Page 62 of The Devil's Fire

“Look, I’m just doing my job. I would rather not have you ask me questions.” Antonio shut me down and refocused on the road.

Damn, what crawled up in his butt today?

I stayed silent. I would rather not piss him off. If anything dangerous actually were to happen, I wouldn’t want him to just let me die because I annoyed him.

Yeah, I wasn’t about to take that chance.

I was over the moon when we pulled into my dad's mansion driveway. It was one long ride, but it felt like decades after my failed attempt to make conversation.

I saw Michael by his car, chatting with one of my father’s men. The second Antonio stopped the car, I jumped out in excitement.

“Michael!” I squealed as I ran up to him.

“Thaia!” His face brightened up when he saw me. I jumped up to him, my arms wrapping around his neck as he lifted me off the ground, spinning us both around as we laughed.

“Shit, did you get shorter?” He asked when he set me down and placed a hand on my head to measure.

“I’m wearing sneakers today, you jerk.” I playfully smacked his hand away from me when he laughed at me.

“You’re missed.” Michael smiled. “It’s boring without you guys here.” He pulled me into a tight hug again.

“I’ve missed you too! At least we can spend some time together now. I’m going back to moms in a few days and thought we could hang out.”

“Sure thing.” Michael grinned. I followed his gaze when he stared at Antonio by his car, watching us. “What is he doing here?”

“Just making sure I get back and forth safely.” I shrugged. “Where’s my dad?”

“In his office. I’ll go with you.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and led me upstairs.

I gave Antonio a quick glance to see if he would be fine. He was already looking our way, and not once did he take them off us while he fished his phone out from his pocket.

“My beautiful figlia!” My father greeted me with open arms when we entered his office.

“Hi, papá.” I gave him a kiss on his cheek and hugged him. My smile disappeared when I saw the dark circles under his eyes. “Are you not getting any sleep?” I frowned in worry.

“Don’t worry about me. Just a lot of work lately.” He gave me a dismissive wave and sat back behind his desk.

“Be careful, papá. Don’t work too hard. You can have Michael do the hard work.”

“Hey!” Michael protested, and I stuck my tongue out at him playfully.

“How are the wedding preparations?” My father asked.

“Good! It’s going to be so beautiful. Cara has been killing me with all her demands, so it’s nice to take a small break from it all.” I chuckled.

“Good, good.” He nodded and shared a quick look with Michael. Just as I was about to ask if everything was okay, the phone went off. I looked at Michael as my father took the call.

“I thought we could all go out somewhere. The weather’s nice.”

“As long as there is food, I’m down for whatever.”

“Always.” I chuckled. If there is one thing we both shared, it was our love of food.

I looked at my father when he hung up the phone and rose from his chair.

“Sorry, figlia. Something came up that needs my presence.” He sighed.

“Oh….”

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