All night, I continued to keep a close eye on them as they flounced around the room. I could admit when I was paranoid, and I was afraid it’d reached full-blown paranoia - as I kept my back to the wall.
Would he try and get rid of me again? Did he know that I was onto him? Was Marco in on it?
Rachel and Kaleb dragged me off but it only proceeded to distract me for a moment before my mind began racing once again.
“You’re awfully quiet...I won’t bite, you know?” Kaleb chuckled as he took the liberty of starting the first conversation we’d ever had alone.
I supposed now, trapped in the car together was the best time. After all, we were going to be spending the day together, and a lot more from the sound of it.
It was only over breakfast this morning that he and Rachel announced that I would start shadowing Kaleb today. If I were going to one day take over for my ‘father’ after he retired then I would need to be taught the ropes. At least that was how they’d explained it. It made sense, I just didn’t think they’d be in such a rush.
Was Kaleb okay? I tried to be subtle as I looked over at him behind the wheel. He didn’t look sick.
Maybe he just wanted an early retirement. Who the hell was I to judge?
“Sorry,” I apologised quietly. “What are we going to be doing today?”
“I want to throw you in the deep end. That’s how my father taught me...seemed to work.”
“And by that you mean...?”
“We’re going for a surprise inspection of our warehouses, make sure everything’s up to scratch.”
I stayed silent as I let his words sink in and grasp onto a definition. Warehouses? What the hell did he have warehouses for?
It had to be something illegal, right? He was head of one of the most prominent mafia families in Philly. Of course, it was illegal. Drugs? Weapons? Human trafficking? Were they cash houses? I’d heard that phrase from a movie, could they have possibly been a real-life thing?
A short while later, we turned off a street and onto a gravelly path. We stopped in front of a big freestanding building, a metal sheeted warehouse. I kept my mouth shut and followed Kaleb’s lead.
A single man stood in front of the only visible door, Kaleb nodded as he approached and the man opened the door. He was a stereotypical bad guy, walking straight out of an action movie. A white wife beater, black cargo pants, thick muscular arms, shaved head. All he was missing were the darkened sunglasses and machine gun.
Through the threshold, I finally got my first glimpse of the interior of the warehouse. To one side of me the area was flooded with bright lights, and rows and rows of green plants. Cannabis.
To the other side of the warehouse were a few tables, a couch and television. There were five men and one woman crowded around one table. They all looked up at the sound of the door opening. Wide eyes and scared looks passed between them at the sight of Kaleb.
Wow.
As one of the men walked over to us, he started talking, tripping over his words. I wasn’t listening or even looking at him. My sole focus was on Kaleb, the power in his presence had captured my attention. I’d never noticed it before. Now that I had I was intrigued. How did he get that power?
Without a word, he’d made everyone in the room close to peeing their pants. Why? Simply because they hadn’t been expecting their boss to walk through the door.
I had definitely seen this before though, with Nikolai. He was the boss and he owned it, but it was more than that. It was a natural dominance and demand for attention, a confidence that they exuded.
It was intimidating, but it fed my curiosity. I found myself wanting to know what you had to do to earn that kind of respect.
And I wondered if Kaleb would teach me that.
“Raffie, I’d like to introduce my daughter. She’ll be taking over for me soon.” Kaleb looked over at me as he spoke, pride emanating from his voice.
Our eyes locked and we shared a look, an understanding like he’d heard my inner thoughts. That wasn’t possible so I assumed my expression gave me away. I righted myself before turning to ‘Raffie’. I plastered on a wide smile and held out my hand to the man standing before me. He waited a beat, his eyes flickering back and forth between Kaleb and I, before stepping forward and shaking my hand. His sharp movement had caused a whiff of his strong scent to waft up my nose.
He stunk of weed. Surely that couldn’t have been just from hanging around here. It was wicked strong.
My grip tightened around his, not letting him go before getting a good look at his eyes. Red and bloodshot. Either he hadn’t been sleeping very well, or he was as high as a fucking kite. Hmm, interesting.
I released his hand and stepped back into the shadows as Kaleb took over what seemed like a routine inspection. It was quick, easy but I followed behind and kept a keen ear open. The group of people never introduced themselves or spoke to me directly but I found the group dynamic entertaining.
Kaleb gave a gruff goodbye before we stepped outside. I waited by the car as he spoke to the man guarding the door. I was too far away to hear them but each second that passed had Kalebs face showing more and more irritation. Not quite full blown anger but something was seriously pissing him off. His hand reached for the door handle and for a second I wondered what was happening. Narrowed eyes met mine across the yards between us. Next second, his hand raised and waved me over.
“Anastasia, I know this is your first stop but what
