When the next morning came around, Zane decided to be lazy. There was no reason for him to get out of bed when there were no updates and nothing today.
The only missed calls and texts were from Bernard which were of no concern. The old man could wait until Zane was in a better mood for them to talk. There were more important things to be taken care of.
Stretching in bed caused the sheets to slip off Zane's upper torso and expose the rather muscular chest that was hidden beneath. Despite the air conditioning in the penthouse, it was far too warm to be worrying about wearing anything aside from undergarments under the sheets.
One of the perks of being a bachelor who lived alone, the young mafioso never had to worry about anyone seeing him no what was or wasn't worn on any given day.
Staring up at the ceiling, he opened the door of the nightstand positioned to his left and rummaged around clumsily until the hand landed upon their desired target. Never too early in the morning to smoke.
Lighting up the cigarette, Zane took a deep puff as his thoughts wandered to what Clive had said the night before. There needed to be some kind of plan before he did anything.
What kind of plan though? What did he know that he could use to formulate a plan? A frown formed on the otherwise expressionless face.
Most of the women who were his suitors were easy to deal with. They agreed to do whatever his father wanted because there was something important they would get in return- status, power, debt paid off, family forgiven, money. They always had an Achilles that Zane could target and use to avoid a relationship while giving them whatever they wanted.
And when it wasn't possible for it to be given personally by him, he knew the person to contact to make it happen.
What about Rose though? Did she have some kind of Achilles heel as well? Even if it wasn't exposed yet, it had to exist out there somewhere. Pondering this, Zane picked up his phone and dialed a number.
Taking another puff of the cigarette, he waited for the person to answer as the ringtone sounded off.
"Isn't it a bit too early for you to be bothering me?" A gruff voice answered the call.
"You haven't heard from me in so long and yet this is your reaction Myles?" Zane teased smiling around the cigarette in his mouth.
"What exactly is there to be pleased about? Obviously, the only reason you reached out is that there's something that you need." Myles scoffed.
"Come now Myles, you know that it isn't the only reason I reached out to you." Zane attemped to soothe.
"You're not an easy man to find. I had to do some digging to find this number." Digging indeed. It had taken a month to realize Myles was missing and another to figure out phone numbers had been changed.
Another one of the informants who were heavily used by Zane's family. This particular one was hard to keep track of and even harder to find when they didn't want to be.
"I would have been happy to connect with you again sooner but it wasn't easy."
"Did you ever think that maybe it was for a reason?" Myles sniped back. Scrapping was heard in the background of the call as though something was being shifted.
"Better get it over with though, what do you want from me? I don't have all day so spit it out quickly." Zane would have taken the time to correct the ill manners of the other man. The young mafioso knew better though, Myles wouldn't hesitate to hang up if too much time was wasted.
"I need you to find out some information about a certain girl for me." Zane replied as he cut straight to the point.
"Don't tell me that I've been away for a few months and you're getting yourself married?" mock surprise laced his voice as the potential thud of a shoe hitting the ground could be heard on the other end of the phone.
"No, and I don't intend to anytime soon." Zane answered in a cold tone.
"I want you to find some information out about her exactly for that reason though. I need to use her?"
"If you would be so kind as to tell me who this 'her' is I could get started." Myles replied.
"In case you forgot- I need a name to work with before I can do anything." The young mafioso's eyes rolled at this.
"I will give you a name after you tell me if you think you can do it or not." replied.
"I need a yes or no."
The phoneline was silent for a moment before a deep sigh came through the other side.
"Fine. You're going to owe me big time for this though, you know that." Myles warned.
"You still haven't paid me back for all the other favors you've asked over time either, you know that?"
"What if I took you out for a few drinks, could we call it even?" Zane argued, shifting position so that his back could be propped against the bed's headboard.
Myles responded with a noise of displeasure.
"Hardly. Wouldn't even make up half of what you owe me." Was the grumbled response.
"Tell me who the girl is and I will see what I can come up with." He repeated.
"Rose Ashton." Zane informed the other after he located the name stored on his phone. He didn't think it was a name he would forget. Better to be safe than sorry though.
"You're fvcking kidding me right? This is some kind of joke?" Myles's reply was not what Zane had been expecting.
"What's wrong with her?" He questioned confused by the other.
"You can't really tell me you don't know who this girl's daddy is?" The other asked in disbelief.
"No?" was the uncertain response.
"You're certainly going to be getting your hands full with this one? Are you sure you want me to do this?" The informant clarified again.
"I can do it for you, I just want to make sure that you know what you're getting into."
"Why don't you tell me first and give me whatever you can find on her and I can make my decision after I see it all." The young mafioso replied.