“They’re going to use this to kidnap wives, possibly daughters, girls, vulnerable women.”
“But wouldn’t that only work if people took these drugs?”Mia asked.Was her question stupid?Immature?Giovanni was confiding in her, and she was terrified of saying or doing the wrong thing.She hated this feeling.
“They don’t have to take it,” Giovanni said.“All you have to do is be near someone when they smash it in their face, hold them immobile for a few seconds, and it works fast.”
“Oh,” Mia said.“Wouldn’t something like this make news or something?”
Giovanni shook his head.“Not if there are only targeted people using it.”
“You think they’re coming for us?”Mia asked.
“There is a description that matches yours,” Giovanni said.
“Come on, that doesn’t mean anything.There are tons of girls who could match my description.”
“And yet, the man we found with it came to my place of business and started to stalk my employees.You can see the one circled that matches her description,” Giovanni said.
“Wow.What does this drug do?”she asked.“Does it make the woman compliant?”
“It completely knocks you out; however, I am not aware if the woman is even aware of what is happening when they do this.”
“I could take it,” she said.
He shook his head.“You’re insane.No, I am not allowing you to take it.”
Mia looked at the drug in her hand, and then at him.“Why not?I can tell you the aftereffects.You’re here, which means I’m safe, perfectly so.”
“No.”He took the bag of drugs from her, and Mia sighed.
“You’re never going to know unless we try it,” Mia said, and then handed him back the list.“You could trust me to at least do this for you.”
Mia didn’t see a reason to stay in the office, so she made her way out and upstairs toward their bedroom.Just when she thought they were taking one step forward, they, of course, had to take another ten back.
She trusted him, didn’t that mean anything?She had even offered to take a damn drug, and that meant nothing to him either.
What was the point of even trying?
****
Mia still wasn’t talkingto him, and Giovanni could live with that.All his soldiers could test the drug, but other than feeling groggy, they didn’t have any real side effects.For the Colombo Mafia, that was case closed.It was a drug designed to knock women out.
Only, something wasn’t sitting well with Giovanni.Some drugs could have targeted effects.What men felt might not be what women felt.He was not going to allow Mia to take that fucking drug.
Life had to go on.He had orders to follow, and some of those also meant going to nightclubs with his wife, meeting with suppliers of delicate products.Mia was used to this and tended to enjoy going out with him—at least recently, after she had escaped her guards to go to one of their nightclubs with her friends.Since then, he had taken her along, and she tended to love dancing.
Tonight, she was sitting, soda in hand, looking out across the dance floor.He didn’t have time to go dancing tonight.Business had to be dealt with, and if Mia wanted to act cold to him, then he didn’t need to say a word to her either.
Leaving their private booth, he knew her guards would be watching her, so he made his way toward the booth, where Leanne Arboritz, the daughter of one of the suppliers, was sitting, enjoying a drink.She wore a tight business skirt, crisp white shirt, and a matching jacket that went with the skirt.
She was a woman who did business.Negotiated drugs and guns for her father.His only son had proven to be too weak and had attempted to sell out the Arboritz Family.
“I see you could pull yourself away from your wife long enough for us to have this meeting,” Leanne said.
“I want to know why you insisted on this meeting being here?”Giovanni asked.
“Simple—my father has gotten some information that he finds distressing,” Leanne said.
“What kind of information?”
