I thought it was happening now as a little knock sounded on the door and when I gave the okay she walked in.
She walked in wearing one of those silky camisole tops that caressed her skin and made her breasts look even bigger, because it drew attention to her perfect cleavage. Her jeans were tight and fitted, showing off that body of hers which was made for sin. With her hair up in a ponytail and her eyes done in a way to make them even more striking, she looked as if she had just stepped out of a dream. Right out of a dream or off the runway. It was all the same to me.
Had she become the master of my fucking mind too?
Could she make me see her when I wanted so badly to? This doll was some powerful being if that were true.
She skipped over to me and gave me a kiss. It was the type of kiss that made me want to take her right there. Bend her over my desk and lose myself in her.
I nearly did just that when she pulled back, swatting away my hands when I touched her breasts.
“Fuck,” I winced.
She responded with a giggle. “Dante you are so very bad.”
“Why am I bad if I just want to touch you?” I gave her an incredulous stare. Then it hit me, the realization that she shouldn’t be here. She was supposed to be at home with the boys watching her. “Why are you here? Of course it’s not that I’m not happy to see you.”
“I’m working,” she replied as if it was obvious.
“What? No. Maria, come on you know that was just a clever ruse to get you to …” I thought better of finishing the sentence.
“Clever ruse for what Dante?” She giggled again.
“To get you to do that thing, you know that thing.” I laughed.
“Does that thing involve me naked in your bed?”
“Yes, or on my desk, or in my lap, or in my fucking car. Anywhere … come here.” I was too hard for her to resist me, but the woman was serious she wasn’t giving me anything. She backed away again.
“No, Mister. I’m here to work.”
“Fine. I told the guys to watch you.”
“They did. Flynn’s with them and I’m here with you. I couldn’t take it anymore Dante. Those guys were assholes back then and they’re even worse now. All of them like a bunch of babies. Ava came by and saved me.” She seemed to brighten.
God bless Ava, that woman was a saint. It was nice of her to check on Maria. It also didn’t surprise me at all, she was the nurturing type.
“Was that okay?”
Maria nodded. “It really was and to reassure you even more, she gave me a lift here. Actually, it was Claudius who came to pick her up so I figured I was safe coming here.”
Okay, I felt better hearing that rather than imagining her getting here by herself.
“All that trouble just to get here to work babe?” I quirked a brow.
“To get to work and see you.” The look in her eyes told me while she wanted to see me, she was hoping I’d tell her if I found anything out about today.
“Besides my charm, the wild sex, and my eternal adoration for you, what else did you want to see me for doll?” I stared at her long and hard. She knew me, too well. I didn’t think though that she’d ever really seen the serious side of me before.
“I’d love to know what happened today. You don’t have to tell me everything. Just something. Like if you found anything. You said it yourself, it’s Christina. She’s my best friend. I want to know what happened to her.”
She’s my best friend.
It pulled at my soul that Maria spoke about her like she was still alive. Or rather like it didn’t matter whether Christina was alive or dead, she was still Maria’s best friend.
“I understand.” I thought about what I could tell her. Looking at her now I felt that feeling again from earlier that I should involve her, if only to update her. Maybe, just maybe talking about it with her would trigger something that would help. “We didn’t find much out. We basically didn’t find anything, but what we didn’t find helped in some way too. Claudius suggested going over what we have and noting anything that might be important.”
“What do you have?”
Now that part would be telling her too much. “Maria. I withhold certain things to keep you safe. There’s a chance that things could have gotten messy with today’s plans. I really don’t want to involve you any more than I have already.”
“Dante, didn’t you say Claudius suggested going over everything. Wouldn’t talking to me be just that? Like maybe we missed something last time.”
She was right. “I don’t know. I don’t think I have any questions for you that I haven’t asked before.”
“Do you still think it was someone she was seeing? There are so many possibilities Dante.”
“Yes there are, but I absolutely feel it was someone she was seeing. Someone she had serious dirt on, more than the fact that she was pregnant.”
She narrowed her eyes and looked down at the floor.
“What? Did you think of something? Anything at all could help, even if you think it’s not relevant.” I said.
She returned her gaze to me. “She said she had stuff, dirt, and she looked adamant that it could be used to destroy this person. ”
“We never found anything in her stuff.” I planned to look through Christina’s things anyway, just searching for clues. Last time I’d gone through them I didn’t see anything that stood out to me.
“Maybe you missed something. Maybe looking again now would help in some way.”
I nodded. That meant going through Christina’s stuff at Ma’s. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“She was with a lot of guys Dante. Not the run of the mill kind either. You can’t do anything unless you’re at the very least twenty percent sure.”
I was listening. I was completely focused and taking note of the woman I classed as 20% angel, 80% devil. She knew her stuff, and I knew to listen.
