Page 95 of Assassin's Obsession

I can't help thinking that if Angelo had been around then I bet it would have been fixed within a day.

"Please sit down, Mrs. Czabok," Angelo tells her. "Boomer will show you how to operate it."

Mom lets Boomer help her onto the chair of the scooter.

When she's sitting comfortably on the dark red leather seat, she glares warningly at Angelo. "Don't think you're going to buy my approval with expensive gifts."

"I would not dream of it." Angelo sounds genuinely shocked by the idea. "But whatever I can do to make your life easier, I will."

"Because of my daughter?" Mom asks mistrustfully.

"Yes. What is important to her is important to me."

"I told you the douchebag was lying," Cookie pipes up.

"Use that word one more time and you lose TV privileges for a week."

Cookie mimes zipping her lips and it reminds me of Angelo earlier. I smile.

Those two are going to be a force to be reckoned with.

While Boomer is showing my mom how to maneuver the chair, I slide my hand in Angelo's and squeeze. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I didn't intend to keep the scooter here, but Boomer was testing it out for manufacturer defects before I had the nurse give it to your mother."

"The nurse?" I look up at him. "You mean the in-home care nurse from the foundation Cookie's social worker found for us?"

Angelo nods. "She was going to tell your mother she'd been chosen to test the maneuverability of the company's latest model. In exchange, she would have gotten to keep the scooter."

"You know mom's nurse?"

The man who claims I am his soul looks at me like I'm not very bright. "She works for me."

"Excuse me for not knowing just how far you were willing to go for the title of Most Benevolent Stalker." And also, I thought the nurse worked for the foundation. Then it clicks. "You're the Foundation."

He shrugs.

Tears prick my eyes.

This man.

Chapter 26

CANDI

"I get you were worried because I didn't answer the phone, but what are you doinghere? You knew I would call back." As soon as I woke up anyway.

Mom and I are alone in the living room while my sister plays with the dog in the yard outside the windows so we can see her.

She has an entourage of two guards and the older man, Boomer. Angelo is consulting with Derian and Mario, probably telling them how much to reveal about last night to my mom and sister.

Although it sounds like Stefano told them pretty much everything. That tattletale Freddy must have told him that Angelo's men had to tape me up like a mummy to get me to go with them.

Mom looks at me like she's trying to catalog injuries. "Your biological father came to see me."

"Cookie said that in the hall."

"Yes, well clearly you aren't a kidnap victim, but he didn't lie about everything, did he? Mr. Bianchi told me that Angelo works for the mafia and he would know."

---