Page 24 of Untouchable

A tightening feeling begins in my chest, and I have to close my eyes to physically shove it aside.

“Ditch the phones,” The Boss says, bringing my attention back to him. “There will be a jet ready for you two by the time you get there.”

“Yes, Boss.”

I go to hang up when he speaks again. “And Alessandro? Protect my little girl with your life.”

“Always,” I promise.

I hang up quickly and smash my phone against the rock before looking to Seraphina who is already staring up at me with a deep concentrated look across her face. I reach out my hand for her to give me her phone, to which she shakes her head.

“We might need them. What if something happens? How do we get help?”

“What do we do when they undoubtably triangulate our position from our phones?”

“They are protected,” she argues.

“Were. Until men broke into your heavily guarded home, killed nearly everyone and has done God knows what to our security information since then. Give me your phone. Now.”

“But I have pictures on here, other things. Things I will never get back.”

I scoff and reach into her pocket, easily missing her attempts to keep me away as I pin her wrists with one hand. She grunts and whines as she tries to stand up while I pull away, phone in hand before I place it onto a rock.

“Alessandro, please. Please, just let me send a few things to a friend really quick. Then you can break it. Please, just-”

I grind the heel of my foot down onto her brand-new iPhone, shattering it into pieces. She slumps to her knees as she looks down at the broken pieces of her phone. The look on her face is first one of shock but it quickly turns to devastation. The way she is looking at the tiny pieces of glass and plastic, you would think I just ground her heart against this rock and not just a phone. She looks up at me with unshed tears brimming her eyes.

“Calm down, Princess. We back everything up. We will be able to get everything back one day, just not today.”

She just stares at me, her bottom lip wobbling uncontrollably, making me wonder just what exactly was on that phone that meant so much to her.

“Come on,” I say, trying to soften my tone a bit. “We only have a little farther.”

She stands up slowly, not looking away from me. I take a step forward to lift her up again, but she stops me with a shaky hand before she turns and begins slowly limping ahead. I stay still and watch her for a little before I start following her. I don’t care how pissed she is with me, the instant I hear a twig out of place behind us, her bratty ass is going over my shoulder again.

It only takes a few more minutes of walking before we are at the gate that surrounds the Mariano property. It is hidden among a ton of foliage and if you didn’t know where it was in the fence line, I am sure you would never find it. Ripping away the leaves covering the keypad, I enter in my passcode that gets me into most of the properties that the Family owns before opening the gate for Seraphina.

“How long has this been here?” She asks quietly.

“Well before you were born. I think your Great Uncle Stefano first had it built.”

As soon as we step through the gate, we are on the side of a winding 2 lane road. Based on my training and late-night perimeter walks I know that there are some parking lots a few blocks down where we can pick up a car.

I nod at Seraphina to follow me. For probably the first time in her life, she actually listens to me without giving me any back talk or refusal. I chuckle to myself as I think about how I wish I could have learned how to do this years ago. Would have saved me a hell of a lot of headaches. Probably would have lost a lot of good memories too though.

Chapter Twelve

Seraphina

We walk down the road for a while until we are in the parking lot of the outlet mall near my house. My feet are screaming in pain with each step I take but somewhere around the last half mile the pain started to dull, and I am sure it will be completely numb soon. Not too sure if that is a good thing or not though.

Alessandro stops at an Escalade in one of the many rows of cars and tries the handle, his eyes discreetly scan our surroundings before he pulls it open and slips inside. I can’t help but whip my head around from side to side anxiously. I know I am not being even close to subtle but are we seriously doing this? Are we really going to steal a car so publicly? And we don’t have a key. How are we supposed to-

Before I can even finish that thought, Alessandro is popping up from under the dash as the Escalade rumbles to life. Alessandro hops into the driver’s seat and opens the passenger door from inside.

“Get in,” he says curtly as he settles himself into his seat.

Giving one more look around, I hop in and shut the door quickly. Alessandro takes off in the next moment and soon we are blending in with traffic like it is any other Thursday afternoon.

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