Page 3 of Three Bites

“Of course! I will make some tea… ah, or maybe something else,” Theo changed the trajectory after seeing me twitch at the mere mention of tea.

I let the blessedly warm water wash my fears away, if only for a few moments. I emerged from the bathroom freshly dressed and with a firm decision to roll with the punches until I was in a better position to affect my future in any way.

The sad reality was that the only agency I had at the moment lay in telling my brother everything was alright during our weekly calls and not letting him see the bruises. Protesting against this strange arrangement wasn’t a question of confronting Theo, or even Tristan, butJonas. I couldn’t afford to go against the mafia boss who held my and my brother’s lives in his hands. I was used to lying, to putting a cheerful mask on, so I greeted Theo with a smile and thanked him for the prepared coffee.

“You didn’t bandage your finger,” Theo said, not even looking at me.

“It’s nothing,” I waved a dismissive hand.

“I would feel better knowing the cut has been taken care of properly. Please, allow me?”

“Fine,” I sighed. “The first aid kit is under the sink.”

Theo cradled my hand with infinite gentleness as he dabbed disinfectant onto the wound. Disturbed again, the cut left a small spattering of blood on the cotton pad. Theo’s hand froze for a moment and his lips parted before he shook his head and finished the process, leaving me with a small band-aid around my finger.

When he finished, the blond carried the mess to the trashcan and tried to act inconspicuous but I still noticed thathe pocketed the stained cotton pad. It reminded me of the bloody handkerchief Matthias kept. What the fuck? Once was a coincidence but twice was a pattern. What did those men want with my blood?

Maybe… maybe they required it for testing? Was their reaction because they recognized my face and thought I was related to someone they knew? It was the only thing that made sense. And that meant this farce would soon be over; while my bastard of a mafia loan-taking father was likely to cheat on my mother, I was pretty sure she had remained faithful to him. And the family resemblance was too strong for me to be a bastard, even if I wanted no connection to the man who had landed me in this whole indentured servitude mess.

I allowed myself a moment of rest while I sipped my coffee, but after the cup was empty I took a deep breath in and stood up.

“Where are we going?” Theo perked up. It was weird that he wanted to shadow me but what was I going to do? Tell Jonas’ guest to leave me alone and bring the wrath of not one but two mafia bosses upon myself?

“Back to work,” I said simply. “I can’t sit around and do nothing.”

Not if I didn’t want my debt to pile up instead of going down.

I had laundry duty scheduled for after the meeting but I didn’t think that was the best choice when I had a tail. The other servants knew the Young Master’s attitude towards me and often — both of their own incentive and at Carl’s urging — gave me the hardest or most humiliating jobs. It resulted in my share of laundry consisting of the most undesirable elements, like soiled or bloody clothing. Cleaning the still-fresh blood knowing it likely came not from the mafioso but their prey, often innocent people involuntarily mixed in this dark business like me and my brother, made me nauseous on the best day.

No, the literal and metaphorical dirty laundry would have to keep for now.

“I will do some sweeping,” I decided and marched to the northern wing of the estate.

Theo followed my steps doggedly and stood over me like a bodyguard while I did my work, which garnered me curious and incredulous stares from passersby. Finally, I seized the moment when we were alone and turned to the blond man.

“Can’t you act normal? This isn’t helping!”

“And what would ‘acting normal’ entail?” Theo blinked at me.

“I dunno. If you have to be around act like one of the Young Masters. You know, push into my space, get in the way of my tasks, talk down at me, and throw around thinly veiled innuendo. This way the staff will think I just got another stalker and leave me alone.”

Theo’s eyes darkened until I could swear there was a glimpse of red in them.

“Is that what usually happens? Are the Young Masters of this house bothering you like that?”

“Oh no, that’s usually the visiting ones. The Cornello’s have only one Young Master and he is…”

I shut my mouth before I could say ‘much worse’ but the way the usually innocent-looking blond snarled told me he could read between the lines.

He didn’t take all my suggestions to heart but he did start talking.

About anything and everything.

“…did you know snails can have up to 25 thousand teeth? But sea slugs are even more fascinating! They have such amazing colors that look like… like fireworks! My favorite is the Orange-clubbed sea slug. It’s white with orange-tipped stalks…”

The enthusiastic spill of information was so different from the usual self-important drivel I was subjected to when one of theguests decided to hang around me that I couldn’t help but smile. I didn’t have the heart to tell Theo that this type of being talked at failed to make me less conspicuous — the blond looked more like an eager golden retriever puppy wagging his tail and waiting for pats than a wolf cornering a little sheep like me.

“What’s your favorite type of slug?” Theo asked as if he really wanted to know the answer.

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