His Mafia Prince
Chapter 189: I Might Find Him

Chapter 189: I Might Find Him

(JERICHO)

I’m in Miles’ study, seated on his desk, my feet on top of the table with an unlit cigar in my mouth. I’m doing my best to play the tough mafia boss, but the truth is that I have a headache that wants to split my head in half. I just want to go take a shower and maybe get a manicure later. Instead, here I am stuck on the phone, trying to get one of the guys to do his job.

"Tito, I’m telling you for the umpteenth time, the crane operator put the container where it’s going to be inspected next weekend. That was the best that he could do." I shout. "What that means is that you should get the cars out of that container before tomorrow. How many times do you want me to tell you?"

"Sir," Tito’s voice whines nervously over the line. "I’ve been working the entire week and zi promised my lady that I would take her dancing on Friday. Can’t we push the unloading to next week?"

"No. The cargo can’t sit in the dock any longer. We risk the port police discovering it already."

"Get the guy you bribed to move it to another spot."

"You’re not listening to me, Tito. You have to get the cars out of that container on Friday, as in tomorrow. I’m not bribing the crane operator just to push the shift tomorrow because you want to take your lady dancing. Are you crazy? Okay, let’s do this. How about I take the original bribe amount out of your pay because you’re pissing me off? Huh?"

’N...no need for that, Sir." He sighs repeatedly. "Hey, Sir, what if we let Tony handle the shipment?"

"He isn’t in the city."

"There surely must be someone else."

"No. Miles gave the order that he wants you to handle it." Irritation begins to bubble through me at the fact that he is arguing and not listening to me. This is why I loathe these port jobs. I have to work with lazy men like Tony that just want to earn without doing the actual job. The only advantage since I started working with Miles is that Sasha has been nagging me less. That’s a win and I will take it.

"Awww, man come on. Can’t Tony do it?"

I sigh heavily, trying to keep my annoyance in check before I lash out. If it was Sasha, Tito wouldn’t have said a word. He wouldn’t be pushing back. These guys like to test my patience a lot. It’s annoying as hell but I can’t lose my temper with them. I have to play cool and act like a boss the best I can. "I already told you that Tony is out of town."

"How about Andrew?" Tito asks. "Surely, Andrew can handle the Friday offload, right?"

"No. You are."

"But I’ve done a lot of work in the recent days. Come on, Jericho. Give me a break."

My patience is wearing out. I grit my teeth. "Tito, do you want to talk to Miles instead of me, because I could just as well hand you over to him if that’s what you want. But you have to know that he won’t be as polite with you as I am. He is in a foul mood today."

He gulps loudly over the line. "No, I don’t want to bother Miles with this."

"Then do what I’m telling you to do. Simple."

"Alright, alright. I’ll do the offload tomorrow." He says with a wobbly voice. "And uh... Jericho, there’s no need for Miles to know that I wanted the Friday off, okay?"

"No? Why not?"

"Well, uh...I just see no need to bother him with unimportant details."

"I don’t know, Tito. You seemed hellbent on taking the Friday off implying that it was of utmost importance." I smirk naughtily, enjoying how he breathes anxiously on the other end of the line.

"Take a joke, Jericho." He laughs nervously. "You know that I joke a lot, right?"

"Yeah, I know exactly the kind of employee you are, Tito." I say firmly. "I will only keep quiet about this if you promise to not ask me for time off again for a while. Maybe then, I won’t say a word of this to Miles."

"Thanks, Jericho." He says with obvious relief in his voice.

"Okay. I’ll talk to you later." I hand up and slump back into the chair. "Fool."

I have tons of other calls to make, but I’m tired. I stretch my neck and blow out a tired breath. My lower back is killing me. That is how it usually is when I sit in Miles’s study all day. These days, I’ve got into the habit of lying on the floor and stretching my back. It is the only way that I can straighten the kinks on my back.

