Page 56 of Reckless Games

But as the hours dragged on, my impatience grew. I glanced at the clock, willing the minutes to pass faster. My feet ached from standing, and my chest still twinged with pain if I moved too quickly.

I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves as I handed over a latte to a young woman. “Here you go, enjoy.”

“Thank you,” she replied with a smile, and I nodded, my mind already drifting back to my thoughts.

The repetitive nature of the job gave me too much time to think. My mind often wandered back to certain silver eyes. Has he given up on finding me yet? Or does he still want my head? I shook my head, trying to clear the memories. I couldn’t afford to dwell on the past, not now.

As the day finally came to an end, I breathed a sigh of relief. My shift was over. I quickly counted the till, cleaned up my station, and waved goodbye to my coworkers.

“See you tomorrow,” one of them called out, and I nodded, forcing another smile.

“Yeah, see you,” I replied before stepping out into the cool evening air. The walk back to the apartment was short, but it gave me a chance to clear my head. The streets were bustling with people, everyone lost in their own worlds. I kept my head down, avoiding eye contact, and made my way home.

Once inside, I locked the door behind me and leaned against it, closing my eyes. The safety of the apartment was a welcome relief. I peeled off the wig and contacts. For now, this was my life—a life of hiding.

***

Chapter 32

Lorenzo

“The last truck has been cleared. Emir transferred the payment,” Giovanni reported, his voice cutting through the low hum of the car’s engine.

I leaned back, closing my eyes as I let the words sink in. The past weeks had been a relentless cycle of operations and transactions, but there was a hollowness to it all. “And the local thugs?” I asked, more out of habit than genuine interest.

“They’ve been neutralized,” he replied.

I opened my eyes, glancing out the window as the cityscape blurred past. The market was bustling, vendors shouting and children laughing. “Good,” I said absently. It had been a grueling week, filled with the bitter acceptance that Angela might truly be gone. The weight of that settled heavily in my chest.

After countless futile attempts to find her, I finally broke down. Giovanni had found me in my office. The weight of failure and loss pressed down on me, making it hard to breathe.

“Capo,” Giovanni said softly, a rare tenderness in his voice.

I looked up at him as my vision blurred with unshed tears. “She’s gone, Giovanni,” I whispered, the words tasting like ash on my tongue. “Angela’s gone.”

Giovanni knelt beside me, his strong hand resting on my shoulder. “We’ve done everything we could, Capo.Sometimes...sometimes we have to accept things we can’t change.” I tried to maintain my composure, to hold onto the control I was known for, but it shattered in that moment. Sobs wracked my body, and Giovanni pulled me into a tight hug. I cried on his shoulder.

“It’s okay, Capo,” he murmured.

For the first time in what felt forever, the raw vulnerability I felt was both foreign and overwhelming, but necessary. It was the first step in facing the painful truth. Now, as we drove through the market, something caught my eye. A small stall on the side of the road had dreamcatchers hanging from a wooden frame, their feathers and beads swaying gently in the breeze. My heart clenched as a vivid memory surfaced. There was something about them that excited her. I remembered we had been curled up on the couch, watching some random movie. In one scene, a dreamcatcher hung above a bed, and Angela had sat up, her eyes wide with childlike wonder.

“It’s a dreamcatcher. They say it catches bad dreams and lets the good ones through,” she pointing at the screen.

I smiled at her enthusiasm. “Do you think it really works?”

“If you believe it does, then yes.” Her face lit up. “If I see one, I promise I'll get you one,” she said decisively.

“Sure,” I laughed.

Who knew how desperate I would be to have one in my life right now?

The memory faded, and I found myself back in the car, the pain of her absence even sharper. I opened my eyes, the dreamcatchers still swaying gently in the breeze.

“Stop the car,” I said abruptly.

Giovanni looked puzzled but complied, pulling over to the side of the road. I stepped out, feeling an inexplicable pulltoward the stall. As I approached, I noticed a red-haired woman examining one of the dreamcatchers with a look of fascination.

I picked up a dreamcatcher, running my fingers over the delicate threads and feathers. The red-haired woman next to me picked one up. I barely paid attention to her; my focus was entirely on the memory of Angela. But then, a familiar scent wafted through the air, stopping me in my tracks. An intoxicating mix of musk and citrus that I could never forget hit me with a reckoning force. For a second, I was completely obsessed, lost in that scent. It was my favorite drug, one that I could inhale for the rest of my life and never tire of. My heart raced, my senses sharpened, and the world around me faded, trapping me in the scent I could recognize from miles away.

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