Page 27 of King

He yanks his hand away from me. His face flushing with embarrassment. “I work for what I have.” He snarls.

“Is that so?” I shrug, still smiling when I walk out of the kitchen.

I stop just outside the door, standing quietly to listen to whatever they’ll say to each other now that they think I’m gone.

“It didn’t work.” Romeo hisses. “You said she’d be scared, and she’d run away.”

“I know, for fuck sakes. I thought she would have by now. We’ve been doing things to break her down since she got here and none of it is working.” Santino is confused and annoyed.

Nodding in satisfaction I walk away. Let them see that I’m stronger than they think. And maybe now they’ll stop underestimating me.

In the living room Giovanni is in a heated conversation with his head of security, Fabio. He’s pacing with his face knotted and his jaw clenched. I press my back against the wall, watching from around the corner. Tension is high in the estate today.

“Who the fuck is doing it?” Giovanni snarls.

“We don’t know yet. We’re trying to figure it out.” Fabio answers.

“This is the third time they’ve interfered with one of our shipments in the past two weeks.”

“I know. I’m working on it though. It’s like they have someone on the inside - feeding them information. We changed the route at the last minute this time and they still got to it.”

“Someone on the inside?” Giovanni says, tensely.

Fabio sighs heavily.

“Sir, I know it’s not an easy thing to accept, but have you noticed how tense and on edge the estate has been since she moved in with that kid?”

My heart stutters in my chest and I hold my breath, listening closer.

“What is your point? What does that have to do with any of this?” Giovanni says sharply.

Santino walks into the living room, answering for Fabio. “He thinks she has something to do with it. That she’s the spy.” Santino huffs, flopping into the sofa.

“I didn’t say that exactly.” Fabio corrects him, trying to be more cautious with his words. “But I do think it might be better if you asked her to leave.” He admits.

I’m so tense my ears are ringing as I wait for Giovanni’s response.

He’s hesitating. He’s not immediately telling them they’re wrong about me. The realization that he isn’t confident that I am not the traitor shoots through me like an arrow. It hurts.

“Look, let’s just keep investigating.” Gio sighs. “There has to be a clue, something to lead us in the right direction.”

I bite at my lower lip. He didn’t agree with them, but he also didn’t exactly defend me either.

I should focus on the positive. He might not have my back yet, but he wasn’t willing to throw me to the wolves either. Maybe it means I’m getting somewhere - and slow progress is better than no progress at all.

But what the hell are they talking about regarding the shipments. Someone is messing with the family business - and they think it’s me.

If they think it’s me, they’ll spend their time looking for evidence against me - to prove their bias - instead of looking for the real culprit.

I have no choice but to start digging into this myself.

I have to find out who is responsible before they find a way to pin this on me as a guaranteed chance of getting rid of me.

I wouldn’t put it past them to fake evidence if that’s what it took.

Dammit.

If they managed to somehow convince Giovanni that I am responsible it will be worse than just being kicked out of the estate. Enemies are dealt with brutal and deadly consequences.

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