Page 37 of Mafia Baby

I cringe and walk out of the kitchen. I tap the bathroom door. “You have clothes in there?” I ask.

“Yeah, why?” Gianna calls back.

“We have company,” I say to her.

“Oh! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” she says. She sounds happy to have a guest. I feel bad about that, but there’s no way to warn her about Vince.

I lean against the wall by the bathroom, watching Vince, who is watching me.

When Gianna hurries out of the bathroom, I catch her shoulders and draw her in close to me. She looks up at me in some confusion, but then smiles at Vince.

“Oh, hello!” she says. “Who are you?”

Vince gives her a false smile. I can feel his annoyance all the way across the room. “I’m Dom’s father. And his boss.”

“Oh,” Gianna says. She looks back at me over her shoulder.

She tries to step away from me, but I hold her more tightly so she can’t get closer to Vince. I feel the tension thrumming through her as she realizes that something is wrong and she leans back against me.

“Why is she here?” Vince asks me.

“Why can’t she be here?” I say back.

Vince closes his eyes for a moment, as if he’s fighting to remain calm. “Reaper, get her out of here. Give her back to her damn family. I don’t want to deal with a war over this girl. You two aren’t fucking Romeo and Juliet.”

“A war?” Gianna says. She sounds scared.

“What war?” I ask with irritation. “Gianna’s family doesn’t want her to be with me, but there’s no reason for anyone to go to war over her being with me.”

“Isn’t there?” Vince says back. He sounds furious now. “You don’t know about everything that is going on because all you do is kill people who are in the way, Reaper. Her family is working on some shit that I don’t even want to be involved with. Stepping on their toes is bad for business, for all of us in Chicago. You need to send her back to them right away and forget you ever knew her. If you don’t they are going to come after you, and through you, they will come after me.”

I feel slightly stunned at his words. I knew that Gianna’s family was involved in some shady stuff, but I had no idea that it was anything big enough to make Vince worried.

I know he wants me to feel pressured to get Gianna off my hands as soon as possible, but I actually feel exactly the opposite desire.

She doesn’t deserve to be harmed by her family’s bad choices. She probably didn’t even know that they were doing anything truly illegal with the family business.

“I don’t understand,” Gianna says, sounding panicky. “My parents wouldn’t go to war with the mafia or whatever over me. They don’t even care about me anyway. They haven’t once asked me to come home.”

I grimace a little and shake my head. “Your brother was the one that beat me up last night,” I admit to her. “He was not pleased that you were here and he made some threats that I apparently should have taken seriously.”

She is white as a sheet now, and suddenly she wrestles from my hands and races to the bathroom. After she slams the door, I hear her throwing up.

I close my eyes. This is not good. This is not good at all.

“Do what I said,” Vince tells me as he stands up and makes to leave. “Or you will have to run from the Bianchis and from me.”

He slams the door as he leaves and my heart sinks.

I feel terrible. I have exposed Gianna to the censure of her family, but I have also put her in significant danger.

I had thought that her brother was telling me to stay away from her because of what I did for a living. Now I realize that he might have been warning me to stay away from her because of something his family business is involved in.

“I should have stayed in England,” Gianna says mournfully, coming out of the bathroom. She’s still as white as a sheet and my heart goes out to her.

“Maybe,” I say to her, walking over to fold her into my arms. “But then I wouldn’t have gotten to know you.” She feels tiny and frail to me, and guilt stabs me in the heart.

I might kill people for a living without giving it a single thought, but I would protect Gianna with my life.

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