‘That or take a fucking boat. Don’t give a fuck. You’re grown men. I’m sure you can work it out.’
Rafa, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me since my announcement, twirled his coffee cup. ‘And where exactly will you be taking the plane, if you don’t mind my asking?’
Compulsion dragged my eyes to the phone, then I met his gaze. ‘I do mind you asking, as a matter of fact.’
He tensed, his usually steady gaze sharpening as he tried to read me.
His eyes flicked to the twins, and I knew he was dying to get me alone so he could grill me. I reached for a fat croissant, slathered it with butter and bit into it, relishing the decadence. It tasted nowhere near as incredible as Maddelena’s pussy, but I planned on reacquainting myself with that sublime taste before noon.
I blocked out the twins’ grumbling about the inconvenience I’d dumped in their laps, pretty sure one of them would call Bibi within the next five minutes to whine about the injustice.
Rafaelle, however…
Sure enough, the second the twins leapt from the table to chase down our sister, he leaned back in his seat, propping one ankle on his knee. ‘What the fuck is going on?’ he asked with deceptive calm.
‘I’m taking a little detour before heading home.’
‘With her?’
My nostrils flared. ‘You know the answer to that so why are you bothering to ask?’
He exhaled audibly and stared into the middle distance for several beats before he glanced back at me. ‘What I’m about to say are words I thought would never cross my lips but… aren’t you worried that all this…trystingwill draw attention to her? Have you thought at all about the danger you’re putting her in? El Topo won’t take kindly to discovering you’re banging his granddaughter. And that unhinged fucker will not hesitate to take his fury out on her as much as on you.’
My gut clenched. Hard. Because ithadcrossed my mind. More than a few times. And my knee-jerk response to that was becoming set in stone. Which was that I couldn’t…wouldn’tlet her go. And I would ensure she remained safe… while she was with me.
My shrug felt stiff and starchy. ‘They think it’s the other way around, that she’s leading me around by my dick. For now we… I’m letting them believe that.’
His brows spiked. ‘And then what?’
‘Let it go, brother. I’ll handle it. But keep the rounding up of the traitors quiet, would you? I don’t want the Mancinellis to know we’re onto them just yet.’
He frowned. ‘I’m a miracle worker, sure, but you’re assuming Stan Paul hasn’t blabbed by now.’
‘He’s a fucking coward. He’ll hunker down until the ship starts sinking.’
‘You’re basing a lot on assumptions,frate?—’
‘And you’re bordering on disrespect. So enough already.’ Yeah, I was pulling rank just so I didn’t have to hear the truth of what he was saying, which was that this particular racing car was headed straight for a concrete wall. That at best I had a matter of weeks before it all unravelled. Because I sure as shit wasn’t going to lose a race just so the Mancinellis would believe their moles were still in place.
And once Stefano realised Maddelena wasn’t the saboteur they wanted her to be, shit would truly hit the fan.
Rafa sighed. ‘Tell me you’re at a least bringing Fist with you?’
My mouth twitched into a grin. ‘He’ll hunt me down and smother me to death with those baseball-mitt fists if I don’t.’
Maddelena
I double-checked the hotel room out of habit for anything I’d left behind, even though the butler had been exceptional in his duties, including getting my things packed within half an hour of my informing him I would be checking out a day early.
The text I’d sent to Cesare on a desperate whim last night had set a wild chain of events in motion. I didn’t realise the sheer lunacy of it or whether he would even be on board with it until he’d replied thirty seconds later, and my breath whooshed out before I burst out laughing with the hysteria trapped in my chest.
Even before the echo of Sofiya’s footsteps had faded I knew I wasn’t on board with simply handing myself over to my grandfather’s whims.
Not after what I’d learned.
Not after what Cesare had made me feel.
Whatever fate awaited me after this interlude ofsui generis, I would either accept or rebel some more. Funny, I hadn’t quite made up my mind which way I’d go. But if Bonafacio was this blasé about losing the services of his moneywoman, reducing me to a faceless stranger’s housewife only good for breeding the next generation of Mancinellis, then he deserved a taster of what life would be like without me.
