Page 5 of She Found Me

“We need as much information as possible. Their names, where they are from, and why they are there.” The girls nod in unison. “That means everyone attending the party—men, women, old, young—not just the attractive men, Marisa, okay?”

“Got it,” Marisa confirms.

We touch up our lipstick and respray our perfume before leaving the limo. With our heads head high and our shoulders back, in our unison walk the girls and I have down to a tee, we strut up the red carpet to the entrance. I notice the two doormen frantically looking through the papers on their clipboard and then back at me. I take my time walking up to them, maintaining eye contact with them. I can see sweat beginning to form on their brows.

“Gentlemen,” I say, greeting them with a smile.

They both go pale in the face.

“Miss Alboni. Tonight’s event is invitation only,” one man stutters.

“I know,” I reply sternly.

The man franticly searches through his list of names again. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see your name on the invitation list.”

“That’s because I wasn’t invited,” I reply, irritated.

The men then look at each other again, clearly deciding which they would like to save, their jobs or their lives. It doesn’t take them long to unlock the red rope stopping our entrance and wave us through. We are greeted by waiters with trays of champagne flutes and canapés. The girls take a drink each, along with a handful of food. I don’t eat at events like this, when having a nut allergy, you can never be too careful.

“Okay, let’s split up. We will meet in the ladies’ room in one hour.”

Scanning the room, I find the bar and make my way over. On the way, I am stopped by Chief Lorenzo himself.

Chapter 3

Mia

“Mia, what a pleasant surprise.” He embraces me with a kiss on each cheek. “You look absolutely stunning.” Lorenzo takes my hand and kisses my knuckles too. He then steps back to enjoy the view.

Tonight, I decided on a black silk dress with a red bag and red shoes, not forgetting my red lips. I see his wife watching us over his shoulder, so I give him a little twirl and accidently on purpose fall into him a little. Catching me by the waist, he clearly more than appreciates this. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Lorenzo’s wife making her way towards us.

I stroke his arm while he speaks, which prompts him to lean in and whisper in my ear, “Why don’t you join me in my private room for a welcome drink?” He moves the hair off my shoulder and runs the tips of his fingers down my arm.

My body wants to shiver in disgust, but I hold it in. “I don’t think your wife would approve of that, Chief Lorenzo. Do you?” I say a lot more loudly than needed.

“Approve of what?” snaps Lorenzo’s wife.

Lorenzo moves away from me, scowling, before turning to his wife. “Oh, we were just having a little joke.” Lorenzo puts his arm around his wife and turns her away from me. “Come on now, let me introduce you to someone who has been dying to meet you.” They mingle within the crowd, soon disappearing from my view.

The bar is quite busy, but I find an opening between two very large men who have their backs to each other. Sitting on a bar stool causes my dress to open at the split, displaying my tanned, smooth legs. After ordering a margarita with salt, I sit and wait for the men beside me to notice. It doesn’t take them long.

The first guy is Russian, and the other is Spanish. I can speak many different languages and I am very good at pronunciation and accent. When I go to England, people think I have lived there all my life, my English is so good, and it’s the same with Spanish. Putting on my best British accent so as not to arouse suspicion, I soon have both men eating out of the palm of my hand. Each of the men are representatives of underground organisations. I recognise tattoos they have on their hands. Neither man is at the top of their hierarchy, but both must hold valuable and influential positions. As far as they know, both organisations have just been invited to celebrate Lorenzo’s new position as chief. Both admit to having found the invitation strange, but they decided to attend out of curiosity.

What is that sneaky chief up to?

After humouring the guys for a while, I make my excuses and find Marisa and Lucia. It seems Lorenzo has invited members of each of the organised crime groups from Italy’s surrounding countries. All countries have organised crime groups. Italy’s main organisation is the Guerra, but the country also has our archenemy the Martelé, however there doesn’t seem to be anyone from the Martelé here. Albeit Illegal, underground organisations are needed to keep the countries from going into chaos, so they generally work alongside the police. I cannot speak for all, but the Guerra have good values, protect their own, and have respect for civilians. We also respect our fellow countries’ organisations and expect them to do the same. Their unannounced arrival at this event is not going to go down well with Marco.

Van doesn’t say much when I ring and explain our findings. He never tells me anything. I’d love to know more and be part of all the excitement, but I am a female, so that means it is not my place. It’s a protection thing, apparently, not a sexist thing. I’ve tried, believe me. I will just have to do what I normally do: find things out for myself. But it looks to me like Lorenzo is trying to make allies.

I buy us girls some drinks and let them go and enjoy the attention. All eyes are on them as they walk through the groups of people. Every man has a look, whether it is a blatant open-mouthed stare up and down or a sly peek over their glass so their partner doesn’t notice. Marisa and Lucia own the room, and they love every second of it. They better make the most of it, as this party will be coming to an extremely abrupt end very soon.

Perched on a stool at the bar, I think over the event tonight. Surely Lorenzo would know that the Guerra would find out about his party and who was on the guest list. He would also know that the Guerra would not be happy. He wanted to piss Marco off. He also knows that Marco will not let this go. I have no doubt Marco will have also worked this out. It’s quite clever when you think about it, really. Tonight the Guerra could storm in here and potentially start a war with every one of its surrounding countries. These people are all on our territory at the same time, and the Guerra must stand their ground.

I’m so deep in thought, I hadn’t noticed the tall man appear beside me. I sense him looking my way, so I look at his face. A smile fills his strong jawline right up to his cheek bones. He’s obviously amused by how deep in thought I was. Maybe he has spoken to me and I didn’t realise.

“I’m sorry. I was in a world of my own.”

His smile fades slightly as he looks into my eyes. His are deep and warming. Butterflies in my stomach have me breaking our connection.

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