Page 52 of Traitor

He shook his head as he leaned back. “No. You’re not going anywhere. Nope.”

“Will you just listen, you bull-headed bastard?”

He clenched his jaw. “What?”

I took a long pull of my lemonade. “You want to take down the Luccheses right?”

He looked around him before answering. “Correct.”

“And now that we know my mother works for at least one of them, we can assume that taking her out of the picture gives you better odds.”

He blinked. “Yes.”

“And I work for my mother.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Get to it, Char.”

I reached across the table and offered my hand to him. “Give the okay for me to go home. Send me with some clothes that aren’t too flashy, and let me go back. Let me just show up to my mother’s office one day, unannounced, ready to work, and see what I can find when she’s caught off-guard. I have a key to her fucking house, Teo. You can’t tell me that isn’t valuable.”

He took my hand. “I can’t let you go, Char.”

“Let me put it this way: taking down my mother might be the only way to keep us together alive. And you’re willing to give that up because you don’t think I’m going to come back?”

His eyes met mine. “Yes.”

I got up and went to sit on his lap. “Whether or not you love me back, Mateo, I love you. I don’t know when it happened, and I don’t know how, and I definitely don’t know why, but it did. So, you have my word that when it’s safe and when my mother is completely neutralized and in handcuffs, I’m coming back. Okay?”

His eyes searched mine. “There isn’t any other way?”

I cupped his cheek. “To be honest? I don’t want anything to do with this. I’ve been in survival mode for so long that the only thing I want to do now is survive this. I miss home, Teo. I miss my things, and my bed, and the comfort of McDonald’s french fries dipped in a milkshake.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Ew.”

I kissed the tip of his nose. “But, more than that, I won’t be able to sleep a wink until I know you’re safe. And one thing I can help with is my fucking mother.”

He licked his lips. “I’m gonna miss the hell out of you while you’re gone.”

I blinked. “So, does that mean ‘yes’?”

He gripped my chin. “You are to keep yourself as safe as possible. If you get into trouble, you call me and I’ll make it happen. I want to send a guard with you as well, just in case--.”

I shook my head. “No guards.”

“What?”

“No guards and no fancy clothes. Teo, my mother is a borderline genius. If she catches even a whiff that I’ve got some sort of alliance somewhere to anyone, she’s going to attack. And fast.”

He ground his teeth together. “You drive a hard bargain.”

“But, since you’re agreeing to do this my way…”

I cast him a look and he rolled his eyes. “Yes, we’ll do it your way.”

I smiled softly. “… then I suppose I owe you for what you’re giving me.”

He shook his head. “The doctor said no sexual activity until--.”

I swatted at his chest. “Mateo Emiliano, is that all you think about?”

---