Page 22 of Malevolent Secrets

I said yes to seeing Lorenzo Duretti again.

I keep thinking about it and wondered what I was thinking. The man is the epitome of danger and the man who I know had something to do with Jeremy’s death. I had slept with him, done a whole lot more than sleep, actually and I had enjoyed every second of it.

Fuck my life.

The hours at work drag on, each minute feeling like an eternity. My mind is only half focused on the tasks at hand, the other half consumed by the events of last night.

I can still feel the weight of Lorenzo’s touch, hear the timbre of his voice and feel his huge cock stretching me, filling me and making me come. But the shock of who he is overshadows everything. I can’t believe I spent the night with the head of the Duretti family.

At least he doesn’t know anything about me. I didn’t even give him my name and he didn’t give me his. So, he doesn’t know who I am, and more importantly, he doesn’t know that I know who he is. Surprise and ignorance are elements I have at my disposal, and I plan to take full advantage of that.

As I sift through emails and answer calls, I keep replaying our conversations in my head. He might be a ruthless monster or mafia lord or whatever, but the guy knows how to hold a conversation.

Lorenzo knew something about Jeremy’s death. He had to. But getting close to him again, extracting information without arousing suspicion, would be a tightrope walk.

At lunch, I take my salad to a quiet corner of the office cafeteria. My appetite is non-existent, but I force myself to eat, knowing I need to keep my strength up.

I pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts, just as Renee walks up to my table. I had just raised a fork full of salad to my mouth and she smiles down at me.

“Hey, Dani. How was your weekend?”

“Um…” I say around a mouthful of food, but I raise my hand and finish chewing before I speak again. “It was okay.” It’s a massive understatement, but it’s not like I’m going to tell her about having sex with a mafia don.

“Can I join you?” she asks nodding at the empty seat in front of me.

“Yes, of course.”

She smiles and easily slides into the seat.

“So, how are you holding up?”

“I’ve had better days,” I admit, trying to keep my voice steady. “I’m sorry I never called back.” The last time she had called, I had just been leaving Lorenzo’s house, and I couldn’t chat with her. I felt really bad about it, but then I never remembered to call her back.

She waves off my apology.

“It’s okay. I'm sure you’ve been busy. Can we talk? Maybe grab dinner after work?”

“Um…” it’s on the tip of my tongue to make up an excuse to back out, but she’s giving me a knowing smile like she knows that’s exactly what I’m about to do. And I did promise to say yes the next time she asked me out.

“Of course. I know a great place. How about seven p.m.?”

“Sounds perfect. Your salad looks delicious.” It’s my turn to smile.

“No, it doesn’t.”

She laughs a little and shrugs. “It doesn’t look that bad. It was a lot worse last week.”

The food in our cafeteria isn’t the best and there have been reports of food poisoning.

“Your food on the other hand…” I nod toward her side of the table. On her plate is a turkey wrap that looks and smells to die for.

“Thank you. I got it on the way to work. Here, you can have half.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly…”

“It’s okay. I wasn’t going to finish it anyway.”

She lifts it off her plate and sets it on mine and I smile in gratitude.

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