiskey would not do. At this point Gio might as well take the whole bottle and take a swig every time Big L said "Yes, boss,".

He wanted to scream and break stuff, but at the thought of Elle still fast asleep upstairs, he controlled himself.

This was shaping up be headache he had to handle quickly before it got out of hand.

"Keep working on the surviving man and see if you can get anything out of him. Don't kill him," If the one lead they had kicked the bucket the situation would go from bad to worse.

"And try to get more people on finding out who the man is. At the very least, we must have a name," A name meant there was a higher chance of finding out who the man was affiliated with.

Gio pushed back a thread of unease, it was worrying that they did not have any names for people who had attacked them. No one in the street knew them, and none of them'd had so much as an ID on them. It was almost as though they had been shipped from a factory and straight to Gio's doorstep to cause trouble.

The incident had the makings of an upcoming war, and Gio could not shake the feeling that he would not be able to avoid it no matter how hard he tried.

Ending the call with Big L he sat back, fingers rubbing at his temple once more. A combination of stress and not having eaten anything in hours.

Letting go of his aching head, Gio made another call. This one to his consigliere. Maria should have been the first person he called after the attack, but he had been busy consoling Elle. No doubt she had been informed about the situation as soon as it occurred and had been on it ever since.

When the call connected and Maria answered with

"Praise be, he lives, the don lives, and he's graced his humble servant with a call," Gio knew he would not be getting off the hook easily for worrying her.

"Maria, we have a problem," She scoffed loudly, no doubt if he could see her, her eyebrows would have been threatening to disappear into her hair.

"That we do, Gio, that we do…" And that simple statement, Gio's simmering headache came back full force. Maria was hardly ever phased by anything, if she agreed that there was a problem, then things were bad…really bad.

They were in this for the long haul.