“I’m good,” he said. “There’s a new rumor going around amongst the guys. Is it true that you’re fucking Gianni Cavetti?”
“What?” I huffed. “No. Where did you hear that?”
“It’s worked its way down from the top. Angelo saw you in his room. Word is, he’s using you for a bit of recreation,” Derek said. “I wouldn’t be caught dead speaking out against any of the bosses, but if he’s hurting you… ”
“Calm down,” I whispered. “Nothing of the sort is happening. When Angelo saw me in Gianni’s room, I was there doing my job. It was just poorly timed and Angelo goes to Gianni’s room so rarely, that the fact that the one time he walked in, I was there, must have seemed significant.”
“Yeah, but you ask me about Gianni a lot,” Derek said. “There’snothinggoing on?”
“Even if there was, which there isn’t, it wouldn’t be any of your business,” I quipped. “When I ask about Gianni or any of the Cavetti’s, it’s for my own gain and nothing else.” He looked me up and down like he wasn’t quite sure he believed me, but I didn’t care about that. As long as he could continue to give me the information I needed, nothing else really mattered to me. “Have you heard anythingotherthan baseless lies about me?”
“There’s something going on, but we’re being left out of it,” Derek responded. “Even Romeo, Marcello, and Savio don’t know. It seems like Angelo is working on something very quietly with Gianni alone.”
That made my stomach turn over. Angelo didn’t work with Gianni. The most Gianni got to do as it related to the business was grunt work. He delivered and dropped bodies. He didn’t get to know what was going on at the top.
“Okay,” I said. “Anything else?”
“No. It’s like I said. We’re all being left out.” Derek looked me over. “What are you planning to do with this information.”
“Store it,” I said. “At some point, there’s going to be an opening for me to get out and I want to take it. If I think that there's something big about to happen, maybe I can slip away in the fray.”
“You want to escape?” Derek said, taking a step closer to me. “Let me help you.”
“You can’t help me,” I said.
“I can. I could get you out of the house. I could take you anywhere you wanted to go.” He reached down and grabbed one of my hands and held it between his own. “We could go together. I could get on the straight and narrow. We could start a new life. After my years here, a boring, domestic life with a beautiful woman doesn’t sound too bad.”
I carefully pulled my hand free of Derek’s. “That’s not what I want.” The little bit of guilt that I had bubbled up in my stomach. “You’ve been very nice to me Derek, but that isn’t what I see for my life.”
He frowned. “Whatdoyou see? I’d give you whatever you wanted.”
I dropped my head, shaking it. “There are things I want that you can’t give me.” I honored him by looking up into his eyes. “I’m done requesting things of you. This isn’t fair.”
“No,” he said. “I’ll continue to get you any information I have.”
“You want more than I can give you,” I said.
“I don’t want anything.”
“That’s not true.” I set my hand on his face. “Thank you for everything up until now. Look after yourself. The man you work for is even more dangerous than you realize.”
I turned to walk away, hearing him call out, “Philippa,” as I opened the back door and made my way back into the estate.
Thanks to the hurt Angelo Cavetti had put me through, costing me my mother, and forcing me to work for his family, I was hardened to a certain extent, but Gianni kept my heart from freezing over. When it came to people like Derek, I wanted to be soulless and use them to my benefit, but at some point, my better human nature kicked in.
“There you are.”
I rounded the corner into the staff quarters and Alegna came rushing up to me. “I’ve been looking high and low for you.”
“I’ve just been doing my rounds,” I lied. “Just finished dumping some of the trash out back.”
“Well come on,” Alegna said. “Angelo has called an emergency meeting of the staff, and he noticed right away when you weren’t there.”
That made my heart drop into my stomach. Not just that an emergency meeting had been called, but that I stood out to him specifically. Whatever Angelo was up to, it was bound to haunt my nightmares for many days to come.
I receded into myself and kept my head down as I followed Alegna into the staff quarters. All eyes were on me as we walked in, and I quickly and quietly walked over to Angelo and bowed my head. “Apologies,Signore.”
“Take a seat,” he growled. I did just that, taking the nearest open spot I could find. “Now that everyone is here, I have a couple of things I need to say, and it is imperative that my words are followed without question.”
