CHAPTER 24 JARED #7
"It was," I say through a throat so dry it barely lets the words out.
But now that I finally see the bigger picture, the confusion gives way to frustration. I have to let it out. I have to.
I turn toward Mauro.
"Why so many secrets, Mauro? Why didn’t you just tell me all of this, if you…
knew I was your True Mate?" My voice trembles, pain and anger mixing inside me.
"I had no idea I had found my fated mate, and you let it stay that way.
And the fae thing, you kept that secret for so long…
I hated myself for being a slut who jumps from one man's arms to another within a matter of hours.
And now this? The mafia…" I rub my face frantically.
I can barely see through my tear-filled eyes.
Everything is blurry, and I can barely make out Silvio's shape and Mauro's hunched figure, bent almost in half.
"Are you afraid of someone in the mafia?
Are you hiding from someone in their ranks?
Veyron was right! Something about your identity didn't sit right with him, and I brushed it off…
Gosh, I was so naive. I thought I'd finally hit the jackpot, but you have secrets…
and this is just the tip of the iceberg! "
I scrub at my eyes, trying to clear my vision.
Silvio presses his clasped hands to his chest.
"This is my fault, child. I was the one who talked Mauro out of telling you from the very beginning.
Maybe I was wrong, but I believed it would be better if the two of you got to know each other first and came to like each other, before all of this came crashing down on you in one enormous, overwhelming information dump. "
Mauro finishes typing, and the synthesized voice reads his message aloud.
"I apologize, Jared. I didn't want you to feel like you'd walked into this house with no choices left. I wanted to give you time to process everything, and above all, time to get through heat recovery first, because I saw how difficult that period was for you."
"Are you a mafia soldier?!" The question bursts out of me in a voice full of pain.
Silvio lowers his eyes, while Mauro types his reply.
"That depends on what you mean by the word 'soldier'. In one sense, yes. I was trained to be one. In another sense… I'm something more."
"More? More than a soldier?"
Silence. Then he slowly nods, looking absolutely defeated.
My lips tremble. Silvio’s eyes stay lowered to the floor.
"More like a… mafia prince?"
Still, silence.
Then another, short nod.
"Damn you!" I scream, but the very moment those words resound in the room, Mauro's phone lets out a sharp, piercing alert.
He snatches it up, quickly checking something, swiping across the screen and switching between whatever has just appeared.
Silvio looks up at him, his eyebrows shooting upward. Then he closes his eyes for a brief moment before speaking.
"Is it what I think it is? The forest just told me that—"
Mauro gives a sharp nod.
Then he's on his feet.
He bolts out of the room like a man possessed, and I jump up too because there's no way I'm letting all of this end here.
Silvio's words from earlier about me needing protection keep echoing inside my head.
I reach the doorway just in time to see Mauro pulling several things out of his closet, and the sight of them makes my entire body shake violently.
The first is a gun belt that he fastens around his waist in seconds. The second is something I never expected to see in the modern world.
It looks like a samurai katana, and he straps it across his back with a harness running diagonally over his chest.
"What's happening, Mauro? Tell me!" I cry out, fear cracking my voice. "Tommy's supposed to come here tomorrow. Is it safe?"
Mauro turns toward me and notices me standing in the doorway. He looks like he's in some kind of trance; his eyes have changed. They're darker now. Harder. More dangerous.
He signs several quick gestures toward me, and somehow… I know exactly what they mean. I don't know how, but I can feel it.
He's ordering me to stay here.
Then he slips past me and sprints down the stairs.
I rush to the window, and a moment later I see his Jeep tearing out of the driveway with its tires screaming against the pavement.
Shaking all over, I return to the room, expecting Silvio to still be there.
He isn't.
I run downstairs.
"Silvio?!"
I search every room in the house, but no one's there. Not Renato. Not Emilio. Not Tony.
"What the hell is going on?!" I shout, nearly out of my mind as I race from room to room.
The house seems empty.
Silent.
There's nobody here.
But why? What happened?
Panic closes around my throat.
I grab my phone and, with trembling fingers, send a single text to Alex.
"Take Tommy NOW and go straight to Bay's. Don't leave his side until I text you that it's safe."
My hands are shaking so badly I can barely shove the phone back into my pocket.
At that exact moment, I hear a quiet throat clear behind me.
I turn around.
Every drop of blood drains from my face.
Rocco Ferro is standing behind me.