9. Franco
9
FRANCO
K nocks sounded on the door, pulling me from staring at Chloe. I wished it could be so simple, that looking at her like this, expectant and letting her see the disbelief and suspicion in my expression, would tempt her to come clean and tell the truth. She used to do this same silent-question look with me, too, urging me to spill whatever I didn’t want to share with her. That was how well we used to read each other. How well we used to effortlessly operate on the same frequency.
Because something warned me that she wasn’t being honest. Not completely. The catch was that she’d gotten better at hiding herself.
I sighed and opened the door, letting Danicia in.
“Hi,” she said to Chloe before addressing me. “How are you feeling?”
Battered. Mixed up. Confused. But she wasn’t talking to me. I thought that letting Romeo question Chloe would be the breather I needed to handle being in her presence again. It wasn’t. After losing my control and sleeping with her, I needed more than a breather. I needed my head set back on right again.
“Fine.” Chloe raised her brows, suspicious of the tall woman who entered.
“This is Danicia,” I introduced belatedly. “She formerly headed up an ER department, but now she works for the family.”
“Ah.” Chloe clamped her lips shut.
“And I heard that you got knocked out,” Danicia said, not reacting to Chloe’s mild snark.
“It’s just a mild headache…” Chloe said.
“Humor me,” Danicia said. “I’ll take a quick look and make sure there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I’ll be back,” I told the women. I doubted that they’d need privacy to make sure there wasn’t a concern about a potential concussion or anything, but it would be better if I stepped out.
As soon as I strode down the hall, I wondered what she could be hiding. Chole and I hadn’t seen each other for ten years, and a lot could happen within that time. From what she did share, some things didn’t add up.
Like why she moved so often.
Or why she wanted a job that paid under the table.
And how she managed to stay on the move without caving to her parents’ pressure to stay where they could control her.
I sighed, running into Andy and Vic, two guards who’d served the family for many years.
“Franco, we got a situation.”
I rubbed my face. “We always have a situation.” I didn’t mean to gripe, but right now, in the aftermath of seeing Chloe again and fucking her, I didn’t want to focus on work. I wanted to focus on her . On any remnant of us . I gave my life to Dante and the family, and I seldom ever allowed myself to be greedy and put myself first.
I knew what I was getting into when I signed up to serve the family, but today, I wanted a break.
“Sorry, sir,” Vic said.
I waved him off. “What is it now?” I hadn’t stopped concentrating on the A&J Deli shooting yet. This was the way of the Mafia life, though. “Situations” came when they did and often overlapped. Life was never dull around here.
“The Giovannis are trying to get into the gambling rooms at the Hound and Tea building again,” Andy said.
“Goddammit.” Dante and Romeo cleared those assholes out of there not long ago, but it seemed that the lesson hadn’t sunk in.
For the rest of the night, I assisted the men at the gambling rooms. It was late by the time I got back to the house Chloe was staying in, but that didn’t stop me from stopping in her room and checking on her.
She was asleep, lying in the bed with her limbs out. A small smile teased at my lips. She was never still in her rest, always moving and flopping around as the most restless sleeper ever.
I didn’t bother her, wanting her to be rested, but come morning, nothing would hold me back from questioning her and probing for whatever she was hiding. Because she was. I knew it.
The next day, though, she wasn’t available. She wasn’t in her room, and the housekeeper explained. “Miss Eva came by and asked Miss Chloe if she’d like to have breakfast in the big house.”
“Thanks.” I yawned as I left. I slept like shit last night. I couldn’t blame my late night of supervising the latest “situation”. I could fault Chloe for keeping me tossing and turning, though.
At the house Dante shared with Nina, I found Chloe nestled in with the other women. Nina, Tess, and Eva all chatted with Chloe. It seemed like a women’s sort of gathering, so with a quick glance at Chloe, I grabbed some coffee and a pastry to find the boss.
I didn’t get far. Danicia crossed paths with me and acknowledged me with a lift of her chin. “Franco. Good morning.”
I bit into the pastry. “Uh-huh. Morning.” I wasn’t ready to consider it a good one yet. I was tired, and I had no further information or hunches on what Chloe could be hiding from me. Her return in my life was sudden and conflicted, but I was too uninformed and that was never a good feeling.
“She seems fine,” Danicia said, knowing without my asking what I’d want to hear. “Nothing to worry about physically.”
“Good.” I stepped forward but stopped again. “What do you mean?” Why’d she emphasize physically ?
“Well, she’s so guarded, I can’t say for certain the trauma of what she went through isn’t making an impact on her.”
I frowned, hating that she’d suffered through it at all. Chloe was too good, too sweet to have the difficulty of a violent life. I knew that back when we dated, too. It was the hardest part of trying to convince her to give me a real chance.
“Please let me know how else I can help,” she said before we parted ways.
I would. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for Chloe. Even if I despised how she’d broken my heart, I could never want her to suffer. Seeing her slightly less frosty with the women in the kitchen warmed my soul, but after hearing what Danicia said, I wondered if she was just covering up her problems.
She was covering something up, and I wanted to know what.
I reached Dante’s office and found Liam sitting there. Romeo as well. It looked like they’d brought their breakfast in here. Liam extended his leg to shove out another chair for me to take.
“We found her purse at the deli,” Liam said.
“Oh, yeah?” I raised my brows. “Anything of interest?”
