“ Freddie you little fucking bastard”, Antonino muttered under his breath as he sat alone in his personal study hours later with a sniffer of Cognac in his left hand as the fingers of his right stroked his chin. Three months of planning for nothing because once again Freddie had to show what a pain in the ass he could be. Normally Antonino wouldn't have bothered with the likes of Freddie, but Freddie had connections and one in particular that Antonino wanted the name of was a major distributor of Cocaine and pot of the Midwest region for the Juárez Mexican Drug Cartel. The problem was he didn't want to owe Freddie any favors for giving up the name as well as Freddie having a knack Of screwing things up and Antonino could not afford to have Freddie fucking around on this one.

So Antonino had waited and bided his time, putting up with Freddie's shit, until three months ago Freddie had come to him with a scheme to hijack and sell on the black market, a truckload of Faith Hill CD’s fresh off pressing and on their way to marketing, All Freddie needed was some upfront money to set up the operation. Antonino's gut instinct was to say no, but after some thought, he came up with a plan to get the name from he wanted from Freddie and still manage to keep the bastard from getting involved short of killing him. So Antonino fronted him the money, then had Freddie tailed till it was discovered who Freddie was working with and where to find them. Antonino then went behind Freddies back, made a side deal with the people he was working with to hijack the trucks, let them keep the money in exchange for screwing Freddie over, leave him with no percentage on the profit from selling the CD’s and no front money to pay back, leaving the only thing for Freddie to keep his ass out of the fire was the name of the connection Antonino wanted. But once again, Freddie had to be a pain in the ass and toss a monkey wrench in on his plan because instead of the name, the little shit gave up his very own Sister to save his ass. Antonino shook his head, still in disbelief and Freddies shameful act.

But then another thought crossed his mind, had Freddie found out about his plan made with his hijacking partners? maybe Freddie running a scam to keep the money?. Antonino thought on that a moment the shook his head no, Freddie's brain was too fried from Crack and Meth to come up and carry out that idea unless of course, he had enlisted his Sisters help, which indeed was a possibility since he didn't know anything about her. He leaned back and pulled the cell phone from his pocket, dialed the number and by the start of the second ring, Bruno answered. “Send your crew out in the morning", he informed his Enforcer without greeting,
"I want everything there is to know about Harley Hartford… everything”. He clicked the phone off not waiting for a reply, then turned his thoughts for the moment on Miss Hartford.

Antonino smiled to himself recalling the look of green fire that flamed in her eyes as she voiced her protest and his suggesting he was going to turn her out, to be honest, her look and stance had aroused him, stirred his loins and a passion in him had not felt in some time, otherwise he would of have slapped the piss out of her for talking back. He rose to his feet, thinking it was time for a little investigation of his own, he sat the sniffer down and went out into the hallway and whistled for his two German Shepards, Romulus and Remus, patted each on the head then stepped over to the guest room door. He unlocked the door, knocked and waited a few seconds deciding to changed tactics, he lighten the countenance of his face, softened the look in his eyes and let a smile cross his lips, then opened the door to spot her on the bed hugging a pillow. 

“My apologies”, he said softly, ”Bruno wasn't supposed to actually lock the door, I’m off to the kitchen for a snack, if your hungry and want something to eat, follow me”. He turned almost tripping over the dogs who were both looking intently at the one on the bed with ears perked forward. “Oh, nevermind these two”, He said looking back at her and pointing down at the dogs, ”they won't bite unless they think you're a threat to me”. He smiled warmly again the stepped back out into the hallway and lingered a moment to see if she would follow.