Page 20 of Under His Embrace

I rubbed my face. “Wealwayshave a situation.” I didn’t mean to gripe, but right now, in the aftermath of seeing Chloe again and fucking her, I didn’t want to focus on work. I wanted to focus onher. On any remnant ofus. I gave my life to Dante and the family, and I seldom ever allowed myself to be greedy and put myself first.

I knew what I was getting into when I signed up to serve the family, but today, I wanted a break.

“Sorry, sir,” Vic said.

I waved him off. “What is it now?” I hadn’t stopped concentrating on the A&J Deli shooting yet. This was the wayof the Mafia life, though. “Situations” came when they did and often overlapped. Life was never dull around here.

“The Giovannis are trying to get into the gambling rooms at the Hound and Tea building again,” Andy said.

“Goddammit.” Dante and Romeo cleared those assholes out of there not long ago, but it seemed that the lesson hadn’t sunk in.

For the rest of the night, I assisted the men at the gambling rooms. It was late by the time I got back to the house Chloe was staying in, but that didn’t stop me from stopping in her room and checking on her.

She was asleep, lying in the bed with her limbs out. A small smile teased at my lips. She was never still in her rest, always moving and flopping around as the most restless sleeper ever.

I didn’t bother her, wanting her to be rested, but come morning, nothing would hold me back from questioning her and probing for whatever she was hiding. Because she was. I knew it.

The next day, though, she wasn’t available. She wasn’t in her room, and the housekeeper explained. “Miss Eva came by and asked Miss Chloe if she’d like to have breakfast in the big house.”

“Thanks.” I yawned as I left. I slept like shit last night. I couldn’t blame my late night of supervising the latest “situation”. I could fault Chloe for keeping me tossing and turning, though.

At the house Dante shared with Nina, I found Chloe nestled in with the other women. Nina, Tess, and Eva all chatted with Chloe. It seemed like a women’s sort of gathering, so with a quick glance at Chloe, I grabbed some coffee and a pastry to find the boss.

I didn’t get far. Danicia crossed paths with me and acknowledged me with a lift of her chin. “Franco. Good morning.”

I bit into the pastry. “Uh-huh. Morning.” I wasn’t ready to consider it a good one yet. I was tired, and I had no furtherinformation or hunches on what Chloe could be hiding from me. Her return in my life was sudden and conflicted, but I was too uninformed and that was never a good feeling.

“She seems fine,” Danicia said, knowing without my asking what I’d want to hear. “Nothing to worry about physically.”

“Good.” I stepped forward but stopped again. “What do you mean?” Why’d she emphasizephysically?

“Well, she’s so guarded, I can’t say for certain the trauma of what she went through isn’t making an impact on her.”

I frowned, hating that she’d suffered through it at all. Chloe was too good, too sweet to have the difficulty of a violent life. I knew that back when we dated, too. It was the hardest part of trying to convince her to give me a real chance.

“Please let me know how else I can help,” she said before we parted ways.

I would. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for Chloe. Even if I despised how she’d broken my heart, I could never want her to suffer. Seeing her slightly less frosty with the women in the kitchen warmed my soul, but after hearing what Danicia said, I wondered if she was just covering up her problems.

She was covering something up, and I wanted to know what.

I reached Dante’s office and found Liam sitting there. Romeo as well. It looked like they’d brought their breakfast in here. Liam extended his leg to shove out another chair for me to take.

“We found her purse at the deli,” Liam said.

“Oh, yeah?” I raised my brows. “Anything of interest?”

“That depends on what you’re looking for,” Liam said.

I glanced at Dante, feeling the weight of his stare. He would’ve remembered who Chloe was to me. All those years ago, I went directly to the boss himself for reassurances that Chloe could move in with me. He promised, of course, that my significant other would be protected the same as the rest ofthe Constella Mafia women were. It hadn’t made an impact on persuading Chloe to stay with me, though.

“I’m looking for the identity of who shot up that deli,” I replied, as I was expected to. If Dante was waiting to hear me say that I wanted to pursue leads on Chloe, he’d be waiting until his death. I didn’t need to vocalize that I wanted her again. It should’ve been implied.

“Do you think Chloe is involved with the shooting?” Liam asked.

I shrugged. She was hiding something from me, and until I knew what, I couldn’t be certain in my answers. I wouldn’t let anyone torture the truth out of her, and no one would try, knowing who she was to me.

“Her purse had cash, a ChapStick, two mechanical pencils, and a dying phone.”

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