Chapter Eight

The next couple of hours of my day was spent looking at different buildings for Cigno Inc. It was about five when I was finished with my workday.

I got into my car and dialed Edward's number. "Hey, Tesoro. How is everything going?"

I started my car. "I'm done for the day. Do you still want to hang out for a bit before everyone else gets there?"

"Yes, I do. I might have a little bit of work to do when you get here, but please come over." I smirked. "When you get here, come all the way to back of the building. I'll let security know who you are. That's VIP parking. My Aston Martin is out back. Park next to it."

"Sounds good." I sighed. "All I have eaten today is a small bag of potato chips. Will we be eating later?"

"We will be eating something later, baby. Do you want me to put an order in for food for you to eat something?"

I bit my lip because him calling me baby made my stomach flutter more than Tesoro. "No, I should be fine. If we weren't eating later, then I would say yes."

"Okay, Tesoro." We said bye and hung up the phone.

I followed his instructions and was met by a security guy when I got out of the car. "Hello," I said. I grabbed the box of spirits that I put together. He tried to grab it. "I got it."

"Follow me, Miss Swan." He led me inside and to an elevator. "You will be going to floor 10."

I pressed the button. "Thank you," I said. I rode the elevator up to floor 10. When the doors opened, Jasper was standing there with Alice. "Hi, guys."

Alice smiled and let out a small squeal. "Hi, Bella! How are you? I heard you would be joining us tonight for dinner and games."

"I'm okay. How are you? Yes, I will be there tonight." Alice said that she was doing good. "How are you doing, Jasper?"

He nodded his head as he looked into the elevator. "I'm doing mighty fine," he winked at Alice. I don't even wanna know. "Alice, let's take her to the office then I will walk you down to your car." She nodded. Jasper led me down the hall to what looks like a foyer that has four doors.

"Do you know if he has anyone else in the office?"

Speak of the devil the door in front opened up. "Come in, Tesoro," Edward said. "Thanks, Jasper." Jasper and Alice left while I went into Edward's office.

"How was your day? I hope it was better than mine." I put the box on the table that he had. Edward grabbed some papers and his laptop.

"It's been fine. What happened?" I grabbed my work stuff out of my bag. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I told Twilight Publishing that I'm done writing. The last of Nonno's products were bottled today. I've just been out and about, but that's what happens." Edward pushed a small house salad and water over to me. "Thank you."

"I wasn't going to let you sit here hungry. I figured a salad would hold you over." I smiled and started eating. "What's in the box?"

"I don't know what's left in there actually." I opened up the box to see that I was missing a bottle of limoncello and three bottles of whiskey. "I have four bottles of grappa, which I told them not to take so that's good. I have a bottle of limoncello, a bottle of whiskey, two bottles of scotch, and four bottles of grappa, which one of those is for your dad."

I grabbed the money that Milo and Davina left in the box for the bottles that they took. I always tell them that they don't need to pay for it since I already paid for it, but they always do it. "Why is grappa something you keep secret?"

"Since it's expensive to make, we charge it at a higher price. Only a select few business in the US carry it. It's a few high roller gentlemen clubs in New York, Florida, and California." He nodded. "A lot of the times they only get few cases of it, so it's mostly sold by the bottle to employees."

"How much is it a case? What is your profit?" I went through the business aspect of it. "We have a VIP section which includes other families. I'll have to speak with the guys about it because Eclipse is ran by all 4 of us, but would it be a possibility for us to sell it?"

"It could be. I wouldn't be able to budge on the price of it." I took a sip of water. "It wouldn't be a good sell for the main floor."

He nodded. "Oh, I know. I will speak with the guys about it and let you know." We sat there making small time while I ate, and we both wrapped some things up for work.

There was a brief knock on the door before it opened. Esme and Carlisle walked in. When Esme saw me, her face lit up. "Bella, my girl." She gave me a hug and kissed the top of my head. "Are you staying tonight?"

