Framed by the Mafia

*Rebecca*

I hadn't slept much. A little concealer under my eyes to hide the dark circles and an iced coffee to put a little pep in my step helped hide my anxiety. This was my dream job, and I couldn't wait to get started. Still, I forced down a breakfast croissant so my stomach would settle enough for me to get anything done at all today.

"Jamie, I'm going to work," I called to my roommate.

Jamie appeared in the doorway, half-dressed and beaming at me.

"Good luck! You're gonna nail it," she assured me with a smile. Before I could say anything else, she disappeared back inside her bedroom.

I let the door swing shut behind me, making sure to lock it tightly before I traipsed down the stairs to get to the train. It wasn't a long ride to the office, but the train usually got crowded quickly, and I wasn't looking forward to jostling with strangers.

As I expected, the subway was busy, full of people trying to get to work. Sometimes, I got caught up wondering what they were up to, what were their stories? But, today, I was too distracted by my nerves.

I stepped off the subway just a couple of stops later, hurrying up the stairs. The office was visible from here, and it loomed over me, both threatening and hopeful. I supposed it was only what I made of it that could determine the outcome.

I hurried down the street and pushed inside the front doors. There was a woman at the front desk who smiled politely at me as I hurried to the elevator banks, selecting the button for the twenty-first floor. As the elevators closed, I took a steadying breath. I was prepared for this. I’d worked hard to get here. I deserved to be an accountant for a business like this.

When the door opened, I pasted a self-assured smile on my face, squared my shoulders, and ensured that not one strand of my hair was out of place. I marched to my office, stopping to talk to a woman at a desk out front.

"Good morning," I greeted.

She looked up at me and smiled broadly. She stood to greet me, holding a hand out to shake mine. Her handshake was firm, but not too hard. This was not a woman with something to prove. I already admired her.

"Good morning. You must be Rebecca. I've been so excited to have another young woman on this floor, we're really outnumbered," she said as she smiled, walking with me into my office. "My name is Veronica, I’ll be your assistant."

Something about Veronica instantly made me trust her. She was charming and charismatic. Her black hair hung long and straight, the sort of sleek I could only ever hope to be. Her eyes were warm brown and almond-shaped. She was dressed smartly, in a fashionable yet functional pantsuit that had me wondering where she shopped.

“It’s great to meet you, Veronica. You’re right, I’m Rebecca.” I entered the office to take a look at the space. Four blank walls, some filing cabinets, and a nice captain’s desk with an office chair behind it was all that filled the space. A blank canvas.

She briefly explained everything I needed to know on my first day, but since my interviews, I had already been briefed about what to expect. But it was nice to know I'd have someone as outspoken and helpful as Veronica by my side.

"Have you met Alessandro yet?" she asked me in a whisper. "The other ladies on the floor call him ‘the Roman God’." She laughed.

I wouldn't tell her that this was someone I wasn't really excited to meet. From what I heard, Alessandro was a very cold and serious boss. I wasn't anticipating that part of the job, that's for sure.

"Not yet. Between you and me, is that title an exaggeration?" I asked with a smile.

Veronica handed me a packet of paperwork nestled inside a file folder.

"You have a meeting with him in an hour, you can see for yourself. I included everything I think you'll want to know beforehand in this folder. Your new hire paperwork is also in there, so you'll want to take a second to get that filled out sometime before the end of the day." She smiled at me and offered a small wave before she turned to leave.

"You must be an angel," I told her. "Thank you so much."

"No problem. Call me if you need anything," she said before disappearing from the room.

I sat at my desk to study the information she gave me. At the top of the stack of papers, there was a schedule for the week. As Veronica told me, I had a meeting in just under an hour with Alessandro. I was a little nervous about how it was going to be to meet him face to face.

I did my best to focus on the information she'd given me to prepare for the meeting. There were several pages of budget tracking and some profit and loss statements that were a little bit of a puzzle. I read over them until I was confident I knew what I was talking about.

By the time I looked up to check the time, I needed to be headed to the conference room. I gathered my notes and took them with me. It wouldn't hurt to look prepared.

Veronica offered me a thumbs-up as I went down to the conference room. I'd also been given a tour of the office when I had my last interview, so I was fairly confident I was headed in the right direction. Still, when I entered the conference room and it was completely empty, I kept checking my schedule to ensure I was in the right place.

I was, in fact, in the right office, so I just ran my fingers through my wavy brown hair and hoped someone else would show up soon. I adjusted my blouse, making sure that it lay in place exactly as it was supposed to. Fixing my outfit was a nervous gesture that I wished I had some control of, but I struggled to keep my hands still.

I heard men talking outside the door. Veronica was right, it was mostly a male-dominated department. The door pushed open and four men made their way inside. I didn't have much time to analyze each one of them as they started taking their seats, because a fifth man made his way in right after and I was momentarily petrified by the view.

A Roman God indeed.

