Page 15 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

I trailed off.

“Yes?” he said as he raised his eyebrows.

I couldn’t answer him and look him in the eye at the same time.

“…that you’re mafia,” I whispered.

There was a long silence…

And then Niccolo burst out laughing again.

I looked up in surprise.

“You look so nervous,bella,”he said. “Don’t worry – I’m well aware of the rumors about my family. Let me assure you, they’re just that: rumors. We’re importers and exporters. We deal in wine and olive oil. We have one business here, another business there. What we arenot,however, is anything having to do with organized crime. So you can relax.”

Ididrelax. He seemed so friendly… so charming…

And then his smile turned a bit cold.

“However… there isonething we demand from everyone who works for us, and that’s an oath to uphold our privacy. We don’t quite have a palace, but – as I think you’ve guessed – my family is quite wealthy. And that makes us targets. For con men, grifters, thieves, thugs… that’s why you might occasionally see men with guns on the property. They’re our bodyguards. We’ve been robbed before, you see. In fact, the government robs us every year on tax day,” he said, chuckling at his little joke. “But anyway, we expect complete confidentiality and discretion from our employees. No telling anyone about what goes on here. No gossip, no stories, nothing. Not to your parents… not even to your boyfriend.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I said truthfully.

A lot of exes, but no current boyfriends.

“Well, good – one less person to tempt you, then!” he said cheerfully. “We’ll have you sign a pile of NDAs – that’s Non-Disclosure Agreements – but I wanted to be sure there was nothing that might prevent you from maintaining my family’s… secrets, you might say.”

His gaze wasn’t exactly threatening…

But it wasn’t friendly, either.

There was an implied threat in everything he was telling me.

He was trying to make sure I got the message without having to say it out loud:

Snitches wind up in ditches.

I was pretty sure the Rosolinis were mafia.

Niccolo was subtly letting me know that they were… and was that going to be a problem?

Now, I didn’t know anything about the mafia other than what I’d seen in movies and heard from gossip in my town.

Normally, I would have run away out of fear –

But I hated my life in Florence.

And if I could get a job somewhere likethis,cooking for a living, then I’d do just about anything Niccolo required.

Especially if there was going to be a certain incredibly handsome man dropping by the kitchen now and then.

“I won’t tell anyone,” I promised.

“Good – good!” Niccolo said, then clapped his hands together. “You’ll live here on the estate in the house – ”

“I will?!” I asked, shocked.

“Yes, you’ll get your own room! It’s quite small, I’m afraid, but you’ll have access to the grounds when you’re not working. It’s quite beautiful here. I’ll arrange for one of our bodyguards to take you on a tour if you like. Now, unfortunately, no matter how great a cook Signora Lombardi says you are, there’s a bit of a hierarchy in the kitchen – and I don’t want to be poisoned by your jealous co-workers,” he joked. “So you’ll be starting out on breakfast and lunch, where you’ll aid the main cook in meal prep. Eventually you’ll move up, but that might take a while.”

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