Page 19 of Deadly Don's Baby Contract

I am looking down at the Range Rover, where Aria is seated on the passenger side. Marco clears his throat. "This is for the best."

"I know," I say quietly. "We'll be safer up by the cabin until we figure out what Vito wants."

"Just be careful. Make sure no one follows you." Marco seems unnecessarily worried. I know how to make sure I'm not being tailed. I've been playing “lose the cops” since I was old enough to reach the pedals of my father's sports car.

"Franco," he says quietly, taking a step down to look me in the eyes. "Don't get too close to Aria. Don't forget, she's going to marry me when this is over."

"You know you can trust me," I say impatiently. "Let me go before there's another attack and someone else is hurt."

Marco nods and steps back up. I turn and take the steps quickly down to the car and climb into the driver's side. “Ready?" I ask her.

"Yes," she says quietly. "Are you sure where we're going is safe?"

"No one knows about this cabin except members of my family. We'll be safe." I start the car.

Marco waves from the steps, and Aria raises her hand, but it isn't an enthusiastic wave.

I turn the radio on and turn the volume up, but Aria reaches over and turns it down. "Please don't."

"What's wrong?"

"I couldn't sleep. I want to try to sleep now," she comments. Resting back, she closes her eyes.

I roll mine and focus on driving, waiting for her to doze off before I turn the radio on a little louder.

As we approach the mountains, she jolts awake and looks around. "How far are we?"

"About an hour," I say quietly. "We're going to go through the mountains now to get to the lake."

She sits back and sighs. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?" I ask. "The attack on the mansion?"

"No about... What we did."

I chuckle. "It doesn't sound like you want to talk about it."

"That's because I don't," she says with a huff. "I want to forget it ever happened."

It stings a little, but I keep quiet.

We spend the rest of the car ride in silence until I pull up to the cabin. Aria looks out of the windscreen, and her jaw drops. "It's so beautiful here."

"It has a lot of happy memories for me, at least," I say as I climb out of the car and go to get our things out of the trunk.

I carry her bags to her room and then offload mine on my bed. "It's fully stocked with everything we could need. It's been cleaned. We could be here a week or so."

"That long?" she asks, walking around the double-story cabin. She pauses at the stairs and looks up to where I'm standing on the landing. "Are there things to do?"

"Swim in the lake, sun tan, read... there's a lot of books in my father's study. I'm sure you brought your sewing."

"Cross-stitching," she says.

"It's still sewing."

She rolls her eyes and wanders in the direction of the kitchen. I come downstairs and follow her. "There's a fully stocked bar, so if you drive me to drink, at least I'm ready."

"Very funny," she says, but she smiles this time. "Actually, I could like this. I prefer quiet to busy."

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