AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If he had lied to us, he deserved the Oscar for that performance. It would take some time to figure it out, and in the end, it might not go the way we thought it would.
We had to justify our unauthorized actions to Emilio, who had no idea of this.
We didn't need a war. Wars cost lives. Money. Time. Seldom did anyone emerge victorious, even if they liked to tell themselves so in retrospect. The losses incurred by both sides made every gain a bitter one.
I took a deep breath to silence my brain. It was running at full speed, one thought chasing the next, and even controlled breathing brought me no relief.
My eyes fell on Gia, who by now had sunk into a deep slumber again that she didn't even wake up when I changed my position.
She trusted me. The more I thought about it, the more surreal it sounded.
My subconscious worked to persuade me otherwise. I knew better, but still could not prevent it.
I let my fingers run through her long hair in an almost hypnotic gesture, imagining that with each night she spent in the same bed as me, I was becoming more accustomed to her presence.
At some point, my current problem would turn into the opposite one. Now it was difficult for me to find peace when she was lying next to me. But one day, the moment would come when I could no longer fall asleep without her in my arms.
And that, ironically, alleviated some of the anxiety I was feeling about everything else.
I closed my eyes. And slept better than I had in ages.
21
Gia
It took me two weeks to get halfway back into everyday life. The biggest help was doubtless Casimiro, who came over on a regular basis and spent time with me when Dario wasn't at home. At some point, I started accompanying Dario to the club in the evenings. Even if it was just a change of premises, it helped me not to lose touch with reality.
Life went on, so I had to pick myself up again and forget that I had twice come into proximity to highly explosive substances, which also almost killed me. But only almost.
In addition, there was now a contract with the French mafia that handled the attempted hit on Dario, Emilio and Natale. That also made it easier to feel safe again.
Jerome had even apologized to me in person, which had surprised me. He didn't look like the son of the man who had kidnapped me. But you couldn't tell the background from his face any more than you could from Dario's or his brothers' if you just passed them on the street.
Everything would be fine– if I stayed away from the dangers of this world in the future. That, however, was a task that became more difficult. The more time I spent with Dario, the more I could tell.
I also couldn't resist asking him about his day and sometimes he would talk bluntly about the events that had happened to him. Maybe it was a special form of therapy that was supposed to dull me so that I wouldn't fall into that hole again in the future.
Carlotta was still my role model in this respect, because she had– according to Dario– moved on with her normal life that very day, instead of clinging to the fact that a damn car had exploded and men had died. Whatever she had that I lacked, I wanted to learn it, too. Or gain it. However that indifference was achieved, I needed it, too.
Otherwise, the image of the corpse I had stumbled upon would continue to haunt me for half an eternity, making things harder than they had to be.
I spent tonight in the club again, but far away from the hustle. It still seemed wrong to me to plunge into vast crowds and just enjoy the night.
I preferred to watch from a safe distance and make sure that everything ran smooth. As far as it was in my power anyway, because there was not much to do.
Dario, meanwhile, could concentrate on any contracts he needed to look at. So it was a win-win situation for both of us, even if it still caused some confusion when it wasn't Dario who answered the phone, but me.
The rest of the time I spent trying out one of the new games for the Switch. It was appealing sitting in Dario's office and racing over the rainbow track while Dario himself had a stack of sheets in front of him and was busy switching from one page to the next.
He didn't look thrilled during this, but as I understood it, it was about the business that would take place in the future with the French mafia– and in which the club was also involved, because there were certain exports in which Jerome was particularly interested, and these included the wine from this region.
I let him work in peace for a few hours until I felt a pang of boredom and distracted him from his contracts for a while. With my arms crossed, I stopped in front of his desk and stared at the contract. Hundreds of pages, so many details and small-print clauses that lawyers had already reviewed and found to be in order, but a personal review was still mandatory.
Emilio and Vincenzo also each had one version. I wondered if they were also bent over their desks at the moment to get this duty over with as quickly as possible.
"I never thought I'd have to deal with shit like this. Who's going to understand what it says and what it means?" He put another sheet aside on the pile he had already looked through.
"Vince is counting on you. Besides, this way you can prove they should let you in again." For the past two weeks, Emilio had continued to insist that Dario take time off– even though he certainly didn't, and now handled his affairs on his own instead of having one of the other men in his employ.
