“But still. Thank you.” She walks away with her daughter, scolding her for running off into traffic like that.
Leo approaches me with a look I can’t decipher. “You really just threw yourself into traffic to save that girl. Even I didn’t think to do that.”
“It was instinct. I saw she was in trouble and I had to help. I know what it’s like to be a little girl in trouble.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.
Leo tilts his head to the side. “Interesting. What do you mean by that?”
“It’s nothing,” I say quickly. “I was just happy to help that girl.”
“You really are a good person, aren’t you?” He sounds so surprised by that. I watch as his expression darkens. “Let’s go back home now.”
“All right.”
I study Leo’s face as we go to his car but I can’t make sense of it. Almost like he’s angry… at me? I’m not sure. But I don’t ask him more because the truth is that Leo is still a stranger to me and I can’t risk upsetting him and losing this job and having no choice but to return to my mother.
Leo
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Why does Emma have to be a genuinely good person? She threw herself into oncoming traffic to save that little girl without any hesitation. If Emma was as evil as her father and uncle are, she wouldn’t have done that.
It’s also become clear to me that she doesn’t actually know her father but I can’t figure out why. Her mother is a secret. Valentina Greco. My man, Danilo, made it clear to me that Valentina lived at that farm. So where is Alessandro?
Maybe, just maybe, Emma wasn’t raised in the world of the mafia. Maybe she knows nothing about it.
But when I did some digging, I found that Alessandro and Valentina are still married. She was married to him even when Giovanni killed all of Gabriel’s family. When Alessandro stood back and didn’t stop his brother from committing such a heinous crime.
Gabriel might have learned to move on because of his love for his wife but I can’t. Not when I know Alessandro is going to come back and cause issues for us. Keeping Emma with me is the only leverage I have.
But I just can’t seem to get myself to hurt her like I thought I was going to.
She’s just too… good.
And it’s becoming apparent to me that it’s not an act. That Emma is really just… Emma. A girl in need of help.
I am the last man who can help her but I can’t let her go. Not when I still need to use her as leverage.
Fuck. I don’t know what to do.
The last thing I should be doing is buying her dresses and taking her out to parks and paying her to clean my house and yet, she just seems so sad and alone that I can’t help but take pity on her. I may be a cold mafia man but I’ve always had a soft spot for a woman in need.
Thankfully, Gabriel calls me, distracting me from my thoughts on Emma. “Leo, you need to come to my restaurant. Now.”
“What’s going on, boss?”
“Alessandro is here. I need you with me.” He hangs up, not offering any more information.
I rush to Gabriel’s restaurant to find him seated in his back booth with a middle aged man. Gabriel’s guards stand on either side of him. Another one of Gabriel’s men, Rocco, is here as well. Rocco and I don’t always see eye to eye but we’ve been loyal to Gabriel for years.
He nods at me as I join him at his side.
“That’s Alessandro?” I whisper, nodding at the middle aged man in the booth.
“Yes.”
Alessandro looks to be around the same age as Rocco. Both men in their fifties… with daughters. Rocco takes care of his precious Luciana while Alessandro has Emma. Or does he? I still can’t figure it all out.
“You killed my brother,” Alessandro says to Gabriel. “That cannot stand.”
