“But,” Val says, her blue eyes drooping, “I doubt my brother will agree to a live-in governess.”
“Oh no.”
She cackles evilly and playfully. “Too bad he’s on a business trip for the next two weeks.”
“Yay,” I say, hoping it’s okay to joke with her. In my imagination, after I bounced on the chair, I picked it up and thrust it into the air like a trophy. Alessio isn’t due home for two long weeks. Maybe my luck turned.
Val claps her hands. “When Alessio gets back, perhaps you could help me talk him into keeping you at the house? It would be super helpful to have someone take over most of the care for Leo as I prepare for the arrival of the twins. Alessio and I will need all the help we can get, and I want Leo to have someone just for him while I tread some…dangerous waters.”
Dangerous waters? God knows what this woman’s into. She looks like a cute cupcake, but one never knows. I look like an average tourist, but I slept with her brother and landed a job in his house so I can spy on him and his family.
I doubt I can help her convince Alessio to let me stay. My stay is all on her. Well, maybe not. Maybe by the time Alessio returns, Val will find me indispensable, and he’ll forget about our one-night stand and not even remember me.
Three weeks since meeting someone is a long time, isn’t it? A person can forget a face. Both of us drank that night. We weren’t trashed, but we were nicely buzzed, so it’s possible.
“I’m not sure what I could say to your brother that would make him want to keep me here, but I’ll do my very best with Leo.”
Val chews her inner lip. “You know what? We won’t say anything. If you do your job well, Leo will say something to Alessio, and Alessio won’t refuse him.”
In two weeks, I could find the information the sadist wants and disappear before Alessio discovers I was even here. In the meantime, my life is in the hands of a child. Leo seems polite, but again, he’s just a child.
SEVEN
TWO WEEKS LATER
Lake
After the day of my interview in Alessio’s office, I never gained access to it again. With Alessio gone, I haven’t informed the extortionists of anything they find useful. Hence, I’m sporting another bruise under my ribs from the bitch who keeps treating me like her damn punching bag.
If I thought I could take her down, I would, but she’s about six feet tall, thick, and has a hell of a right hook she uses indiscriminately. I’m five foot five and dislike violence second only to confrontation. I’m the type of person who would pick up Leo’s crayon and draw a peace sign on her forehead so every time she looks in the mirror, it serves as a reminder to restrain herself and stop slapping me around.
I’ve never hated anyone in my life (not even my ex), but she might be my first.
I’m trying not to hate her, though.
I make excuses for her based on my understanding of her motivations, and I can’t help but wonder if I could do what she’s done to me if I believed someone had hurt my baby brother. The sadist and the woman claim that Alessio ordered the execution of more than a dozen men, and she wants Alessio and the killer to pay for it.
They claim Alessio operates one of the most powerful criminal intelligence organizations in the world. His business structure is unlike the traditional criminal organizations normally formed in various parts of the world, which is why nobody can pin him down.
The sadist tried to explain Alessio’s organization structure and reach, but I didn’t understand much of what he said because the extent of my criminal activity goes as far as speeding on a highway. The cop busted me, and I paid a stiff fine.
I couldn’t even get away with a free pass on a highway. How does a man busted for multiple murders he turned himself in for vanish, never to be found again?
I must admit that the extortionists have a case. It’s just that they’re hurting innocent people trying to prove that case, and they might hurt Val, who is pregnant with twins. And they might hurt the little boy who reminds me so much of my little brother (who they are following daily). I have no choice but to do whatever they ask of me.
I put my life on the line. If Alessio is who they say he is, he’ll kill me if he ever finds out I’ve infiltrated his house for the purpose of sharing information about him or his family. I know this like I know how to spell lasagna. Leo explained why there’s agin the wordlasagnaand told me thegis not silent after all, but a part of a sound Italians make that’s spelled as agn.
“The caterpillar story is better,” Leo says, blue eyes droopy. He’s almost asleep, and I’m mentally preparing for my long soak in the tub.
When I first asked for a live-in position when Val hadn’t expected to hire a live-in governess, I thought she’d put me in a spare guest bedroom. Val offered me an entire guest house and the use of the pool in the courtyard between the mansion and the guest house.
The Angelinis have their own cosmetics and beauty lines, so I also get to sample different products Val asked me to test. If it wasn’t for all the hazards and life-threatening stuff, this might be the best job I’ve ever had. And that includes the awesome travel gig I landed with my New York magazine, which paid for my trip here.
Alas, they fired me when I didn’t return. Didn’t even grant me a leave of absence when I finally contacted them a week after not showing up for work with the articles I promised about the island. They asked for them, but I couldn’t finish them.
I had planned to finish writing about the island on the flight back, and now I’m unable to write because of how stressed I am about spying on the Angelinis.
Leo nudges me with his foot.
