Page 39 of Bought By the Mafia

While he went to do that, I led Allison to the downstairs bathroom where a first aid kit was available and helped to her dress her wounds. She had a few scratches on her hands besides the purple eye that was quickly turning puffy. “Did you go to the police?” I asked her. “Maybe get a restraining order?”

She smiled, and it quickly faltered. “Already did, but he ignored it and when I threatened to call the police,” she pointed to her eye, “this was the result. I don’t think I can deal with all the rigmarole of going through the system. Carter can be slippery.”

“Maybe Gio can help.”

“He’s already helping enough letting me stay here. And I doubt Carter will have the balls to come after me once he knows I’m under the protection of the Morelli family.”

I dabbed her face with a cool cloth to ease the redness of her eye. She looked so vulnerable in this state it was impossible not to feel sorry for her. I wondered if that was why she had initially come here early on. She might have intended to leave her boyfriend and come here, but was taken aback to see me. No wonder she acted the way she had. “This Carter guy sounds like a piece of shit,” I said. She chuckled softly and winced, touching her temple.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“About what?”

“Not telling you about my relationship with Gio.” She cast her gaze away from me and went into a rambling explanation. “It’s just that when you invited me back here the first time, I thought it best not to mention it, thinking we would only meet each other once and that would be it. And then we became sort of friends, and the more we got closer, the harder it became to say something.”

“I get it. You think you should say something, but you don’t and then things spiral and suddenly it’s too late. But maybe a heads up would have been great,” I said.

“Next time.”

We both laughed.

After I finished dressing her wounds, I led her out of the bathroom where Gio was waiting for us. He looked a little surprised when he saw us coming out smiling. What was going through his head? I can only wonder. I would like to think he thought we were talking about him and he was anxiously wondering what we had said.

“I’ve prepared a room for you if want to go to bed,” he said to Allison.

“That would be nice,” she replied. Gio took her into his arms and led her upstairs. He must have put her in the other guest room, I thought as I went back to the balcony. The food had gone cold and I no longer had an appetite, so I gathered it and sent it to the kitchen. I went about putting all the leftovers in the fridge and making a mental note to take some to work for lunch. And make sure Gio wouldn’t notice me packing it. Knowing I liked his food that much might make him go insane, actually. After I was done putting away everything and hiding away a lunch box behind some bottles of water, I closed the fridge only to encounter Gio’s big body right beside me. Latent adrenaline made me jump and squeal, causing Gio to chuckle.

“What were you up to in there?”

Did he see me packing away the lunch and hiding it away? It would be mortifying if he had been watching me the entire time. But no. I would have sensed him if he had been in the kitchen for long. Like it or not, every time he entered my radius, the hairs at the back of my neck would rise and my heart would pound just a little louder, just as it was doing now. And the little smirk he had on was not helping matters. To wipe it away and gain some equal footing, I slapped his shoulder. “You scared me,” I said.

That only made his smile widen. “Where you up to no good?”

“If putting away dinner and cleaning up is being up to no good, then yes.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“What? Surprised I can clean after myself.”

He must have realized how his reaction must have seemed to me because his mood changed and became serious. “Thank you.”

“Well, I ate the food too, and you cooked. The least I could do is clean.”

“I mean for what you did for Allison and letting her stay here.”

“It’s not like it’s my place. You have more say on who stays here than I do.”

“Well, you’re my wife. What’s mine is yours.” I don’t think he meant it literally. It sounded like a throwaway phrase, but part of me couldn’t help interpreting it as something more meaningful. The way he was looking at me was also not making it any clearer. He stared into my eyes as if I was the only person in the world. It was unsettling. It made me want to jump to any other topic that wasn’t us.

“Is she asleep?” I asked.

“Probably. She looked a little tired, but I gave her a sleeping pill, regardless. She needs to rest.”

I nodded. The best thing for Allison right now was to get some rest. I could not imagine what she was going through right now.

“Which brings me to another subject,” Gio said. “You’re sleeping in my room.”

“Why,” I said in a light tone, “are all the rooms taken? I’m fine in my room.” This place had four bedrooms. There was more than enough space for three people to sleep in.

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