Page 198 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

“I guess…”

“Then you should probably get back to your room.”

“Yeah – okay,” I said as I headed for the door.

“One question, though.”

I looked back warily. “Yeah?”

“Do you love her?” Isabella asked in a soft voice. She sounded genuinely curious.

Despite her complete lack of anger, the question struck fear inside my gut.

“I… I hadn’t thought about it,” I muttered.

Isabella’s eyes widened. “You hadn’tthoughtabout it?!”

“I just – I – it’s complicated.”

Now Isabella looked irritated. “A woman comes all the way here for you – you risk my father beating you within an inch of your life – and you hadn’t‘thoughtabout it’?”

I flashed back to the barn.

I think it’d be a lot worse than beating me within an inch of my life.

“…no,” I said lamely.

Isabella frowned. “You should probablystartto think about it, then.”

I didn’t know what to do –

So I just nodded like an idiot.

When she didn’t say anything, I asked – like an even bigger idiot – “Can I, uh, go now?”

Isabella sighed, then said, “Lu, check the hallway, will you?”

Ludavica crossed the room, unlocked the door, and peered outside.

“Coast is clear,” she whispered.

“Goodnight, Valentino,” Isabella said in mild exasperation.

“Goodnight,” I said, then crept out into the darkness.

It was at that point I realized something:

I wasnevergoing to understand women.

Ever.

70

Another upside of not having to work on Rocco’s crew was that I didn’t have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn anymore.

I was eating breakfast around 8 the next morning with Isabella and Ludavica – under the watchful and disapproving eye of an older kitchen servant – when Paolo walked in.

“Hey, boss,” he said cheerfully.

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