AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How do you know that?”
“Because he boarded a private plane yesterday morning with Elenora from Sicily Flying Centre and his cars travelled from Catania.”
“He left the country? Has he come back?” Gio sat up straight, his arm protectively around Liv’s waist to avoid her falling.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Marco added. “But with him gone, we should plant someone in Catania to do some digging. We should keep this extremely private. Only the people in this room right now should know.”
“Send a soldier. What about Finn?” Liv suggested.
“No, they know what he looks like,” Max shook his head.
“I’d like to put myself forward.”
I spun around to face Marco with wide eyes. He glanced down at me, but then quickly back at Gio.
“Let’s do it,” Gio stated, standing up with his hand outstretched to Marco. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else to be able to pull this off.”
“No!” I suddenly shouted, racing over and grabbing Marco’s arm. “Not you. Send someone else.”
Gio looked at me in confusion. “There is no one else. Marco is perfect for this. He has surveillance training and cares about Elenora. I trust him completely.”
“But-” I started, tears welling in my eyes. Marco put his hand over mine and looked into my eyes. I knew there was no talking him out of this.
“Marco, Max, come with me. We have to act fast if we are going to set this up before Alessio returns. And I need to know where he is and why he has my sister with him,” Gio marched from the room with confident strides, Max following behind him.
“Marco, you don’t have to do this. We can send someone else. This is too dangerous,” I whispered when he attempted to turn away from me.
“I want to do this, Cecilia. Let me find Elle and bring her home,” he said with determination. My lips trembled as my heart tightened in my chest and I nodded slowly. He gave me a confident smile and followed the men out.
“Cece? Are you okay?” Liv asked quietly from behind me.
I pulled myself together and turned around to face her. “Yes. I will be fine.”
“We really are so sorry we kept this from you for so long. We thought we were doing the right thing,” her green eyes blinked back at me with so much sincere regret and apology that I couldn’t find it in me to be angry anymore.
“I just want my daughter back, Olivia. She must be so frightened,” I ran my hand through my hair. Now I was only with the girls, my vulnerability was starting to show.
A look passed between Cami and Olivia that made me pause in my sadness. “What was that? What aren’t you saying?”
Olivia grabbed my hand and pulled me to sit down on the sofa between them. “Elle called us yesterday, Cecilia, and she didn’t sound frightened at all. In fact, she sounded…” They shared a look again as if they were unsure about saying it out loud.
“What?”
“Happy,” Liv finished. “She didn’t want to tell us where she was. She said to give her a few more days.”
My face tightened into a confused expression as I stared into her honest eyes. “I don’t understand.”
Olivia shuffled uncomfortably as she looked between Cami and I again and Cami nodded with encouragement.
“Cami and I have been talking and we think…” she paused. “We think Elle might have some kind of relationship with Alessio Barbieri. Maybe she has feelings for him.”
“No,” I started shaking my head. “Elle would never. She would never! Not with our enemy!”
“Look, it might not be what we think. Gio won’t hear of it. But I just think we need to be prepared. Who knows what has been going on the last few days,” Liv stated, gripping my shaking hands in hers.
“Stranger things have happened,” Cami added. “Forbidden love is a powerful thing.”
I couldn’t believe what these two were saying. Love? No. My daughter was not this foolish. She would never fall for a man who had kidnapped her. She doesn’t even like mafia men. In fact, she despises them. They had this wrong.
