“Can I ask you a question first?”
He rolled his eyes, impatient. Then he nodded, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
“Why did you really punch Leo?” When I looked in his eyes now, I had a feeling it was because of something bigger than the obvious. “Is it really because of Claudia and me being a charity case outsider—”
“You’re not a charity case, and nobody here treats you like an outsider, Angelina. The second I opened my doors for you, you’ve become family.”
“Then why?”
His hands cradled my face, and he did that thing when he held me captive with his intense, piercing gaze. “Because he wants to take what’s not his.”
He kept saying that, but he never acted upon it.It’s time you speak, Don Bellomo.“But I’m not anybody’s, Tino,” I said, and his eyes flamed again. My heart thudded hard against my ribs. “Or am I?”
His right hand moved to the back of my head and plunged into my hair. His stare dropped to my mouth, and I fell to pieces. My lips parted with a quivering breath that clashed with the closeness of his. My heart did a backflip after another as he kept leaning forward. My eyes fluttered closed as I wet my lips, getting them ready for a moment I didn’t know I’d been waiting for all my—
“Scusi, Don Bellomo,” someone said, bursting into the office, brutally disrupting my life-changing moment.
Tino’s breath became distant, and his hands abandoned me completely. “Che cazzo, Michele?”
“Perdona, but you need to see this. It’s about Leo.”
Chapter31
Lina
“What do you mean he’s missing?” I sobbed. I couldn’t wrap my head around what Tino and the bodyguards were saying now.
After Michele came barging in earlier, he and Tino spoke alone for about fifteen minutes, and then Tino gathered me, Nicole and all his personal bodyguards to tell us the awful news.
“Leo eluded his bodyguards this morning, and he’s nowhere to be found at his regular spots,” Tino explained again.
“Maybe he went out of town?” I hoped.
“His car is still parked. He didn’t take the plane either,” Michele said.
“This is all my fault.Hemust have found him.Hemust have been at the restaurant and saw. Oh my God, Tino. I’m so sorry.Hemust have him.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions. Ifheor anyone had tried to take my boy in broad daylight, the guards would have caught them.”
“Broad daylight,” I mumbled, a pang in my chest. The way Tino said it reminded me of howhesaid it. Whyhesaid it. “That’s whenhesaidhewould...”Hewould find me in the dark, buthewould take me in broad daylight. “Oh my God.”
“Calma, Angelina. I’m sure Leo is just doing something even stupider than what he did yesterday somewhere. That’s why he eluded the bodyguards.” Tino directed his stare at Michele. “Have you tracked his phone?”
“It’s still switched off.”
“Check the airports. San Francisco flights in particular.”
“You think he’s going to the Lanzas?” Nicky asked.
“Yeah. Like I said, to do something more stupid,” Tino grumbled.
“Like breaking off the engagement.” Nicky massaged her temples, swearing.
My hand flew to my mouth, stifling a gasp. I didn’t know what was more dangerous. Leo being kidnapped byhimor going to the Lanzas to break off the engagement with the Mafia princess.
Either way, we were screwed. All of us.
