It was a damn good thing the boss had a heart attack.
A cruel thing to think? I was aware. But it worked out fine for me, because it kept Dominico busy and always away from the house.
That thought probably sealed my damnation. I didn’t grow up religious. There were a few stints where Mom’s boyfriends drug us to various churches. I learnedsuperstitious practices from the traditional ones, but my favorite was a reformed church with stadium seating and a really good choir. I wanted to join, but Mom broke up with him before I had the chance. And wenevershowed our faces back at the churches after one of her breakups.
But I did know it was wrong to think gleefully about someone else’s misery because there was personal benefit.
I worked the tip of the nozzle over the last step. After I was done, there was dusting and polishing of the banisters and the wood edges of the steps that weren’t protected by the carpet runner. Once the stairs gleamed, there would be more.
Sighing, I knelt back on my haunches and flicked the switch off.
“You look like you’re having fun.”
I yelped and rounded on the intruder. “Good Lord above! Don’t sneak up on a person like that.”
Luigi only flashed me a lupine grin. “Why don’t you put that thing away, and we’ll get going.”
“Come again?” I did a double take.
“Put the vacuum away,” he said slowly, annunciating as if I didn’t speak English. “And time to go.”
“What?”
He opened his mouth to repeat, but I held up my hand. “I ain’t deaf, bucko, but you’ve gotta explain yourself better than that.”
Luigi scratched his upper lip with the tip of his thumb. “I have a job for you.”
A job. For me. “Shut the front door.”
He looked over his shoulder. “Um, it is.”
I shook my head. There was most definitely a language barrier between us, but I didn’t care. “What do you need?”
If he thought he could order me around, add to my already growing pile of work, I would show him!
“Nico needs us.”
Those three words were like magic. Curiosity, coupled with a rush of insanity, had me perking up.
“You don’t say.” I wasn’t quite ready to jump to the mafia prince’s command.
“I did say—what? Do you not hear very well or something?” Luigi gave me a perplexed look.
“What does he need me for?” I let every word pack a full weight behind it.
It was a stall tactic. Did I want to see Dominico after the best sex of my life? Not really. Being around him was a bad idea. But the fact that he sent his friend to fetch me meant it was something juicy. Something better than polishing stair banister.
“That is top secret.” Luigi smirked. “Unless you’re too busy here.”
Was I? I looked at the stairs. Screw that.
“Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” I muttered.
“You’re weird.”
“You’re weirder.” I rose, yanked the extension cord from the wall, and began wrapping it up.
It took less than three minutes to put the vacuum away in the back corridor. I moved fast. The flutter in my veins said something fun was coming! But by the time I returned, Sanderson appeared in the foyer. She glared openly at the man lounging against the wall.
