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“I ate last night,” I tell her. The famous Mama Medici spaghetti, and it was good.
“I can make you some more tea?” She looks at my empty cup on the side table.
Dante was right, peppermint did the trick.
“Thanks,” I reply gratefully. “I bumped into Dante in the kitchen this morning. He said we’re going to some other place torecuperate,” I say that last part with exaggeration.
She strokes the hair out of my eyes. “Angelo has a safe house for us to stay at while things get back on track.”
“Aren’t we safe here?” I ask, searching her face. “I want to go home.”
“Yes, of course, we’re safe,” she says. “But Angelo’s house is on the beach and more like a hideaway. It’ll be away from prying eyes. It’s crazy, but Angelo had to fake his own death to flush out the real enemies behind all of this. Then the rescue and the trafficking bust…the media are circling. You’ll be more comfortable there. Home isn’t an option at the moment. I’m sorry.”
I bite my lip, tears springing to my eyes. “So you’re with Angelo now?”
She glances down at her hands and then back at me. “Yes. I love him, Mia. I won’t lie to you. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, and I don’t even know how it did. It’s been such an upheaval. I was going out of my mind with worry. Angelo and I, despite the fact I was hired to kill him…he’s an extraordinary man.” Tears start to roll down her face again, much like last night. I sit up so I can reach out to embrace her, which sets me off too.
“I was so scared for you,” she tells me. “I did everything they said to try and get you back. They were supposed to give up your location after Angelo’s ‘death,’ but I was given a fake address. They were going to ship you off anyway. They were never going to release you. Angelo’s guy traced the cell phone used to make the calls and got a hit.”
I swallow hard. “This is all too surreal to be true,” I tell her. “I don’t know how I feel.”
She nods. “It’s okay. I’m going to take care of you, whatever you need, okay?”
I pull back to look at her. “Maybe when we get to the other place we can talk about everything,” I say. I know in my heart I’m putting off getting to that and having to relive it again, even though I know I have to at some point.
She will want to know what happened in there, everything I heard, and the fact there was a Bratva princess in the cell next to me.
“Can I see Kat?” I ask as she moves from the bed and takes my cup to make me some more tea.
“Of course,” she replies. “We can see her after I make you some tea and a slice of toast.”
“Is she okay, do you know?”
“She’s giving the boys hell, or so I heard.” She smiles. I see the weariness coming over her. I feel much the same. I know she must have been out of her mind with worry; nothing can take that away.
Maybe moving to the safe house near the beach might be a good thing for the both of us. We can catch up, relive the past one last time, and I can put it behind me.
Once and for all.
6
DANTE
I accompanyAngelo and the girls to Falmouth a few days after Mia’s rescue. It’s hard to say how she is doing since I don’t know her to begin with, but from the look on her face, she still looks like a frightened deer. That churns my stomach more than I care to admit.
While Rayne helps Mia set up her new cell so she can contact her friends, I take the time out to think about what’s going on.
Mia has made it clear that her only concern was telling her friends she was okay. Rayne kept them in the dark using a mystery virus as the cause, but I don’t know if they bought it.
Angelo will work on a story to give them about the kidnapping, but Mia won’t be allowed to discuss any of the details. Angelo has allowed her to speak to her friends, of course, but going home right now isn’t an option. Not until we know she’s really safe and the media frenzy has died down.
Angelo is a workaholic, and while he’s been through this whole ordeal since the beginning, the man is a machine when it comes to running this family. He won’t stop.
He’s always been this way, ever since papa was taken from us. Angelo stepped up and was the man of the house, even when realistically he was just a teenager. When ma found it difficult to go on after our father’s death, Angelo was the one who got her out of it. He’s the backbone who kept everyone together. He saved us.
I hear Mia’s voice quietly as she whispers to Rayne.
Rocco stays up front with Gus, organizing shit on his phone the whole way to Falmouth. While it is secluded and nobody except the immediate family knows about its existence, we will have twenty-four-hour security.
