Page 65 of Did My Heart Love Till Now?

Tears plunged from my eyes as I rested my head on her shoulder, making eye contact with Gavino. A pleased look appeared on his face, and I knew he would have smiled any other time. His gaze turned toward my brother and he jerked his head to the other room. Gavino lifted his eyebrows at me as he pointed to the other room. I nodded.

As the guys disappeared, his mother pulled away and Chiara sashayed over. It was a bit intimidating. I shifted my weight, preparing for his sister to lash out at me. She was known for being fiercely protective over her older brothers.

She opened her mouth, smiling. “Mom, remember when I was studying abroad?”

“Yeah, why?” She groaned.

Chiara squinted at me. “Is he still single?”

Since my office is on the front of the house, I led Joey and Nick to the library. It faced the side garden, and the light was already on so it would not further cause suspicion. The curtains were closed and thick so none of our shadows would be detected. I closed the door and spun to them.

Joey was opening drawers, digging through them.

“What are you doing?”

“There’s burner phones in this room somewhere.” He pulled three phones out. “Ah, here they are.” He marched over and tossed us one. “Turn them over.”

Nick and I turned them over and peeled the stickers off the back.

“They’re already programmed.” He marched to one of the built-in bookcases and slid the books to the side. “This. 4492 is the code.”

“For what?” I slid the phone in my pocket and folded my arms over my chest.

Suddenly the wall of books moved forward, revealing a massive stash of weapons I never knew about. I had read in this room many times and not once had I ever come across anything like this. My eyes widened.

“You didn’t know about this?” Nick nudged me in the side with his elbow.

Silently, I shook my head. “Joey.”

He stopped and spun around.

“Yeah?”

“I need you to call the leaders and get them here. I don’t think anyone knows we’re here or they would have been here by now. Tell them to use the back entrance and turn their lights off when they come up the driveway.”

“We need to warn them about him.” He glared at Nick as if for a moment his hatred returned.

“I’ll handle that.” I growled. “Just get them here ASAP.”

Nodding, he sauntered to the side of the room with the burner phone. I pivoted to Nick. He puffed his cheeks out, sighing.

“They’ll be fine.” I assured him.

He shook his head, resting his hands on his hips. “More worried about my own people. They’ll turn on me.”

“Then you’ll just have to join us.”

“Ha, good one.” He murmured under his breath.

As Joey mumbled on the other side of the room, I thought through my plan. I overheard him giving them some protocol reminder. Soon, he hung up and ambled over. “Okay, they’ll probably all be here in twenty.”

Nick clutched his pocket and rolled his eyes. He pulled his own phone from his pocket and held it in the middle of us. He swiped the screen.

Alphonse. I called out before anyone could say a word.

Gavino, nice job escaping that, but not everyone did.

Now was not the time to worry about Bellagio. I barely knew him. He was expendable to me. It seemed like Alphonse did not have me figured out as much as he thought he did. A low laugh reverberated in my chest. Alphonse, I don’t give a fuck about Bellagio.

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