I set my coffee down again and crossed my arms. Defensive and annoyed, I watched him and again wondered if I was in too deep. Too far. Because he had the unique ability to piss me off and turn me on at the same time. With just his smirks and his dominant attitude, I wanted to linger and explore this connection with him.
“You’re not dealing with anyone. What are you implying? That I’m someone special in your world? An agent or spy?” I laughed bitterly and shook my head. “I haven’t even been here to besomeone yet. I just moved to the States not even a month ago. I’ve only just started at that hospital. This is supposed to be a stop on the way to a mission overseas.” When he only watched me calmly, I scowled. “What the hell do you think I could possibly know or represent?”
Before he could clarify, I pushed my chair back, ready to leave. It was one thing for him to trespass in my room last night and make me feel so good. This invasion into my life now, with this conversation, wasn’t so great.
“I have no connections. I don’t know any of you Mafia people. I’m a stranger tossed into your twisted world. And no matter how much I enjoyed last night, I’m not going to stay here.”
“What about Jack?” he asked, cutting to the chase.
My impulse to leave the room died out.Jack?He had my attention. “What?”
“Jack Harroun.”
“My coworker?”
He nodded. “What do you know about him?”
“Nothing,” I blurted incredulously. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I don’t know anyone. I don’t have any secrets or confidential news for you.”
Yet, once I replied, I wondered if I were a liar.
I didn’t know Jack all that well, but I had observed him at the hospital. Clamming up and hoping that Mikhail couldn’t detect that I was holding back, I thought back to how Jack had been talking to those Italians. How Jack had wanted to have Mikhail arrested before he’d regained consciousness.
“He is a doctor, like me. He’s been at that hospital for a while. He was there that first time I saw some of your men.”
He nodded slowly, as if waiting to see what else I’d share.
I shrugged, frowning as I replayed the memories of that day at the emergency department, my first experience with these Mafia families and the violence they represented.
“The day that restaurant was bombed,” I added.
Again, he nodded.
Furrowing my brow, I relived the fear of falling down to the floor after that drunk thug knocked into me. How he’d almost kicked me.
“That was you.”
He didn’t reply.
“When that guy was about to kick me?—”
“A Giovanni,” he said.
“You’re the one who came up to keep him back.”
“As much as you want to paint me as the villain, Claire, I won’t stand by and watch you be harmed.” He stood, moving to leave the room.
“You didn’t know me,” I protested. How could he have cared? How could he have decided that I was worthy of his protection then?
“But I saw you. I noticed you in the middle of all that commotion. Professional and quick. Ready to help and give a shit about assholes who don’t deserve your sympathy.”
I swallowed hard as he rounded the table, staying on the opposite of it.
Reconciling this dangerous crime lord with the hero in my mind, I felt torn in half, twisted and so confused.
How was I supposed to even know what was safe or not anymore?
Under his touch and within the network of his resources, I was safe. I was unharmed.
