Page 25 of The Mafia's Captive

Rico strides over to stand next to Nico. “Enrico. You can call me Rico.”

I get up from my chair, realizing that the meeting has ended. “Meet my brothers.” I walk over to her and I put my arm around her. She glances at me, no doubt surprised. I’m sure this is the first time since we came back that we’ve come into contact. “They’re twins,” I say to her, “I don’t know if you can tell.”

“It’s hard to miss.” She makes a move to get out of my grasp, but I hold her firm.

“The youngest in our family. Right below that guy over there.” I nod to Gio, who stands up for the first time and says hi to her. He seems less struck by her, but no less curious. His handshake lasts longer than necessary. Even Corina catches on. She can tell there’s something odd about the atmosphere and that it has to do with her. She keeps glancing at me, looking for reassurances.

“I now know why my brother has been hiding you.” Nico says.

“And why is that?” she asks.

I don’t give him time to respond. Nico could be reckless. He could say one wrong thing and it will all be over. “Weren’t you looking for Colin?”

“I’m sure Colin will heal,” Rico says. “He can enjoy her company later.”

Corina laughs. “It looks like you were in the middle of something important, so I am going to leave you to it.” She doesn’t wait for a response and leaves the office immediately after. We all watch her as she walks out.

“Well, I get it now,” Gio says, looking at the door, “Your obsession with her.”

“Obsession?” Nico says, “What’s this now?”

“Our eldest over there hasn’t been honest with you two,” Gio adds.

“Come on, Gio,” I say.

He continues like I said nothing. “Dante has this weird thing for her. You should see the way he gawks at her from his office tower.”

“I don’t gawk.”

Nico looks at me like he’s seeing something new. “I never thought you’d be interested in any woman more than just to fuck her.”

“Yeah. Pity she’s Saccone’s spy,” I say.

They all sigh. That sours the mood a bit. Good. They should focus on who she is and not how hot her body is. “Still,” Rico says after a while, “She needs to be protected from further harm, but at the same time we need to make it look like she’s not important to us.”

“And how do we do that?” Gio says.

Rico shrugs. “Business as usual. Saccone probably has some spies around. I doubt he had just the one. Let him think she’s just some girl you fucked once. Let her work back on the casino floor.”

I shake my head. “No. That’s too risky.”

“Don’t you have a tracker on her?” Gio asks, “I saw her bracelet.”

I don’t want to, but they’re right. We need Saccone to think nothing out of the ordinary regarding her. And besides, I need to confirm if she truly is Saccone’s spy. If she is, she’s going to reach out to him and I will catch her. That would be definitive proof.

“Fine. You win.” I just hope we aren’t making a big mistake.

9

Coming back to work whilst still not being allowed to leave said workplace building, still qualifies as being held under hostage. But I’ll be lying if I say I didn’t prefer getting out of that apartment and separating myself from Dante and his penchant for attracting bullets. It’s been a few days since Rio and the image of those men coming at me with guns blazing is still burned in my memory. And to think work might be the one thing that might help me forget.

But Dante saying I can work again is a mystery. Is it some sort of trap? Test me to see how I will react? Whatever his motives are, I decided a while ago not to parse them and just go with the flow. Even as I stand next to him now as the elevator descends to the casino floors; I wonder what gears are turning in that hard head of his. The more I wonder, the more distracted I get. Everything about him is distracting. His height, his scent, his —

“What is it?” he asks as he remains looking straight ahead.

“Nothing.” I feel caught out again and I don’t know why he always does that.

“It doesn’t feel like nothing. Say it.”

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