Page 24 of Primo DeLuca

Chapter Nine

Primo

“I’ll eventually be able to return to work, but what about my mom? I visit her at least once a week.”

Though she’d needed time to accept it fully, Nevah was much calmer now about her situation.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a resolution within a week or two. I’ll make sure someone checks on your mother and reports back to us until you can resume your normal schedule. I also need you to take some DTO days off from work and stay away from your friends and family.”

She nodded before releasing a giggle.

“They are called PTO days. Paid Time Off.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Well, I meant DeLuca Time off. You can call the days whatever you like but take them off. You could probably use a break anyway.”

Another giggle. I was beginning to enjoy the sound.

“I’ve only taken time off a few time in the three years that I’ve been at the hospital. I always manage to do everything I need to on my scheduled days off. What am I supposed to do with all this time, knowing that I can’t go anywhere?”

Her question was low and unsure. Still processing her current situation, she was questioning herself for an answer more than she was me.

“I have a few safe places you can go. I can send you and your mother away and hire a caregiver to take care of her needs.”

The horde of questions she wanted to ask were visible in the tiny creases around her forehead and eyes.

“You would do that for us?”

“You’re my responsibility now, and I’m a man who takes his responsibilities seriously.”

She held her tight expression, thinking. “You’re being hunted. You’re a mob boss. I have enough common sense to know that things can get dicey. But I don’t want to uproot my mother or run unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

At the club, it appeared she’d wanted nothing to do with me when she found out who I was and about my situation. Now, a surreal sense of calm seemed to have washed over her.

“Why not take the easy route that I’m offering?”

Her shoulders lifted in a slow shrug. “I don’t know the fine details about your world, but I understand enough to know that no place is truly safe. I’d rather stay close to you.”

The glint of conviction in her eyes confirmed that she already had an unshakable belief in me, one I rarely saw in someone I’d just met. She trusted me to protect her.

“Being near me is the most dangerous place you could be or one of the safest, depending on how you look at it,” I stated truthfully.

“I don’t care. It feels safer than me being off someplace wondering if the mob has found me and is preparing to put a bullet in my brain. I’ll take my chances with you.”

I handed her a disposable phone. “I have to work on figuring out who has a hit out on me, as well as assist in finding out who put the hit out on our late Don. It could be the same person. The sooner we figure it out, it will be safer for us all.” I paused, feeling the need to add a clause to the declaration. “As safe as one could be in our world.”

She handed me her palm without protest when I stood and reached out for it. We walked hand in hand until we reached the kitchen pantry. Once we were inside, I placed her hand between the third and fourth shelves of the seven stocked nearly to the ceiling with canned goods. I pushed her hand past the cans until it touched the slight dip in the wall.

“Spread your palm and push hard,” I instructed.

Her eyes grew wide before she placed her free hand over her mouth at the sight of the shelves spreading apart. The hidden doorway behind the shelves shifted open with a low pop.

“If you get a sense that danger is near, I want you to come here.”

She glanced back and forth between the wall and me. A step took me close enough to shove the door further open before casting a head gesture back at her to follow me.

We descended the stairs leading to the small, basement-level safe room that only I knew about. She entered the small seven-by-ten room with slow choppy steps.

Her wide eyes scanned, the setup leaving her with parted lips. The space contained a state-of-the-art surveillance station, a well-stocked, open-faced weapons closet, and a tan couch shoved against the back wall.

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