“That depends on what you’re looking for,” Liam said.
I glanced at Dante, feeling the weight of his stare. He would’ve remembered who Chloe was to me. All those years ago, I went directly to the boss himself for reassurances that Chloe could move in with me. He promised, of course, that my significant other would be protected the same as the rest of the Constella Mafia women were. It hadn’t made an impact on persuading Chloe to stay with me, though.
“I’m looking for the identity of who shot up that deli,” I replied, as I was expected to. If Dante was waiting to hear me say that I wanted to pursue leads on Chloe, he’d be waiting until his death. I didn’t need to vocalize that I wanted her again. It should’ve been implied.
“Do you think Chloe is involved with the shooting?” Liam asked.
I shrugged. She was hiding something from me, and until I knew what, I couldn’t be certain in my answers. I wouldn’t let anyone torture the truth out of her, and no one would try, knowing who she was to me.
“Her purse had cash, a ChapStick, two mechanical pencils, and a dying phone.”
I raised my brows at Liam. “No ID? No cards?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“That’s it?” I asked. That didn’t sound right. “What’d you find on the phone?”
“Nothing.”
I deadpanned at him, then glanced at Romeo and Dante. They didn’t react, clearly having heard this odd detail already before I entered. “Nothing?”
“No call log. No contact lists. It’s a very limited model of a smart phone, and there is no browser history, apps, pictures, anything. There is nothing on that device.”
I shook my head. “How?” Frowning, I followed up with, “Why?”
“Seems like it’s a burner, or she’s using it as one.” Romeo shrugged. “Maybe she’s on the run?”
“What, from her parents?” I scoffed. Judge and Mrs. Dawson were pompous pricks. They’d see to her staying on the right side of law and never having to hide a criminal history. That right there was why they were so against my dating her, against us loving each other in our youths. I was that “bad Mafia boy” who could never be good enough for her.
“I can see why you two didn’t hook up. Or stay together.” Liam whistled.
I huffed a dry laugh before I sipped my coffee. “You look her up?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I figured it was fair game, seeing as she’s the witness in this case of the shooting.” Furrowing his brow, he got more serious as he watched me. “And after I saw how numb you went yesterday when you saw her, I thought it would be wise to be as informed as possible. In case you are too close to her and all of this to remain impartial to what’s happening.”
“Franco can and will stay diligent,” Dante answered, speaking for me. He was right, but I felt a tug of guilt too. I’d never had to choose between Chloe and serving the family. I found a way to have the best of both worlds by asking her to stay with me as I began my career for the Constella name. She was the one who ultimately chose not to be with me.
I couldn’t help but glower at Liam. I wasn’t mad that he looked into her. I expected that sort of due diligence from him, the same as Dante knew he could count on it from me. I didn’t care for his implication, though, that a large enough obstacle stood in the way between Chloe having a future with me.
“We loved each other, though,” I told him, not shy about speaking the truth. “Or so I thought.” She couldn’t have cared that much when she opted to run from me. “And that love should’ve been stronger than her parents trying to control her life.”
No one argued me there, and I was grateful when Romeo changed the subject, sort of. “We gave her the purse at breakfast, but perhaps we can trace her calls if she uses it.”
And hides using it. Why else would she go so far as to cover her calls and have damn near what amounted to a burner?
I was due more answers, and I resolved to ask her again for the total truth after I finished my coffee. I nodded at him. “If she’s hiding something, we’ll figure out what it is.”
“Agreed,” Liam said. “I’m hoping to ride along with you to the warehouse, though.”
I furrowed my brow. “Why? What did I miss?”
“A few more Giovannis were fucking with another business,” Dante said. “Stefan’s getting really desperate, thinking he can mess with us all over the goddamn city like this.”
“But you still don’t think Stefan’s behind that shooting at the A&J?” Liam asked.
I shook my head. “I think something else is up.” But I chugged the rest of my coffee and set the cup down near the other empty ones near where Dante’s kitchen staff would come by and pick them up. “Come on. Let’s go check out whoever’s at the warehouse.”
Because after, I had a date to get answers out of Chloe. It wasn’t until hours later that I had a chance to do so. Liam ended up sticking with another soldier while I returned to the house where Chloe was being guarded.
I couldn’t shake the suspicion that she might have an idea who shot up the deli she’d just started working at. Without any way to track much of her recent history, it seemed more and more likely that she could know what happened. Our hackers had no info. She was lying low, it seemed. Working jobs under the table. Not using credit cards.
Who are you hiding from?
I had yet to dismiss how she'd clammed up earlier. As I walked down the hall toward her room, I slowed in my steps, catching the sound of her voice through the door.
“I miss you too.”
I stopped. Going still, I held my breath and wondered if I heard her correctly.
You miss who? The affection was clear in her voice, and I hated the instant flare of jealousy that streaked through me. Who the fuck is she talking to?
“I don’t know, Caleb.”
Caleb? Did I hear that right? It sounded like she said Caleb , but maybe it was something else, distorted with the muffled sound traveling through the closed door.
Did she say Caleb? Is she talking to another man in there? No guard would’ve let anyone inside, and I knew she had to be using her phone that was returned.
My heart broke again. Whatever solid piece of it that remained shattered with her speaking to a man with such a loving, caring tone.
I didn’t wait. I turned the doorknob and entered, catching her in the act of swiftly lowering the phone from her ear and hanging up.