Arranged marriage to the princess of the Red Scorpions
Chapter 187 - Flex

"You should be more careful doing that, particularly around people him." Lena warned Samuel once they were alone in the office.

"Be careful doing what?" He asked giving her a rather innocent look as though he didn't quite know what she was referring to. Somehow, ever since he had come back from being around Jovani for three days, his personality had shifted in a way that she couldn't quite understand.

He was more confident than he had been before or at least he gave off the impression that he was. While he was still his usual laid back and gentle self, he had no problem teasing her and talking back to other people that he wouldn't have usually said anything against.

"I mean pushing back against people with using your new position. Even if they don't know who you are, someone like Genson might be more likely to put the pieces together if he's working with Marcus." The princess replied with a slight edge to her voice.

"I don't think that's anything to worry about as much with the change in position and the fact that it won't just be you relying on watching out for me now." Samuel replied.. He knew that for Lena's sake he still needed to watch what he did, but the fact that he held his own position of power was kind of nice. With it being his first time in such a position, he couldn't help but want to test out what kind of reaction he got from other people with it.

"Besides, he's likely to know anyways if Marcus is aware of what is going on. Plus, I don't like the way that he talks to you so I don't think that it's out of place for me to speak up about that." Samuel added.

He didn't have much to do at the office that day as James had been taking care of going through most of the back logged financial paperwork since they had been out of the office which was slightly disappointing to him, but he knew that it needed to be done in order to determine at what point in time exactly money had started to disappear.

Lena was about to say something else, but was interrupted by her phone ringing. She was pleased to see that the call was coming from Hester which made her hopeful that they had gotten an ID off the picture that she had sent him along with the fake information of the man who wasn't official hired at the company.

"Well, did you figure it out?" Lena asked the moment that she answered the phone, hopeful for what kind of answer Hester would have for her.

"Yes and no." He replied. His voice didn't hold the promising tone that she had been looking for.

"So I can tell you who he is because it doesn't seem like he has put much effort into trying to hide his identity, but it would seem from what I can replace that someone else around got to him before us."

"Who was and who did he work?" Lena asked a grimace on her face after hearing what the other had first to say.

"We got a name, it was Ashton Brookstone. Who he works for seems to be one of the smaller gangs who is involved in financial scamming. I don't think though he's the target that we're looking for however in what's going on there."

"What makes you say that?" The princess asked. Her question was followed by a pause and the sound of voices on the other end of the phone.

"Well they aren't well known for hitting up such big jobs. They usually target smaller companies that are easier to scam. Doesn't seem like they have the skills or technology to do big time jobs."

"What was someone like that doing working undercover here then?" The princess mused not exactly expecting Hester to have an answer to this question. She could only imagine though that if this Ashton was killed it would have something to do with overstepping boundaries or not being a necessary piece anymore but too big of a liability to let go.

"I'm hoping to solve that question soon, but it might take some time tracking whoever it would be down. Could also be connected with the recent issues we've been dealing with along the borders as well. Someone trying to push for a takeover but more indirectly." Hester told.

It was a possibility as this wasn't the first time that there had been a power flex from another mafia family who thought that they had the power and skill to take territory that didn't belong to them.

In most cases it was because they got backing from another family that wanted to stir the pot but not risk losing their own men to determine what kind of opponent that they would up against.

"See what you can replace out and let me know later. I need to get back to other things." The princess told Hester. She thanked him for what he did replace out before she ended the call. Seemed like things were shifting towards becoming problematic again.

It had been a while since the Red Scorpions had to deal with such problems, but the seasons were always changing and times would come when problems like this would occur in close succession because someone wanted to try and flip the tables on whoever was in control.

Even though she didn't like talking with him, she knew that it was something worth bringing up to Jovani to see if the Vedova Nera had been dealing with any type of similar problems that they had been trying to sort out. Perhaps there would be some kind of connection from this knowledge that she could work with.

Even knowing this didn't help that much however as it didn't get her any closer to knowing who had been taking money from the company. She only knew based upon what Eve was working with that it might be a two point job where it was initial setup from the inside but working with a system that allowed it to continue from a remote position without anyone having to be on-site to make sure the money kept being transferred. If such was the case, she would have to figure out what the trigger was.