Page 34 of The Mafia’s Fiancee

Chapter 13

Luke

While I enjoyed thistime to be with Emma, I knew we had to be practical and step out of hiding sooner or later. We’d agreed to let the chips fall where they may with what we’d done. Almost three weeks had passed since I killed Antonio’s favorite fighter, then broke out of his custody. Nearly a month had come and gone, and if that wasn’t enough time for everyone to react, then maybe they needed more pushing.

“We’ll check in on him,” I explained to Emma after I suggested that we speak with Jimmy directly.

He was the main link we had to the news among the mafia families. Emma warned me that rumors ran rife and not to necessarily trust everything he said. My trust in him was already low. At first, she agreed that speaking with Jimmy directly would result in better and faster answers.

The last couple of days, he hadn’t been texting or calling, and that was also another reason for me to want to see him. I never knew if I could fully trust him, but I had to try.

“This is a good first step toward answers,” Emma said as we headed out to the car that Randy’s relative had arranged for us. We would owe that man for risking his neck to help us. There was no price too high for a solid friend in times of trouble. We couldn’t keep the first car we’d fled with. We left it abandoned, knowing one of my father’s men would look for it.

“But?” I asked, keeping my hat low as we stepped outside.

She was wearing glasses and a hoodie. Even though it was hotter than hell and so muggy, she said she was fine with some sort of a disguise. The gun tucked in my waistband made me feel better about going out in public too. We weren’t walking far. According to Emma, this area of the city wasn’t any family’s turf. And when we got in the car, the tinted windows would conceal us until we reached the Rossini estate.

“But it’s Jimmy Rossini.” She shook her head as she got into the car, sighing in relief that we could be hidden again. “It just... It goes against everything I’ve been taught. I’ve been trained to despise my father’s rivals. I don’t. I never did. Why would I when I never interacted with them?”

I chuckled as I started the car then pulled from the curb. “What about me?”

She smiled. “You sure were a surprise. Never mind. I’m just thinking too much into it.”

“Hey, you’re entitled to your opinions. It makes sense. Heading to see Jimmy has to feel like a traitorous action.”

“Ha! I’d say sleeping with you made me the traitor of a century.”

“Do you regret it?”

She rolled her eyes and leaned over to kiss my cheek. “Hell no. I can’t consider myself a traitor to my father or my family when I’ve vowed to sever all ties with them. I’m with you, Luke. Now and forever.”

On the drive, we both kept an eye out for anyone tailing us. Nothing seemed suspicious on the way there. When we reached the overgrown lawns of the Rossini estate, she grimaced. “I see what you mean.”

“Yeah, it looks like it’s been left to rot.”

“Well, the house is still standing.”

“You call this a house?” I grunted a laugh. “It’s a fucking palace.”

She almost smiled, perhaps amused at how our lives had been so different. I had grown up poor, and she had all the wealth she could’ve wanted. Now, she was relying on me to provide for her and I had the potential to be extremely loaded as a mafia prince.

The guard post was empty, and she frowned. I swore, speeding up to get down the long circular drive faster.

“I thought you said there was some security here.”

“There was.”

But now there wasn’t, and that couldn’t bode well for any Rossini in the house.

I parked, and she held her gun at the ready as she ran inside with me.

The door swung open slightly, but something stopped it.

I wedged it further ajar, and once we entered, we found the dead guard’s body that slid over the marble floor of the foyer.

“Shit.” She kept her gun up, at the ready. Following me seemed unwise. She was armed. I was too, swiping the gun off the dead guard, but I wasn’t experienced with using a firearm. Still, I had to go first in case she could encounter any danger.

We headed inside, and the eerie silence seemed like a bad omen. A warning.