I glance at the remaining numbers that I still need to call with a scowl on my face. "They can wait. My back comes first." I step away from the chair and crouch on the carpet. I lie on my back behind the big desk with a big groan and pull my knees to my chest. "Oh, yeah, that’s better." I mutter as I enjoy the stretch of my tense muscles. "Yeah baby, that’s it."

I stay in that position for a stretch of minutes, rolling from side to side to make sure that my back gets a good stretch. I’m about to get up to make the rest of the calls when I hear the door to the study open. I freeze when I hear Miles and Luca’s voices as they enter the room. Luckily for me, they are busy talking about something so they have no idea that I’m lying on the floor behind the desk.

I don’t want to get up yet because I’m embarrassed. They will think I’m crazy for stretching on the floor like that, but then again, I figure that it will be far worse if they notice that I’m hiding behind the desk. I’m about to sit up and notify them of my presence when I hear them mention the name ’Wesley’. They catch my attention in an instant. My heart pounds and I stay frozen where I am as I strain to hear what it is that they are talking about.

"I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him." Luca says with a chuckle. "He appeared to be just as shocked as I was."

"You found him waiting tables?" Miles asks, sounding bewildered. "I thought he was a professional manny."

"I don’t know. He said he needed a change or something."

From the sound of their voices, I can tell that they are coming closer. I don’t want Miles to find me lying on the floor like some idiot, but I also don’t want to pop up suddenly and surprise them. That will only make me look like a bigger idiot. I’m not sure about what to do, but luckily, they bypass the desk and go to sit on the chairs near the fireplace.

"When did you say you saw him?" Miles asks.

"Yesterday night. I got into town very late. I thought of calling but then I didn’t want to bother you guys. Plus, Arlo hates it when I call in the wee of the night. I don’t want him to bite my head off." Luca lets out a gruff laugh. "But I knew that I’d come and tell you guys about it this morning that I ran into Wesley. So, I came here first thing in the morning. I was hoping that I would find Arlo too."

"He went shopping." Miles says. "He went to get a new suit for baby Reign’s christening next week."

"Alright, I see."

"Did Wesley say why he ran off and didn’t tell us why he left?" Miles asks, sounding curious.

"He only told me that the park rattled him. And he didn’t want to keep living around a family surrounded by violence."

"Really?"

"He looked thinner than I remembered. He also looked tired. I don’t think that that job of waiting tables is working right for him." Luca sighs. "Part of me was tempted to drag him back here with me so you could get some answers, but I wasn’t sure that you’d want that."

"No." Miles says harshly. ’I don’t want him back here. I don’t want him anywhere near Jericho. I knew from the get go that Wesley was trouble. He was way too secretive and that alone gave me the idea that he was hiding something. I don’t want him near Jericho. Let him stay where he is. Good riddance that one."

Anger boils inside of me. Who the hell does Miles think he is, and why does he always think that he has a say in what I do with my life or who I choose to associate with? Asshole. He has no right to keep Wesley away from me. I bet he was relieved when Wesley left. I’m sure that he is praying that my brother never finds out that I slept with Wesley. He thinks that keeping Wesley’s whereabouts a secret will cover his ass.

If only Miles knew that I’ve been trying to find Wesley since he left, he wouldn’t have been struggling so much to keep him away from me. At first, I was just going to let go of Wesley and forget about him. I tried to forget about him. I told myself time and again that if he wanted to leave, then he was dead to me.

But no matter how hard I tried to keep him off my mind and heart, the stronger he came back in. I finally came to terms that I just can’t throw my feelings below the rug. They wouldn’t evaporate just like that. I need to see him away. In the very least, I need to know why he ran away. We had such a strong connection. I know that I didn’t just imagine that. Something spooked him, and I need to know what it was.

Unfortunately, I have been unlucky in my efforts to track Wesley. His cell disconnected every time I called him. He didn’t return to his last known address and the agency he worked for has no forwarding address for him. He seemed to have just vanished into thin air.

But yesternight, Luca saw him in the flesh. Pure excitement rushes through me at the thought. It gives me hope. I might finally find Wesley.

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