Page 18 of Hot for Her Italian Mafia

I won’t let anything happen to her, not while her assailant is on the run, and I have no word of who sent him.

“Are you going to be there tonight, boss?” Antonio Romero asks. I almost lose him among the noise of the crowd.

The cell phone pinned to my ear is a cold reminder of what I’ve forsaken in my feverish pursuits of Josie. Yet, I couldn’t care less.

“I’ll be there. We have to prepare.”

“Yes, we do,” he says. His tone is laced with annoyance, try as he might to fight it back. Had he not been closer to me than a brother, I’d have taken his tongue for speaking with malice.

I can’t fully blame him, either. A few months with an absent leader will drive anyone to the brink of insolence. I’ve given myself and my attention to Josie, leaving my most trusted men to watch over my empire. No direction from their leader could easily be seen as a weakness, and in my line of work, weakness is a death sentence.

“The plan is still in motion, Antonio. We’re not going to back down.”

“You haven’t been showing up to the team meetings,” he says. I hate that term. A falsified title created by the tech nerds to subvert anyone who might be listening. We can’t speak clearly and straight anymore . . .

It’s why I hate this world's over-reliance on technology.

“I’ve been busy but make no mistake, I am still devoted to this company.”

I hang up the phone. Running around in circles on a conversation that was bound to happen is going to do my head in. I’ve got more important matters to attend to.

Josie’s been making rounds, moving from store to store and making small purchases at each one. Jeans and a T-shirt at one, a new handbag at another, but it’s her final destination that has my interest.

It’s a lingerie store with a fancy French name I dare not try to pronounce. Red and white signs hang from the windows, reading various percentages off for certain sets and last season’s stock.

Are you looking for something to impress me, my little lamb?

Lingerie might be nice, but I’d prefer to see her in nothing at all.

Josie moves from one display to the next, picking out various garments. A blue lace set, purple bra with a matching garter belt, a neon pink negligee, and finally a black body suit she’s awfully chuffed with. She heads into the changing room at the back of the store.

What I’d give to be a fly on that wall.

Time ticks on but Josie doesn’t seem to move. The woman at the front desk flicks her cell phone while the rest of the store remains empty. Each passing minute feels like an excruciating hour when Josie’s not in my sight.

And that’s when it hits me. What if something happened to her? Some elaborate con, orchestrated in the back hall of the lingerie store to get her nabbed? The notion may seem crazy, and it probably is, but I’d be a fool to assume she’s perfectly safe in there.

The first rule of this life—your enemies have as much right to play dirty as you do.

And I know better than most, rule number one is often played to its fullest degree.

I make my way into the store, willing now to break my silent watcher façade, to ensure my lamb’s safety.

CHAPTER 12

Josie

At first, I thought of him as nothing more than another face in the crowd with a striking resemblance to my man. Shaggy hair, an oversized hoodie, and a pair of wide-brim sunglasses were almost enough to conceal him. Almost. But I’ve spent too many nights observing every one of his features from toe to tip to be fooled so easily.

Still, I’ve gotta hand it to him. He wants to be my protector, and it seems this role has strayed further now than the sullen depths of the Sunken Sailor.

I don’t know when I decided to test his resolve. Somewhere between buying new shoes and a sexy dress for his eyes only. But where better than a lingerie store to make the move? Surrounded by erotic clothing with a fire aching in your loins, I’d break down my own inhibitions while my hopes are that Luca won’t have any left.

And so, after selecting a few sets, I disappear into the changing room. The shop is big enough, with counters aplenty, to make my disappearance easy, but still small enough to hear Luca if he enters and speaks to the woman behind the register. Not that she’s paying much mind to what’s going on, flipping through her phone and chuckling at whatever she sees.

Perfect.

I wouldn’t want someone alert here anyway.