Page 46 of Assistant to the Mafia

“Are you?” Dante asked.

Grace turned, facing him as directly as she could without standing. “Do I need to repeat my reason? As a woman living alone, of course I always took certain measures. The higher I climbed on the corporate ladder, the more I tried to increase those measures. But I never had a fair and honest scope of the danger I was dancing with, so I was never able to take adequate precautions for my own safety.” She swept her good arm toward the room. “I would bet I’m the only one here who’s literally never touched a gun.”

Iris laughed softly. “I’m lousy with a gun.”

Mikey snorted. “I might use stronger language, even, but I like my head where it is.”

Grace had a perfect view of the glare Dante shot at his brother before returning his focus to her, simultaneously lifting his hand to rub along the back of Iris’s neck. “And what would you have done with that gun, if you’d had your fair and honest scope?”

She didn’t flinch. “Taken shooting lessons, for one thing,” she said. “It would have stayed in my apartment, so I could have it for self-defense. You know, in case my employer’s enemies thought I was a more vulnerable target than their heavily guarded private homes. Like last night.”

Eleonora spoke next, her tone calm and otherwise unreadable. “Is that all you would have done with that information?”

Grace adjusted her position to see the older woman. She wasn’t surprised at the scrutiny or the cautious, observational looks on everyone’s faces. “That is harder to say,” she acknowledged. “The flip side is that learning at this stage, I’ve had time to get to know most of you. Or at least I feel like I have. So I can’t disassociate from you the way I know my sister does most of her clients, or the way people disassociate from the faces on their favorite docuseries.”

She drew a quiet breath, casting her gaze around the room and trying to remind herself they were all mature adults who could handle unpleasant conversations. Finally, her stare settled again on her boss. “I’m sure you’re worried about who I might talk to, but you know me by now. You probably had a pretty good idea about me before you offered me the promotion. I don’t have a social life and I’m not close to my family, there’s literally been no one around I would have told. So at the very least, I should have been made aware when the boundaries between professional and personal started to blur.”

Dante was silent for a moment. It was hard to tell if he was angry or merely thinking over his response. “I had my reasons for keeping you in the dark. I won’t apologize for that. However, I am also grateful that you’ve survived. If you’re serious about gun training, Romeo is your best option for a teacher.”

Mikey snorted. “If he can stay focused.”

Grace flushed.

Iris leaned over and pulled Grace’s nearest hand into hers. She met Grace’s gaze with an imploring smile. “Can we move forward?”

Grace clasped her friend’s hand. “Full disclosure?”

“Within reason,” Dante said.

That was probably preferable, actually. Grace smiled and opened her mouth to respond when suddenly Lucia was running into the room again. All eyes turned to the girl as Romeo’s voice carried from the hall, indicating he was trailing behind. No one was fast enough—no one was prepared—to stop Lucia from darting right up, tears streaming down her face, and swinging one shoe-covered foot right into Grace’s lower leg.

Sharp, startling pain chased the air from Grace’s lungs for a prolonged second.

“Lucia!”

“Lucy!”

Lucia wobbled back a step, still glaring and crying. “You can’t take my daddy away! You can’t have him! Go take someone else’s daddy!” Her voice was choked and, as she cried, she swung forward as if to kick again. As if she just intended to wail on Grace until Grace disappeared.

Cristiano scooped her up a heartbeat before her booted foot could make contact. “Lucia. That’s enough. You don’t kick people.”

Lucia squirmed as much as her uncle’s hold allowed, her voice rising. “Let go! Let go, Uncle Cris! You don’t understand! Daddy said— Daddy said he wants to replace me because of her!”

It felt like her whole chest cracked as Grace listened to the anguish in Lucia’s words. I didn’t want this.

“I said no such thing, Lucia,” Romeo said as he stomped into the room. “You were only half-listening again.” He glanced around, gaze lingering on Grace, then looked straight at his still-crying daughter. “What did you do?”

Lucia sniffled. “It was self-defense,” she said.

Both of his brows disappeared beneath his bangs.

Grace looked away before he could try staring the answer out of her. She felt badly enough that she’d caused that sweet girl so much upset. I should leave… She didn’t belong at this family dinner. What she’d chosen to say earlier had been awkward enough, but now, with Lucia’s response to the engagement clear, she couldn’t possibly be welcome. More importantly, she didn’t want Romeo to feel like he had to make a choice. His choice should be—would be—obvious, the least she could do was spare them both the need for him to say the words.

“She kicked Grace,” Cristiano said. “Would’ve been twice if I hadn’t grabbed her up.”

“She did what?”

“What sort of habits are you teaching her?” Eleonora asked, a note of reproach in her tone.

---