Page 109 of Broken Mafia Prince
“Okay?” she drawls. “Why are you telling me that you told your dad that you’d be here? Is that news or something? Is there a reason you told him that?”
I swallow, suddenly hesitant to speak. “Well, the thing is…” I trail off, unsure of how to finish my words.
After not seeing her in so long and how I just disappeared from her life, I don’t feel like it’s fair for me to ask her for any favors. But then again, there’s no one else I could ask for this, and the last thing I want is for my father to worry about where I am and send his hounds to hunt me down and discover me with Raffaele.
My father would definitely have something to say about it, and even worse, I wonder what my so-called fiancé’s reaction to it would be.
“Spit it out. What the hell is going on? I’m tired of being kept in the dark,” she says, impatience lining her words.
“Raffaele asked to meet up.”
Isa freezes. “Raffaele. Do you mean Raffaele Gagliardi? The same one you left this city because of? The same one that your family has a centuries-old rival with?”
“Centuries-old?” I raise one eyebrow. “I think you’re exaggerating a little bit.”
“I’m not doing any such thing. Have you forgotten how quickly things escalated from being allies against the Syndicate to that sordid emotional mess?”
“That’s not true,” I deny. “This is different, okay?”
She gives me a look like I’m not fooling anyone. “Uh-huh.”
“I mean, this isn’t a social visit. I’m not just going to see him for the fun of it. We have something important to discuss. This could be the difference between life and death.”
“You really mean that? After all this time, Raffaele suddenly wants to give you information that can help your family. Does that even make any sense? He is the freaking Don now.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense. We are not exactly friends, but we are like allies or something, I don’t know.”
She throws back her head and lets out a bark of laughter. “Allies? How strange.”
“Strange? What do you mean?” I ask curiously.
She doesn’t reply immediately. Instead, she heads over to the kitchen, and I follow after her. She stops at the kitchen and pulls out a bottle of wine from one of the racks at the side.
“Want one?” she asks.
I do, because it feels like my nerves are shot to hell, but I also know that I have to be completely clear-headed if I’m meeting up with Raffaele. I can’t promise what will happen there, even though I keep on telling myself that we’re just going to have a conversation and I will go straight home afterward. The truth is that I don’t trust myself with him, and I’m sure that Isa can tell.
“No, thank you,” I finally say, shaking my head.
“More for me, I guess,” she says, pouring herself another glassful and tossing it back.
I wait until she’s finished to ask again. “What do you mean by what you said?”
“What did I say?” she replies evasively.
“I talked about us being allies, and you sounded derisive.”
“Don’t be stupid, Giulia. We both know that Raffaele is neither your ally nor a friend. He is the kind of person who uses everyone around him for his own advancements. Who knows what he wants from you now?”
“But I have nothing to give.”
“You may think that you don’t, but he’s definitely after something, and if I were you, I would stay as far away from him as possible. Remember what got you into this mess—it was him.”
My eyebrows fly up into my hairline. “Come on, Isa, it wasn’t him, it was the Syndicate.”
“And how do you know it’s the Syndicate? Are you really just going to believe everything he tells you?”
“Why would he go through all the trouble of planning a hit when he could have just easily shot me any one of those times I was with him with my guard down?”