He had dark hair and dark eyes, with a smoldering, captivating gaze. Well-kept facial hair covered his chiseled jawline. He was tall, nearly filling the doorway. Broad shoulders connected to a well-muscled chest. Even with his suit on, it was evident that he was fit. My mouth watered at the sight of him. He just gazed back at me, the two of us frozen in that moment.

I didn't think I’d ever felt this drawn to a man before in my life. Should someone this handsome be working in an office? Shouldn't he be a model or something?

And the way his eyes studied me made me feel naked on the spot. I was sure he knew the impact his presence caused on women. There's no way a man was this confident about himself without knowing he could have whoever he wanted with a snap of his fingers.

Finally, as if it was never there, the spell was broken by the man clearing his throat.

"Miss Johnson, I'm sorry we kept you waiting," he said in greeting.

He sat at the head of the table, pulling a large file from the cabinet behind him and turning to face the rest of us.

"Well, I guess we should get started. Gentlemen, this is Rebecca Johnson, she's the new head of the accounting department." The man turned that blazing gaze to focus fully on me, and I swallowed hard. "I'm Alessandro Russo. I know we haven't been formally introduced yet."

"It's wonderful to meet you, all of you. I'm really looking forward to working here," I answered, trying not to sound too nervous or excited. Which was exactly how I felt after seeing how handsome and intimidating my boss was.

He nodded at me. "Let's get to the boring stuff then."

The men took turns going over profit and loss statements from their perspective departments. They were each heads of different departments, and I felt sort of honored to be in such an important meeting. Everything they were reporting matched the reports Veronica had prepared for me.

That only confirmed my suspicions though. There was something that wasn't adding up. Some of the departments were bringing in too much profit. I could see the average profit per unit sold for the two departments in question, and the average number of units sold. It wasn't a massive discrepancy, but the math wasn't adding up.

I tried to run the numbers again in my head before I said anything. Sure enough though, there was too much money coming in. I hated to start off with a mess, but I was good at cleaning them up. I wanted to make sure the revenue reports were accurate, and the numbers needed to match to ensure that happened.

"Anyone have any questions?" Alessandro asked, raising his perfect eyebrows.

"Yes, actually," I added, pulling everyone's attention to myself. This was the moment I was going to prove myself worthy of this position. I tried to ignore the burning on my skin caused by my boss' eyes on me and focused on the notes ahead of me.

"I noticed that there were a couple of departments that are bringing in a little more money than their sales would lead me to believe. Would the heads of those departments be able to send me more detailed reports so I could look into that?" I folded my hands together on top of my notes and turned to look at the two men who were in charge of those departments.

They bristled, stammering some sort of nonsense reply. I furrowed my brow, confused by the response. Maybe they felt like I was calling them out for something? I wasn't, I just wanted to be helpful.

I finally turned to look at Alessandro. To my surprise, he seemed ready to pierce my soul with his hawk eyes. As everyone else, he also looked displeased.

"You don’t have to worry about any of that now. I appreciate their success. And it's your first day, you don't want to be starting new procedures now," he ordered in an almost frustrated tone, brushing me off.

"Oh, okay. Sure," I replied, confused by his response.

I was definitely not waiting for this kind of reaction.

It was rude. I was a little appalled by his unkind tone. I thought I’d noticed something important. I wasn't trying to change any sort of policies, I just wanted to see the reports for a couple of previous months. How was I supposed to do my job like this? It was confusing.

Maybe the guy was just a controlling jerk. That made sense to me. He was the head of a company, he probably had a big head. It didn't matter how gorgeous he was, if he was full of himself, I could already see how hard it would be for me to do my job.

I shrugged it off. I made note of the strange discrepancies on my own notes, along with another one not to mention it further. Clearly, they liked things the way they were.

"Anything else?" Alessandro asked, looking away from me. I almost let out a breath of relief I didn't even know I was holding when his eyes left me.

There was a general mumbling of "no" from the other men. I stayed silent, uninterested in contributing further for risk of being belittled again.

"Well, if that covers it, let's dismiss," Alessandro said, smacking the table.

The other men started gathering their things. I took that as my cue to leave. I wasn't going to stick around for small talk. There was nothing to talk about. I’d rather ask Veronica if Alessandro was always this cranky. She had her finger on the pulse of this company, I’d just talk to her before I ever brought something else like that up.

I collected my stuff and brushed out of the room, not looking at anyone else. It was embarrassing to be called out that way, especially in front of everyone. I could hardly believe that he’d treated me so roughly on my first day.

Arriving back at my office, Veronica stopped me on my way in.

"How’d it go?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know. Alessandro seems kind of moody," I admitted.

Moody wasn't really the word I wanted to use to describe him, but I thought it'd be unprofessional to tell my assistant that I thought our boss was a jerk. It was true that I couldn't stop imagining how his big hands would feel on my skin or how incredibly how it would be if he pinned me to the office wall, but I also couldn't tell her that.

"Really?" Veronica seemed surprised. "That doesn't sound like him."

I shrugged, not wanting to extend the conversation. I had a lot to catch up on if I wanted to understand how this company worked and how I was supposed to do my job without pissing off my boss. Or imagining him inside me. I was so screwed.