“You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”
“I really want you to be careful Dante and be certain if you’re going to strike. The past taught me just that. If you’re sure you at least have a leg to stand on. The rest can take care of itself.”
“I’ll be careful baby.” I told her. I knew in telling me that she didn’t want me to just lose my head and go after anyone just because they seemed to fit. “I’ve been thinking of going to my mother’s place and looking through all of Christina’s stuff.”
“That is a really good idea.”
“Will you come with me? Ma would love to see you and I think too that I need you. Ma could never look through her stuff and you’re the only other person I would feel comfortable with doing that.” Last time I looked through the stuff by myself. Maybe something would stand out to Maria.
She came closer and took my hands. “Yes, of course. I’d love to see your Ma too. It’s been awhile.” She leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on my lips. “I have to help Francesca. See you later?”
I nodded. “Yes baby.”
She released my hands and I watched her go, glancing over her shoulder at me before she closed the door.
I rested my head against the soft leather back of the chair.
Yes, we were probably close.
I just couldn’t see the pieces of clues fitting together.
Not yet.
Chapter 25
Maria
I went down to the cellar and started checking the shelves with the beer.
Francesca, one of the bartenders offered to show me what to do, but I told her I was practically born to do this.
I waitressed a lot, but stock taking was a thing that came with the job specs.
In my experience lots of people loathed this part of the job. I on the other hand loved it.
It offered a sort of refuge. A place out of the way to think.
Thinking was what I was doing now.
Thinking about Elliot Granger.
God … it was really on the tip of my tongue to tell Dante about him, but what I had said to him s
tood.
Be twenty percent sure.
With what I’d seen him do to Todd, that made me want to think it was him. It was speculation and assumption and I wasn’t going to put Dante in danger based on that.
I hated to admit it, but Christina kept a lot of secrets from me. Towards the end I just saw more and more of only what she wanted me to see.
Based on what she said when we had that little argument of ours, it confirmed what she thought of me, and what she must have thought of me the whole time. She might have said it in the heat of the moment, but she for damn sure meant it. I knew she had meant every word.
It didn’t however change how much I loved her.
While Dante was only telling me as much as he could, I wanted to help
I wanted to help in whatever way I could.
Deep down though I wanted to get the answer so I could shove Elliot Granger to the back of beyond if it really wasn’t him. Or, find out if it was.
This was a personal mission I wanted to fulfill. A quest for an answer.
I was many things, but I wasn’t a coward. My time with Franco was awful and I became my worst nightmare by staying in an abusive relationship. I became the coward. Some may call me that now for running and if they did I would tell them to go fuck themselves.
They could do just that because it was never cowardly to run away to protect yourself. It made all the more sense to do so if you had a child.
Staying would have been the coward’s way. It would have been foolish—deadly.
As for Elliot, I would never be the kind of woman to know he killed Christina and keep it to myself.
It already felt like some kind of damnation in keeping knowledge that he was one of her guys to myself. I just knew what would happen if I unleashed that and I was wrong. What I needed was that twenty percent of certainty.
It was Luc rubbing off on me. I had learned that from him, one of his rules on instinct. He’d always said if you could be twenty percent certain of something you could infer a further thirty percent to get you to fifty. It meant you could check something out based off instinct—gut instinct.
I believed in that and did so accordingly. I lived by it.
If I got any form of inkling in my efforts to help that Elliot was responsible I would tell Dante in a heartbeat.
The idea of his to go to his mother’s place and look at Christina’s stuff was a good one. All her stuff from my old place had gone there. It was all placed in Christina’s old room. Their mother left the room exactly the same as if Christina had never left to come live with me. When I’d first seen it, I wished then that she hadn’t. I wished I’d gone solo and just got the apartment for myself. Being on our own like that at nineteen was the perfect breeding ground for us to get up to all manner of things, none of it good. It was the perfect set up for her to stray off the path of life and end up where she was now.
I counted the beer on the shelf and ticked it off against the sheet I was given. I lifted my head to proceed to the next row that housed the wine when my eyes met the cold hard stare of the man in front of me.
My heart jumped into my throat and I screamed from the shock.
“Oh my God, you scared the shit out of me!” I gasped.
I took him for one of the staff, but as I looked at him properly I didn’t think he was. He had a rough and rugged look about him that no one who worked here would have sported. They all dressed trendy and looked the part. He looked like he’d just walked in off the streets. Tall with a hood that was down, he had greasy hair, a full beard and red blotchy eyes.
I turned to go, but someone from behind caught me. I screamed when I saw a muscular guy with a tattoo of a snake on his face.
“Let go of me.”
“I don’t think so. You are coming with us. Mrs. Deville. ” The first guy said.
Mrs. Deville
Franco. These were his guys.
Oh God, these were his guys. I was right. Fuck, why did I have to be right.
