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But yet it is…
Every time Isabella is near, my heart beats faster. I don’t want to rush whatever this is between the two of us. I don’t want to get her under me for a quick roll in the hay. No, there’s something about Isabella that makes me want to savor every minute of anticipation and attraction like the finest of wines.
“Good morning,” I tell her.
Isabella has a nice smile and a cock-hardening blush. “Morning,” she says almost shyly. The minute she steps out the door, she pulls the shades from her purse and puts them on to keep the sun from her eyes. It may be winter, but the sun is starting to warm, and the temps are already rising. “Dominic and Emelia are on their way to a boutique right off the strip. I thought we could go there and snap a few pictures,” I tell her, placing a hand on her lower back as we go back to the car.
I open the back passenger door for her, and she gets in before I close it and go around to the other side. When we’re both in and buckled, Darryl pulls out of the driveway and heads toward the highway. “Boss, we have company,” he says.
I scowl, glancing behind us. “What are you seeing?” I ask, not seeing anything suspicious through the back window.
“The blue sedan. It was parked right around the corner from Isabella’s the last two times we’ve gone there. It pulled out the moment we went by and has been following us since. I can make sure if you like, but I’m pretty certain, boss.”
My jaw locks tight at the thought of someone outside Isabella’s home, watching her at any time. She shifts in her seat beside me, but I stop her from looking back with a finger to her chin. “Don’t look back,” I tell her.
I glance at Darryl who’s watching from the rearview mirror. “It makes no difference if they want to see where she’s going. Izzy will have it all over the newspapers tomorrow anyway. Let them have a little preview of what’s about to happen to them,” I tell him so as not to frighten Isabella, while pounding out a message to Dominic and every one of our capos to get their crews to this side of town and surround that fucking vehicle.
Chapter10
Isabella
Lorenzo sendsa message on his phone and looks at Darryl in the rearview. “Take the scenic route; give the guys time to get in place,” he says.
“Got it, boss.”
Lorenzo flips the camera around on his phone, watching our tail, and pulls me close so that I can get a good look at the man driving behind the wheel of the blue Charger. “Do you recognize him?” he asks.
I squint to get an even better look at him. It’s hard to see from this distance, but he doesn’t look familiar in the slightest. “You think he’s working for the De Rosas? Why would they have me followed?” I ask.
Lorenzo’s eyes are hard and dark. “You wrote a piece about them not long ago. My guess is they’ve been keeping an eye on you ever since then. They saw you get in the car with me today, and if the same car was sitting outside your house the other day, they can put two and two together. You write something about their family, then you’re seen getting into the car voluntarily with the enemy. You have two strikes, and it’s a pretty good bet that you have information they want. Let them think what they want about us. It changes nothing, with the exception that it’s no longer safe for you to stay in your home by yourself.”
My mouth gapes, but he runs a finger across my lips. “Shh … Bella. It’s not safe for you right now. I’ll put you in one of the penthouses we keep for visiting family. Just until this is done. Then you can return home. You don’t have any pets or anything we need to worry about?”
The way he says my name, Bella. No one has called me that for so many years, and no one has ever said it like he does with that seductive roll of the tongue that makes my stomach dance with butterflies. It’s calming, especially in a situation like today. “No pets, but a ton of plants. I just watered them this morning, so they should be okay until next week.” I pat the large black purse at my side. A writer never goes anywhere without her device. “I’ve got the laptop. I’ll need clothes, though, and the rest of the stuff I just picked up at the electronics store if I’m going to be away from home for any length of time.”
“Got that, Darryl?”
“Got it, boss.”
He turns to me. “Darryl will pick up your belongings and bring them to The Larussio when we’re done getting the images we need and taking care of these pricks.”
We turn onto the back road that leads to the rear side of the boutique. Each shop has a little parking area dedicated to their customers, and the minute we pull into the parking lot the squeal of tires permeates the air.
I turn my head to see what’s going on, but Lorenzo’s hand presses on my head, laying my face into his lap. The side of my cheek lies on his groin, while his hand keeps me firmly pressed against it. “Stay still, Bella,” he says, stroking the back of my neck while the sound of machine guns and glass explode around us.
The sounds of gunning engines and tires spitting against the asphalt is all I can make out. I try to raise my head again, and this time he allows it. “Go inside. If anyone asks, we pulled into the parking lot and the bodies were lying on the ground when we got here. If the police arrive, tell them who you are and that you’re here to write a story about Dominic and Emelia who you heard may be in the store. Say nothing more,” he says, straightening my hair and brushing a piece that has fell into my face behind my ear.
My heart races looking at the blood of four men pooling on the concrete. “I’m a journalist who writes shit about the mafia, Lorenzo. I’m bound to have people following me sometimes, trying to find out what I’m up to. That doesn’t mean you have to kill them.”
His eyes are emotional. “They weren’t going to interrogate you here. They were going to take you back to a warehouse in the desert and hang you from a beam in a room with a drain in the center, where no one could hear you scream while they tortured the information they want out of you.”
My lips don’t move because no words form. My mind just swims with the reality of the dead men around me.
He pulls me close to him and tilts my face with a finger to my chin. “They will send more. We will kill more. This will go on until after the funeral. Until then, we deal with it as it comes. After that, they will rue the day they ever set you in their sites.”
I glance around. “You think there are more? That it’s not safe to go home afterward. I mean, look at them?” I say, gesturing to the carnage that lays all around us.
Lorenzo shakes his head. “Go inside before the police show up. I’ll deal with them and come in to get you when I’m done. Stay inside until I do.”