I nodded. "I am." She was just about to say something when my phone rang. My eyes widened when I saw who it was. "I'm sorry. I have to take this." I walked over a corner of the office. "I don't know how I feel about you calling me, Mark."

Mark Greggory, an ATF agent, sighed. "Do you have any ties to Mr. Lyle Gallagher still? I need you to check like now."

I stopped pacing. "Why?"

"He is about to get busted."

I hurriedly walked over to my stuff. I grabbed out my binder and searched through it. "No. Cigno does lot have any ties to him. Ours were cut years ago when Damiano was alive." I grabbed out a piece of paper to write something to Edward.

Do you have any ties with Lyle Gallagher?

Edward shook his head no. I just nodded back to him. "He got caught for selling more than just firearms. He has been mulling cocaine for the Mexican cartel. I didn't think you two had any ties, but I wanted to make sure to give you a heads up."

"Thank you for the heads up." We hung up the phone. "Sorry about that."

"You have an inside man?" Edward asked. I just stared at him. "Which branch?" I just stared at him again. "Bella, there is nothing here."

"ATF," I said. "He hasn't reached out for years now, but he does when something big is about to happen."

"Who is Lyle Gallagher?" Esme asked.

"Cigno hasn't always been clean. The spot where my house sits on was supposed to be warehouse, but the deal with Lyle fell through because what Nonno and Lyle wanted and expected out of the didn't match up. To prevent any fallback, Nonno went straight." I sighed. "Would we have more profit coming in? Yes. But if Lyle got caught, we would have been."

"Drugs?" Carlisle asked.

"Marijuana. It's legal now when sold at legal dispensaries, but we wouldn't have been. At the time when the deal was being contracted, Washington was completely illegal." I put my stuff back together.

"I don't think I would have pictured that about you," Esme said.

I shrugged. "Yeah, that's why Nonno said if you all ever came to us, to hear you all out. Dad was a cop for a reason."

"You're dad was a dirty cop," Edward stated.

I quickly pointed my finger at him. "I don't like my dad being called that. He may have not have been the cleanest cop, but he still did his job. Don't you ever say that again. He had to provide for his daughter, and he did it in a way where I grew up with just wanting things not needing things. It would be different if he didn't provide for us and kept the money for himself."

Edward stood up and walked over to me. I gave him a small glare as he walked. "I apologize, Tesoro. I'll never say that again." He kissed my cheek.

I sighed. "As long as it is never said." I kissed his cheek. He nodded and kept his arms around me. "Are you done with work?"

"I can be. Can we open one of those up?" He pointed to the box. "Specifically the scotch. I ran out last night when I was working of the stash that I keep in here."

I smirked. "Under one condition?" He hummed. "You ask your parents if they want a glass of anything too. I already bought the case, so I would just take it all home. It just doesn't have to be the scotch."

He laughed. "Yes, Tesoro." He looked at his parents. "Do you guys want..." There was another brief knock on the door before the rest of the family walked in. "Ah, the riff-raf," Edward said.

I giggled briefly before I saw Rosalie's red eyes. "You okay, Ro?"

She nodded. "I should be asking you that. Nonno stopped by the shop today when he was done at Cigno." Edward let go of me just before Rosalie landed on me. "I am so sorry that I wasn't there."

"I was just going to be told after they bottled it." I shrugged. "I don't know if it was a good idea for me to be there or not."

Rosalie let go of me and stood next to Emmett. "I feel like if you didn't watch it, you would have regretted it."

"I know." I shrugged. "Is there a lot of liquor stores near you? I didn't see any when I was looking at places. There is a building that used to be a speakeasy just down the block from Rossa that I would prefer to buy, but not if there is already a lot of competition around."

"There isn't. All that is near me that sells liquor is a gas station."

I nodded. "Good." I motioned to the box. "There are some goods in there we could drink. Just leave me a bottle of grappa. You all drank me out of mine the other day."

"We didn't," Emmett said he motioned to himself, Jasper, and Edward. "He did." He pointed to Carlisle.

"Either way," I said. We all dove in and enjoyed an hour of drinking and chatting.