They found me.
“Help!” I screamed and kicked, but it was to no avail.
The guy holding me covered my mouth and tried to carry me.
I was shit scared, terrified for my life. Still I wasn’t just going to allow him to pick me up and carry me back to Franco to die. I had Flynn to worry about.
Flynn, my baby, he would need me to protect him.
That single thought was all it took. I bit down so hard on the man’s hand that covered my mouth he screamed and yelped, dropping me. I took the opportunity to grab a wine bottle smash it and hit him in his face with the broken end which caused a nasty gnash on his cheek and pierced his left eye. I kicked the other guy who came at me and slapped him too before stabbing him in his chest with the broken bottle. The impact made the rest of the glass shatter.
They both looked shocked probably thinking I was one of those girlie girls they could order around.
With them momentarily stunned I ran, grabbed my phone from my back pocket and called Dante.
“Hi baby miss me?”
“Dante there’s some men in the cellar, help I –” I was just about to run up the stairs back on to the main floor when one of the men grabbed my leg and yanked me down. It was that first guy I’d seen.
Shit!
I dropped the phone and had the wonderful reminder of falling down the stairs when Franco had pushed me as I bumbled down the first three steps and knocked my face on the hard floor.
I screamed out from the pain.
“You little bitch. You fucking little bitch. You’ll pay for that big time and won’t get away with it.” He snarled.
He dragged me by my leg over the floor, pulling me along like I was little more than a rag doll. Tears rolled down my cheeks, blinding me, while terror raced through my soul. I couldn’t believe this was happening.
This was how Franco would get me and kill me.
The man went to lift me up again when the door burst open and several shots were fired.
Fired straight at him landing in his head, his neck, and his chest. Blood sprayed everywhere as he went down.
My leg slipped from his grasp, and fuck, it wasn’t just the two guys like I’d thought. Four more came out from behind the shelves. They seemed to be coming in from somewhere.
More bullets sprayed making me move to my knees, crawling over to the table where I could find some cover.
I saw Dante first. He shot one of the guys taking him down.
Alex and Gio just appeared out of nowhere, guns firing, and then I saw someone I didn’t expect; Luc.
Instead of joining the guys he pulled me out from under the table heaving me over his shoulder and ran up the stairs with me.
I watched in horror as Dante rammed a knife into one of the guys who came at him. There were another two coming for him too.
He whipped out those twin Berettas and ended them before they could get another foot closer to him.
Luc took me through the door and it closed sealing off everything else.
Chapter 26
Maria
Luc pressed an ice pack to my head.
The damn ice hurt almost as much as the blow that gave me the bruise.
“Keep it there,” he instructed.
I did, despite the pain. Glancing up at him I noted the concern on his face.
He’d brought me back up to Dante’s office where he sat me down. Once again, he was waiting with me like a babysitter.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Could ask you the same thing,” he threw back.
“I’m working.”
“Dante allows you to work in his bar?” He tilted his head to the side.
I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m working, and … thanks.”
Thanks again. Always more thanks.
“Your welcome. Maria you were supposed to stay at the house. Fuck, you know the situation. Why would you go down to check the stock by yourself?”
I winced, unable to answer and defend myself in an
y light, because he was right. I was an idiot.
“I wasn’t thinking.” I sighed.
He crouched down in front of me and gazed into my eyes.
“This is some serious shit, Maria. You have to be more careful.”
“I should leave.” That was clear as day. I had to leave Chicago immediately. They found me, who knew what would happen now. It had just been the one that I saw the other night. Tonight there was a whole host of Franco’s men.
The other night was to check things out. Tonight they had absolutely meant business.
“Leave and do what exactly? Run, run with your son and no one to protect you?”
“I don’t want to put anyone in danger here.” A tear ran down my cheek and I wiped it away not wanting him to see me cry.
He took my hands. “Maria, we are danger. You know that it’s what we do. You’re in the best place possible and the safest place you can be. None of us are going to let anything happen to you or your son.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me doll. It was a given that we’d do this.”
“He won’t stop until he finds me. He won’t. I hoped that maybe he’d just give up or look somewhere else. I never told him I was from Chicago. I always lied about that and told him I was from Ohio.”
“Ohio?” There was a smile in his eyes. “That’s where you picked?”
“It was just far, from here. Maybe in the back of my mind I never wanted him to know how horrible my past was, but I also probably didn’t want him to know just in case I had to come back.”
I never realized why at the time when I was telling Franco about Ohio, but now I could see my brain must have gone into defense mode.
The door opened and Dante came in followed by Gio and Alex. They had blood all over them.
Luc got up to get some cleaning stuff.
Dante was completely covered and all I could do was stare.
“You take care of it?” Luc asked him.
Stolen Kisses Page 18
