Page 62 of Primo DeLuca

Chapter Twenty-three

Nevah

The ride back to my suite was a silent one. I wasn’t sure what type of vibe I was giving off, but the Uber driver remained silent, only looking up to glance in the dark rearview mirror every once and a while. It was like he sensed that I needed to think.

Like always, I texted my friends as soon as my ride pulled up to the front of my hotel’s entrance. I climbed out of the car, the dark balmy night air landing like an unwanted touch. My short walk to the hotel’s lobby doors was like trudging through a thick fog I couldn’t see.

Once inside, the busy atmosphere brought back a sense of normality. I returned a wave to the front desk attendant, who greeted me each time he noticed me. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Primo was paying him to keep an eye on me.

My phone buzzed, and I answered on the first ring when I saw it was him.

“Hello.”

“Hi. How are you? How’d your outing go with your friends?”

“It went well. They want to keep me,” I said, laughing and forgoing reaching out to hit the up arrow on the elevator to continue my conversation with Primo.

“I…”

“You…”

We spoke at the same time.

“You first,” I suggested.

“I’m close to finding out who initiated the contract on me and killed my men. Hopefully, we can reunite within the week.”

“I can’t wait. I miss you.” The sentiment in my tone surprised me as much as I believed it did Primo, who went silent.

“I miss you too. Stay safe. I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay.” My voice cracked before I hung up. Did he sound strange, or was it the distance that made him sound a bit off?

I climbed on to the elevator with my ex-husband on my mind for reason’s I couldn’t recall. Why were the horrible memories of him surfacing lately? Maya and Tracy didn’t know about that part of my life or who I had foolishly married right under their noses.

What would they think of me if they knew I killed the man I had secretly married when I was nineteen and a few days before we reached our first month of marriage? A black eye and cracked ribs were what I was gifted for not following his impossible orders, one which was not to see or talk to my friends anymore.

Maya and Tracy had asked about the older man I’d dated off and on for a year. They never liked him despite my not disclosing to them that he was an ex-con, drug dealer, and a thief. They didn’t think twice about never having to see him again after I announced our breakup.

The thick, eerie feeling was back in the air on my elevator ride up to the seventeenth floor. I stepped off the elevator and turned in the opposite direction of my room towards the stairs. Why was my sixth sense for danger going haywire?

After stepping into and standing inside the entryway into the stairwell and scoping out my surroundings, I finally cast my strange sense of urgency aside and stepped with quick caution to my room. I was sure if anybody saw me at the moment, they would think I was too wasted to know what I was doing. I was letting my paranoia get the best of me.

The buzzer sounded, alerting that my key card had slid home. I sprang the door open and stepped inside. I closed the door and flipped the latch for extra protection. The deep sigh I released in the process of toeing my shoes off stopped.

Ding Dong!

My hand covered my heaving chest after I jumped about a mile high at the sound of the doorbell. I saw the doorbell each time I entered the room, but hearing it sound off had scared the shit out of me.

Now, I was so filled with tension, my mind kept contouring up bloody images of me getting shot through the eye when I peeked to see who was at the door.

“Calm,” I muttered under my breath. If it was someone from the mob trying to kill me they wouldn’t have rung the doorbell. They would have found a clever way to retrieve a key card.

At that notion, I ambled to the door and gave a quick peek. A deep sigh of relief swept through me at the sight.

After swinging the extra security lock open, I pulled the door open with a wide grin on my face.

“Aurelio,” I said in greeting before sweeping my hand into the suite for him to enter. “Never thought I’d see you again so soon.”

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