Page 20 of Vows of a Mobster
“I checked visitors’ logs and ran down every single person on that list along with their photos,” he responded. “I triple checked the day that you ran into her and the day I saw her in the garage. Nothing.”
It was rare that Antonio didn’t succeed in locating people. Who was she, my gorgeous looking teacher? It was ridiculous that I referred to her as a teacher but without a name, it was my only reference.
“I went through each floor and every department too,” Antonio continued. “I didn’t want to question people and raise the alarm. But I casually looked through people to see if I’d spot her.”
“She couldn’t have just vanished into thin air,” I told him.
“You want me to search the city for her?” he asked and while I pondered whether he was joking or not, he continued, “If she is after information, she’ll be back, so it would be wasted effort to go searching for her. But I tightened security, nonetheless.”
“No, don’t go searching the city for her,” I reluctantly agreed, although there was this gnawing need to know her name. After my encounter with Angelica yesterday afternoon, I had the strangest notion that the young woman would never throw tantrums like I witnessed yesterday by my ex-mistress. And she was closer to my age than the woman I searched for now. There was a maturity in that woman, way beyond her young years.
“Have you checked on Marcus?” I asked him. My younger brother went through women like socks. Although we never had the same taste in women, I could see Marcus being fascinated with that young woman. She had the air about her that forced you to give her another look, to soak her up like sunshine.
“He was in his office first thing this morning then disappeared,” Antonio answered gruffly. No surprise there. Antonio didn’t care for Marcus; his careless ways and inability to carry some of the famiglia responsibilities made Marcus inadequate in his eyes. But he was still my little brother, and I gave my word to our old man that I’d watch out for him. I won’t let him be part of the mafia but I’d fulfill my promise and ensure he was taken care of.
“Check his current mistress,” I ordered.
“You are joking, right,” he retorted dryly and I raised my eyebrow at the challenge. “You realize your brother doesn’t maintain just one mistress. He keeps three, four at the same time. And if they last a week, it is a miracle.”
I leaned back and pulled on my tie. He was right, every one of Marcus’ infatuations were extremely short term. And even saying they were short-term sounded longer than they last.
“Yes, I realize he goes through his women rather quickly. Just check if one of them during the last four weeks was this young woman we are trying to locate.”
Even as I said those words, I hated the idea of Marcus having her. She deserved better than my brother.
“On a different note, have you heard anything else from the Irish?” I asked. They were keeping their distance, which told me they were up to something. Those stubborn O'Connors never gave up. The only time it was over in their book was when they were dead or their enemy was dead. And they considered us an enemy.
“No, nothing. This silence and lack of conflict after all the commotion over the last four weeks is making our men antsy.”
I couldn’t blame them. Not knowing when the enemy would strike was worse than fighting.
“Have our security tight,” I told him. “And ensure women and children are not roaming without protection. All men should be on standby. Our shipment of guns is arriving tonight. They are the latest technology. Keep those for our men. Anything suspicious, I want to know.”
He nodded. It was the reason Antonio and I worked so well together, our thoughts and goals in sync. When my uncle turned over the reins of the business and famiglia to me, Antonio was the first man I sought out. You couldn’t lead effectively and successfully without having someone you trusted fully and explicitly. So I went to Italy and convinced him to stand by me. He has been my strongest and the most trustworthy ally. It should have been a role reserved for my brother, but Marcus was just not cut out for it. His carelessness got people killed, and we had enough blood on our hands without extra stupidity.
He better not have gotten the woman with soul shattering eyes into any shit. The thought came out of nowhere but it remained on my mind, lingering. A few minutes spent with the young woman and she had an unforgettable impact.
Ten
Brianna
The day ended up being a quiet one. Emma spent most of it nibbling on dry foods and taking little cat naps, while I sat next to her reading. It turned out the medication she started didn’t mix well with dairy and it was what made her sick. Emma usually had a glass of milk before bedtime, and she was nothing if not a creature of habit even at that young age.
We both hung out on the couch and sat on the porch together. She cuddled into me while we swung back and forth on the porch swing, both of us under a light blanket although it was the middle of June.
Both Marissa and Daphne thought I was at work so my phone chat remained fairly quiet with a few buzzes in our group chat, discussing the sexy scenes in Julia Quinn’s book one,The Duke & I. All three of us loved the book but as we finally came to the sex scene, we found ourselves slightly disappointed. It wasn’t as steamy nor explicit as our other reads.
*Loving the book but next read has to be more R rated.*
I wasn’t surprised to see that text came from Marissa.
*Agreed. TV series next on agenda. Plenty R rated.*
I chuckled as I pressed the send button on my phone. The sneak peeks of the series I saw were quite something and I looked forward to watching it.
Sad, my love life is reduced to romance novels and TV series.
I knew Marissa could dial up any boy and he’d run to her for the night. Daphne too. And here I was, not a single man in my phone book besides Marcus, my boss, and Dr. Guzman. Was I envious? No, not really, but darn it, I was tired of getting myself off. There was only so much excitement in that.
