Page 20 of Little Sparrow

“I thought you would change your mind once we got to know each other better, see how good we would be together.” She whines, pulling her g-string up. My hands rest on my hips, and I can’t help but glare at her. “No, you knew. You had agreed. Discussion over.” At my dismissal, she pulls on the rest of her clothes.

I searched for Rose for an entire year. She had vanished, not to be seen by anyone. Presumed dead by everyone she knew. Her face was in the missing person's section for a while, but people gave up. She had no family left to fight and keep the case open. I refuse to believe she was dead, but I had no resources to find her without raising a flag to her name if anyone found out it was me searching for her.

Life around London goes on without her, and I am the only one who cares enough to search. A picture of her from the paper still is folded in my wallet. Not for me to look at regularly but to never forget her face in my moments of loneliness, still wondering what happened to her. Even her friend Jenny wasn’t helpful. I tried speaking to her again, but it was no use. She told me she couldn’t talk about her anymore and to move on so we can all grieve.

When I arrived back in Napoli, I was introduced to Karalina, a blonde with hazel eyes. A substitute for Rose. It was supposed to just be for one night to get Rose out of my system, but she became clingy, and I just needed the release, so we made a deal. We never kiss. I haven’t kissed anyone since Rose.

Karalina is only really good at sucking cock. She isn’t particularly great in bed. She just lies there like a dead fish. I imagine my Rose as a tight virgin who will ride me until the sun comes up. She’s probably not anymore if she is alive.

I need to end this shit with Karalina, but she knows too much about me now. She had met my uncle Tomasso when she came over unannounced at one of our meetings. Tomasso thinks we would be a good match to marry. I couldn’t hold in my snort of disgust at that. She is a mafia princess in San Marino. I found out about her too late, it’s possible this was planned, but I put my cock in her. Now I have to deal with the consequences.

With Karalina’s glare back, I shrug. It looks like I’ll be finishing myself off then. I slam and lock the bathroom door behind me so she can’t let herself in, begging to be fucked again.

I turn the dial for the large shower head and wait for it to heat, which doesn’t take long before I step inside the glass door and stoke myself. Closing my eyes, one hand leaning against the cool tile, I imagine Rose and me in that room, just us, as our kiss became so much more. I’m bending her over that small sofa in her apartment and pounding into her tight pussy from behind. The noises she makes are glorious, and they are all mine, every single one belonging to me.

My hand moves faster as I get closer, my balls tighten, and my whole body tenses just before I explode all over the shower floor. I don’t even hold in the moans leaving my throat as they echo in my bathroom.

Then the front door slams closed. I smile.

Now that she’s gone, I get out of the shower and prepare for the day. However, when my phone chimes and I check it, I don’t recognise the number, but the words make me freeze.

Unknown: Tua madre non verrà con te a pranzo

Your mother won’t be joining you for lunch.

My hands squeeze my phone until it almost cracks. We both agreed that one Saturday we meet every month for lunch when I visit Sicily. The Don of Cosa Nostra has been protecting her. My dad was trying to link up with them, but someone known to both of us, Matteo, was talking about dealing with my father, the drugs.

My mother never cancels, and now after two years of hiding, I think they have finally located us. Well, my mother has been found. I don’t know how they did it, but I will do anything it takes to get answers.

I rush to my gun safe and type in the code- the date Rose went missing,020821. My pistol will be needed. Someone wants to die. They took my mother, the last precious person I have. I refuse to lose another person in my life.

With my gun in its holster, my favourite hunting knife, which I named Reaper, hooked to my belt. I grab my keys on my way out the door.Always carry more than one weapon. My fingers glide along my phone screen with ease as I type in the codes for my garage.

My hand freezes on the door handle. He must have it. Father has the weapon. There were only rumours but never proof. Uncle Tomasso would surely let me take a couple of guards to help with it. I need to speak to him.

As promised, I’m going to destroy it.

Chapter seventeen

Rose

Calabria, Italy

Leorequestedmetojoin him in his study again, and a sinking feeling settled in my gut. He never calls me this close together between jobs. Maybe it’s my mum, finally. But I still doubt it.

I open both doors, entering the office but freezing as I see what’s in front of me. Keeping a forced smile on my face, I look between Leo sitting by the desk and the dark-haired woman in front of him, tied to the chair by ropes with a gag in her mouth. Tears stream down her cheeks as she thrashes against the rope, leaving friction burns down her arms.

“Rose, this is Sofia. I need you to find someone for me.” The woman shakes her head and pleads with her eyes. My head tilts. There’s something recognisable about her. Leo walks to my side and guides me to her without touching me.

“Sofia won’t give me the answers I need, so you have to look. She took away something very important to me.” I nod slowly as he expects me to, and then I look back at the woman and crouch in front of her. Her tears mark her face doing something inside my chest. She’s the woman in Matteo’s memories.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper so only she can hear before I grip the sides of her face, and her muffled screams fill my ears from around the gag. I keep searching to find the object Leo wants, not quite understanding when nothing important turns up.

The burn of my touch simmers as I stop. The memory of a young man covered in blood walking out a door that I know is in this house. The look on his face is one I had seen before. Like his humanity was gone from him just moments before. It’s Dante.

I pull back and search her eyes, not finishing what I need to do as she looks up at me, her bloodshot eyes staring into mine. I don’t need to be inside her head to know what she is most scared of. She’s his mother. Leonardo is Dante’s father. That’s why she looks so familiar, I’ve been drawing those eyes for the last two years.

The collar snaps around my neck while I’m still reeling from what I had seen. “Did you find him?” Leo demands to know, I give him a curious look. The first time I’m becoming defiant, risking my mother’s safety. He clenches his jaw. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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