It goes colder somehow. He still looks calm. Polished. Controlled. But there’s something beneath it now. Something lethal and patient.
The kind of anger that doesn’t need to raise its voice because it already knows it will be obeyed.
Very sexy.
“Ms. Moore,” he says, never taking his eyes off the principal. “Would you be so kind as to take our girls outside and wait for me?”
Not wanting to stay here a second longer, I nod.
He lowers Sabrina carefully to the floor and smooths a gentle hand over the top of her hair.
“Go with your friend and her mother,” he tells her. “I’ll be outside in just a moment, and I’ll take you home.”
“Okay,Don,” Sabrina whispers. “Grazie.”
“You’re welcome,piccola.”
“Can you teach me how to speak Italian?” Livy asks Sabrina as I usher them out of the room.
“You and I need to have a talk,” I hear Mr. Moretti say behind me.
“Of course,” Sabrina says to Livy. “I don’t know a whole lot because I wasn’t born where theDonand my papa was, but I do know some.”
“Where were you born?” Livy asks as we reach my car.
“In the back, girls,” I say, opening the door for them.
“New York,” Sabrina answers as they climb in.
“Then why was that jerk saying you aren’t American?” Livy asks.
“Because a lot of my family is from Italy,” Sabrina says softly. “I was born here, but a lot of the other kids at the estate weren’t.”
Livy goes quiet for a second.
Then she huffs.
“That’s dumb.”
Sabrina blinks at her.
“You were born here,” Livy says, like that settles everything. “And even if you weren’t, he still doesn’t get to spit on you. This is supposed to be the land of the free.”
I close the door and take a deep breath.
I’m not sure what my next step is with this school, but I do know one thing for sure.
Mr. Moretti is not the kind of man who lets someone spit on his family and walk away with nothing more than a note sent home.
Sabrina kept calling himDon.
At first, I thought it was his name. Don Moretti.
But then she saidthe Don.
So now I’m wondering if the rumors are true about the large estate out in the desert.
Is it really the home of the Italian Mafia?
