Page 65 of His Assistant

“I just need you to remember that I’m going to take care of this,” I tell her.

“Spit it out, Dominic,” she says, and I can hear the tears in her voice.

“Marco was taken,” I tell her. “Someone kidnapped him from the safe house.”

I hear the sob that rips through her chest. It’s so raw, I feel it tearing through my own heart.

“Sofia, baby,” I say gently, clutching the phone with both hands like it will somehow give her comfort. “He’s alive. We’re going to find him and we’re going to bring him home. Everything is going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that,” she sobs. “You told me you can’t guarantee anything. What if he dies?”

“I won’t let that happen,” I tell her. “I’m not going to rest until I bring him home.”

“I need to be there,” she says. “Give me the address.”

“Sofia, no,” I say with a frustrated groan. “You shouldn’t see this.”

“You can’t stop me,” she hisses.

“Chiara can,” I say. “She’ll keep you there until I get back. It’ll be better that way.”

“I’m coming,” she says, hanging up the phone.

I throw my phone for good measure. It makes me feel a little better, at least.

Nothing will stop Sofia, not even my anger. I go pick up my phone and find it oddly intact. I call Chiara.

“There’s no changing her mind,” she says when she picks up. “You might as well just send the address. I’ll come with her.”

“Fine,” I snap, hanging up so I can text it to her.

Thirty minutes later, their town car pulls up. By then the bodies are covered and moved closer to the alley, but the blood is still there. It clings to the pavement, seeps into the cracks, leaves a stain that will take professional-grade bleach to scrub out.

The car stops, and Sofia gets out before Bradley can open the door. Chiara follows immediately, one hand hovering near Sofia’s back without touching. Sofia stops when she sees the street. Her face drains of color. She looks at the men first. The covered shapes. Then the blood. Then the cigarette on the ground.

“What happened?”

I step toward her. She takes a sharp step back, shaking her head.

“How could you do this?” she asks in a harsh whisper. “How could you make a plan like this and not tell me?”

Chiara wraps an arm around her shoulder, soothingly rubbing her arm. “He’ll get your dad back,” she says quietly.

Sofia shrugs away from her, looking between the two of us.

“How can I trust you? Either of you? Did you know about this?” she asks, turning on Chiara.

“I only knew Dominic wanted me to keep you occupied tonight,” she replies. “I swear, Sofia, I wouldn’t have kept this from you.”

Sofia nods slowly before looking up at me.

“Don’t speak to me until my father is safe,” she says. “And if he’s dead, I want nothing to do with you ever again.”

She doesn’t give me a chance to respond. She turns back to the car, Chiara hot on her heels, and climbs inside. Chiara shoots me a dirty look before she shuts the door. A second later, the car pulls away. I watch the woman I care about more than anyone else drive off, and I know we won’t survive if I can’t get her father back.

25

SOFIA