Page 25 of Primo DeLuca

“You have a safe room inside of a safe house. Is there that much danger in your family?”

“Depends on who you ask. My day-to-day operations as Capo are not as dangerous as what I can otherwise encounter. Let’s just say, I do more for my family than they will ever know.”

She didn’t reply, but there was a sense of knowing in her penetrating glint like she was figuring out something in her head.

“Aurelio and Alesso weren’t exactly hiding that they were hunting people down for your family. I believe they trusted me to a certain point, because of you. I know that you’re the leader in this city. Based on what you said about the possibility of the family traitor having an idea of who you guys truly were, I got the impression that the three of you have a separate agenda outside of what you do for your family and disclose to them.”

“You would make a good little detective,” I complimented, unable to help grinning at her.

“Can I ask you something, and you give me an honest answer?” she asked, looking at me from eyes that now held reluctance.

“I haven’t nor will I ever lie to you about anything.”

She flashed me a cute, crooked smile before dropping her gaze. Whatever she wanted to ask dealt with a heavy subject because she wasn’t a shy person based on what I knew of her so far.

“Will you kill me if I become someone who’s not worth the trouble or if I get in the way?”

It bothered me that she felt the need to ask me the question, but I sensed it wasn’t because she felt threatened by my presence. She wanted assurances on her protection.

“Like I mentioned to you earlier, women are off limits. So are children. It’s a rule we follow in this family, emphatically. There are ways we can punish you without inflicting bodily harm or causing death. However, if we promise to protect you, we will do it even at the cost of our own life.”

She folded her lips into a tight knot, fighting a smile, but unable to keep it from shining in her eyes. She liked my answer.

“I appreciate your answer. But shouldn’t it be a crime for you to insist on my involvement with you? Your life revolves around danger and death and adding me to the mix automatically makes me a target.”

“You make a good point that I have considered multiple times. However, you have to also consider that you could have been killed a thousand different ways leaving your house this morning. Being around me might be dangerous, but death will come when it’s ready, no matter your situation.”

At that statement, the room grew silent, and the noise of our steady breaths came alive. The light crinkle around her eyes disappeared before she inhaled and released on a long, steady breath.

She was still in the process of putting order to our situation in her head. I was done with the reasoning behind it all. She had grown on me already, and in addition to procuring her safety from the murderous spy in my family, I’d already decided that I wanted her for good.

“Always remember this,” I said, recalling something I needed her to know. “If you’re ever in earshot of me, and I start a countdown. I need you to do whatever you need to do to get down, get out of whatever path you may be in, or run like hell because someone is more than likely about to die or something is about to blow up.”

She nodded and her unblinking eyes lifted in thought.

“Nevah,” I called, my tone low, my gaze locked and pouring into her.

“Yes,” she answered, her brows pinched.

“Three. Two. One…”

Her eyes twitched before recognition flashed in them. She let herself drop to the floor and assumed a prone position, covering her head with her arms.

A big grin broke out over my face, wide enough to make my cheeks ache. I was never more proud of anyone than I was of this woman at this moment. I bent to help her up, the smile on my face greeting her when she looked up and grasped the hand I offered.

“You are a woman after my heart,” I told her. “You listen to me, better than some of my men,” I complimented.

The sight of the smile I put on her face did strange things to my damn insides. I ignored the urge to rub my chest all of a sudden and focused on adding to her self-protection portfolio that I prayed she would never have to use.

A crash course on how to operate the surveillance equipment followed, allowing her to see a 360-degree view of the house’s exterior and of various rooms inside the house. I proceeded to instruct her on how to lock herself inside the safe room while pretending not to feel the effect she had on me.

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