Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Keeping me safe was Dominic’s job, though, and I’d assumed there were other men watching the house. Why hadn’t they seen anyone moving around?
My stomach growled, and I pushed back the covers. After moving through a series of stretches, I showered quickly and got dressed. Beatrice was in the kitchen, but there was no sign of Dominic.
“Is Mr. Marchesi in his office?” I had him pegged as a morning person. Or a not-sleep-at-all person. It was easy to imagine him grumpy and awake at all times, ready to snarl at anyone or anything that disrupted him.
“No, he probably won’t be around until the afternoon.”
“Did he go out?” My heart accelerated, and I realized I was terrified to be there without him. I guess I really did trust him to keep me safe.
“No, he had trouble sleeping, and he told me not to send him any breakfast.”
“Oh okay.” I’d called that right. “Do his injuries keep him from sleeping?”
Beatrice pressed her lips together like she was trying to prevent herself from revealing too much. “Mr. Marchesi wouldn’t like me to talk about his health.”
“Does he talk to anyone about whatever happened?”
This time, she studied me for a moment before responding. “That’s not my business to talk about either.”
“What can you tell me about him? Does he ever smile? Laugh?”
She shook her head. “Very rarely. Only around his sons or some of the rest of the family.”
“He has sons?”
“Yes, I suppose I can tell you that. I’m sure you’ll meet them and their partners eventually if you’re here with us for a while.”
“Whatever you tell me stays between us. I don’t have anyone else to talk to here, and I’m not allowed to communicate with anyone outside this house.”
“He has two sons, Valentino, who is married to an amazing man, and Vito, who is dating a hockey player. They’ve only been a part of his life for the last ten years, I believe.”
His sons were gay? That was interesting. “How old are they?”
“Late twenties, early thirties—in that range.”
So I was the same age or possibly younger than his sons. That should bother me more than it did. “I don’t suppose you’re going tell me why they weren’t part of his life as kids?”
“Their mother wasn’t Mr. Marchesi’s wife.”
“Oooh. That would do it.” I was intrigued and it lent itself to my theory that there was a hell of a lot of passion he’d walled up inside himself.
“Anything else interesting that you’re able to talk about?”
She tilted her head as she thought for a moment. “Why don’t you tell me what you know about Mr. Marchesi, and I’ll see what else I might be able to tell you.”
“I know almost nothing about what’s going on. I know that the man who was protecting me in New York—for unknown reasons, a man I’ve never met—sent me here because he trusted Mr. Marchesi to protect me.”
“I’m not supposed to gossip about the family, and I don’t know any specifics about your situation.”
“I’ll take anything I can get. Surely you hear things and see things. I can easily imagine he doesn’t spill his secrets.”
She laughed. “That’s true enough. His sons tell me more than he does, but you know, in a family like theirs, it’s dangerous to spill secrets.”
“A family like theirs? A family where the father is a former assassin?”
She started to say something else but stopped and nodded.
I narrowed my eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She glanced toward the stairs, pausing for a moment before saying, “I suppose you have a right to know. Lord knows what might go on here if you’re with us for a while.”
“Dominic told me he’d been an assassin, but he said that wasn’t his job now.”
“It’s not, but he still works for the family.”
“Do they have a family business?”
“Yes.” Her answer was hesitant.
What would their business be? They were clearly Italian, so— I froze. “Oh, no. I’ve not been sent to stay with the—”
Beatrice smiled. “Their family business is not exactly what you’d consider…typical.”
“Or legal?”
She shrugged.
“They’re—” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Mobsters?”
Again, she didn’t respond directly. “They have unique ways of making money.”
This was not good. Why was the FBI letting criminals protect me? Could I really trust X? What the hell was happening?
Beatrice laid a hand on my arm. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Mr. Marchesi and the rest of the family will protect you. You don’t have to worry about that. You are safe here. Safer than you’d probably be anywhere. I really shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, I’m glad you did, but I just…I chose to go into contract law instead of trial law because the stakes were lower, and now….”
“And now you’re here.”
“I had no idea. I just wanted to pass some information on to the senior partners. I would never have walked into the office if I’d known.”