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The driver steps forward another inch, wagging his finger at me as he gets ready to give me a piece of his mind, but he’s interrupted by the sound of a vehicle making its way up the driveway. With the blacked out windows, no one can tell who is in the SUV until it rolls to a stop beside me.
If this is one of the De Lucas, then I know I’m fucked. Even if this asshole is lying, they’re not going to believe a word that comes out of my mouth over their men.
To my relief, as the door opens, a pair of small legs stick out, revealing white cropped pants and a red flowy blouse as Nonna comes into view.
“What’s going on here?” Her tone is sharp, her chin slightly tilted up as she looks down her nose at the men before us.
“Ms. De Luca, we were just handling the woman as advised. We’re going to take her to the outbuilding until Matteo arrives,” the driver explains, waving his arms around as he talks to her, but she shakes her head at him.
“I don’t think so. I’m here now and Vito is aware our guest has been on a leisurely run on the property and doesn’t require any further action.” My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline at her words.
How the fuck does he know that? The eyes I felt. Were they him? A camera? I have no clue, and it doesn’t really matter if it gets me out of this bullshit. Without waiting for a response, Nonna turns her attention to me with a tight smile on her face. “Go and wash your hands, Dear, then you can come and help me in the kitchen.”
She saunters off and every single man watches her move. They start mumbling among themselves, and then disperse. Everyone but the driver, that is. He stands in place, glaring at me like I spat in his mother’s face or something.
“What’s your name?” I ask, needing a name for the fucker that is purposely causing issues for me.
“Teto,” he states as he tilts his head to the side, his jaw so tight and tense he could cut through glass. Taking a step toward him, I make sure to keep my body language neutral, unfazed, and guarded until I come to a stop before him so we’re almost toe to toe.
Keeping my voice low, I smirk. “Excellent, I know what to put on your gravestone when I bury you if you continue to fucking push me.”
16
WREN
Iplace my hands under the faucet, letting the soap suds run off my hands, before toweling them off and reaching for a hair tie. Scooping the top half of my hair off my face, I secure it in place and glance at my reflection in the mirror above the vanity. Half up, half down will do. I have a feeling Nonna is going to kick me into gear when I get into the kitchen, and I’m ready for the distraction.
Leaving my bathroom, I close my bedroom door behind me before cutting across to the kitchen, where Nonna is already standing by the counter with a selection of ingredients laid out. When she hears my footsteps, she lifts her head to glance in my direction, a smile spreading across her face immediately, and my shoulders slump at once.
I don’t know how she does that, and sometimes, it leaves me a little worried that she has the ability to leave me exposed like this. For now though, I’m willing to accept it.
“How is it I leave for two hours,Bella, and you have the ability to cause such a ruckus?” Her grin stretches even more as she offers me a playful wink.
Coming to a stop beside her, I take the apron from her outstretched hand and tie it around my waist as I respond, “I went for a jog on the property. I didn’t realize I’d cause such a stir.”
“Oh, Teto likes to think he’s more important than he actually is. You just gave him the perfect opportunity to flex his weak muscles and get in the brothers’ good books. Although, that doesn’t seem to have worked out too well in his favor.”
I hum in understanding as she organizes the peppers, onions, zucchinis, and carrots in front of me. She nods at a knife beside them, hinting for me to take it and begin chopping the vegetables, and I do so without a word.
I take the zucchini first, slicing it lengthways before quickly dicing it with precision that can only be obtained with a perfectly sharpened blade. Nice. I might keep it. Twisting the tip of the blade on the chopping board, I reach for the next one, before glancing at Nonna out of the corner of my eye.
“Was it true what you said before? That Vito knew where I was and what I was doing?”
She doesn’t look up from the garlic she’s slicing, but gives me a short, “Uh-huh.”
Nothing more, nothing less, no sense of an explanation, and I push her for more. “How?”
This time, she pauses what she’s doing to tilt her head, looking at me with a pointed stare. That’s all the answer I’m going to get, I know it. She continues to stare me down until I give in, sighing as I shake my head and focus back on the task at hand.
I move from the zucchinis to the carrots before I delve into the peppers and onions. It’s only when I’m dicing the onion up finely that Nonna clears her throat.
“You’re good with a knife,” she states, making me scoff slightly in response.
“I was trained to be.” Silence settles over us, not uncomfortable though. There’s no point hiding who I am and I’m only stating the truth; I’m good with a knife because I was trained to be. Just like I was with every other weapon you can think of.
My family's vault, back at Featherstone Academy, is filled with weapons upon weapons of every variety. Handguns, nunchucks, shit, I’m quite sure there’s a rocket launcher on the wall rack too.
“What was that like?” Nonna’s question catches me off guard for a second as she pulls me from my thoughts. I glance at her out of the corner of my eye, but she’s focused on the meat she is cutting into the cubes.
