The trip home was uneventful, but she was shocked to see Giovanni’s car already parked in the main driveway of their country home.It wasn’t like him to get home early.In fact, it wasn’t like him to open the main door and make his way down the steps toward the car to greet her, yet here he was.
“Where were you?”he asked.
Mia frowned.“I went shopping.”
“Liana, Clarissa, and Tatiana arrived home hours ago.”
“And?”
“Where were you?”
She wasn’t used to this line of questioning, and it was starting to irritate her.
“I went shopping.Looking for some new clothes.What is the problem?”
Giovanni reached for her arm and attempted to pull her inside, but she wasn’t going with him.
“What’s going on?”
Every fiber of her being was telling her to not make a scene, not cause trouble, that this wouldn’t be good for either of them, yet she remained firmly still.Her mother had told her she must be a good wife.A subservient wife.A wife that didn’t make waves, didn’t want her husband to beat her.
Mia didn’t know everything that happened between her parents.Whenever they were together, her mother and father always looked powerful, strong.Like nothing was going to separate them.She had never seen her mother with a bruise either.
Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she attempted to focus on Giovanni.There were a lot of women within the Colombo Mafia that had to deal with their husbands using their fists to discipline.
“If you come inside, I’ll tell you,” he said.
This was new.Mia didn’t know if she wanted to know, but she found herself moving one step in front of the other, following him.
They didn’t go to the bedroom, where in the past he had distracted her from telling the truth.He closed the door and made his way toward his desk, but he didn’t sit behind it.Instead, he leaned against the edge of it and looked at her.
“There’s a problem,” he said, seeming to pause between each word.
“What is it?”she asked.This felt unreal.Giovanni was actually telling her there was a problem with the Colombo Mafia.
“What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room.Your friends cannot know.Just you and me,” he said.
Mia didn’t know if she could do this, but couples usually confided in each other.
She nodded at him and squared her shoulders.“You can tell me.”
Giovanni stared at her for a minute, then another, and another.She had no idea how much longer he was going to continue staring at her, and she was trying not to get unnerved, when he reached into his jacket pocket.
“This is a list,” Giovanni said, reaching out toward her.
Mia took another deep breath, grasped the list, started to read it, and frowned.“What is this?”
“It’s a list of women and girls.Their descriptions, to be exact.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Someone—or a gang, or perhaps those responsible for what happened last year—decided to attempt to capture our women,” Giovanni said.
She watched as he reached into his jacket pocket.
“And use this.”
Mia held the packet in her hands.She had never touched drugs before, and right now, it wasn’t making her comfortable.
