Page 8 of The Bodyguard's Vow

He typed out a quick text before raising his eyes to meet mine. “Well, well. It seems Franco just received a request from Oswald to meet with me.”

“To what end?” Rafa’s assistant wouldn’t have given him the request unless he thought Oswald had information that was worth listening to.

Rafa shrugged. “Does it matter? Whatever it is will be nothing but bullshit.”

His cell went off again, and he frowned at the message before responding.

“The timing on this is too perfect,” I grunted. There was no way his meeting request was coincidental.

“I don’t disagree,” Rafa murmured as another text came through. After reading it, he nodded with a satisfied expression before slipping his phone into the pocket of his suit pants. Then he rolled down the sleeves of his white dress shirt. He’d met with the owner of a small boutique we wanted to acquire this morning, so he was already dressed for business. His expensive, perfectly tailored suit projected wealth and sophistication, adding to the intimidating air of danger surrounding him. He had a reputation for being ruthless, and when faced with him in person, I’d seen plenty of men crushed under its weight.

“But however improbable, it needs to happen, so I’d rather get it over with. He’s agreed to meet at Cypress & Sangiovese in an hour.”

“He’s coming to a restaurant owned by the family?” I was shocked that Oswald would agree to meet on our turf.

“I told him it was nonnegotiable. If he wanted to sit down with me face-to-face, in public, it would be a place of my choosing.”

“An hour?” My mind suddenly caught up to the other bomb he’d just dropped on me. “Che cazzo?”

Did he say an hour?What the fuck?I yelled again in my head.

“Relax, Franco got a list of the people Oswald will be bringing with him and sent it to Marco.”

Rafa’s brother, Marco, was a genius with anything electronic, but even he wouldn’t be able to tell us much about these guys in the short amount of time we had before the meeting.

“Thanks so much for making my job easier today,” I said sarcastically as we walked out of Rafa’s office and down the hall to the kitchen.

“Are you saying I’m difficult?”

I didn’t comment.

“Stop whining,” he muttered.

“Domenico whining?” Vivienne piped up as we entered the kitchen. “That would require him to actually speak, wouldn’t it?”

“He doesn’t have to,cara,” Rafa teased as he made a beeline for his pregnant wife. “His pout says it all.”

Dio santo.I didn’t bother to stop, choosing to meet him in the garage rather than be subjected to all the love and happiness.

I was happy for my friend to have found the love of his life and start a family. But sometimes, it just twisted the knife in my chest, reminding me that I would never have the same experiences.

A box next to the door held several sets of keys, all belonging to vehicles parked in the six-car garage, including a Kawasaki Ninja H2R. My father sent it to me for my birthday last year as if I was still a teenager and needed him to buy me a car. That didn’t stop me from accepting the gift, which had my mother on her knees saying Hail Marys on my behalf. She was married to the Mafia, her sons were fucking Mafia, yet somehow, she still seemed to think I had a soul worth saving.

If that were the case, I’d have considered a few of those Hail Marys to make me worthy of Gabriella. But I’d waded through too much crimson to believe redemption was within reach. Damnation had already claimed me.

The door to the garage broke through my thoughts when it opened, then slammed shut. “Ready?” I asked as I grabbed the keys to the Maserati Levante.

“Let’s get this shit show over with so I can get back to my wife.”

4

DOMENICO

The ride downtown to the restaurant took about twenty minutes because Magnolia Crest was at the edge of the town. When I pulled into the parking lot, a few of my enforcers were waiting by the door. Alessio (Alec) Dominici, Giovanni’s brother, was talking with another enforcer, Dante Cavalli, and Dario, Rafa’s brother and Lieutenant. They stopped speaking when we exited the vehicle and approached. I raised my brow at Alec, and he handed me a list.

“It was the best Marco could do in thirty minutes.”

I scowled at Rafa before leafing through the dossiers of the men Oswald had brought with him. They were all low-level thugs with no real training. It would make them easier to subdue, but it also meant they were unpredictable.

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