Page 14 of Stolen Compliance

“That’s because you rely on traditional methods. I have everything under control. In fact, I thought I’d take the newbie with me. See how he handles pick ups.”

Teo bites his bottom lip but nods grudgingly. “Very well. The Boss wants me involved with assisting him. Do you want me along?”

“Do I ever?” Dominic retorts, drawing a blush from Teo. Dominic turns his head slightly and winks at me, shocking me thoroughly. “But I suppose we can make this game. Whoever impresses me the most wins.”

Teo’s expression changes from slightly hurt to anticipatory, a gleam I recognize well in his eyes. After all, there’s nothing a Martelli enjoys more than a challenge. And sure, he may be biologically a Martelli, but fuck knows I have the heart of one.

I swore after Lio, no more innocents. But if this is what it takes to bring them down, well, fuck knows I’m not going to be the one losing. Even if I’m not sure I’m ready to win whatever Dominic has planned.

Kidnapping…is not my favorite thing. Rather boring if you ask me, but Dominic laid down the challenge and I am nothing if not competitive. Though for picking up two innocents, it should be rather straightforward. Still, I don’t trust information I don’t gather myself. Call me old-school or traditional, but I prefer getting the lay of the land myself; easier to know what you’re working with and less room for errors. Dominic, of course, knows that, but he likes to bait me. I hate I walked into his trap in front of Luca. I’m going to blame it on the early morning and caffeine that had yet to hit my system.

I haven’t been on a university campus since my own college days, and I can’t say I miss it.

Thankfully, the daughter lives in an apartment and not the dorms. Still on-campus, but a bit easier to get to and blend in. She exits her apartment alone, not paying attention to her surroundings as she is busy looking at her phone, even as she closes the door behind her.

It’d be easy to snatch her now, but my instincts tell me to wait, so I watch as she begins walking away, and then the door to the apartment opens, a guy around her age stepping out with a pink bag in his hand.

“Babe!” he calls out.

The girl spins around and smiles when she sees him. “I did it again?”

He jogs over to her, saying something that makes her laugh as he hands the bag over. Her laughter is bright and carries over the distance between us. As I watch the unexpected boyfriend kiss her before making his way back to the apartment, I shake my head. This is why I like doing the groundwork myself. I don’t care if they only had a few hours to gather information, whoever put the dossier on the girl together missed something very obvious and important. I have half a mind to wonder if Dominic didn’t do this shit on purpose.

The girl’s smile drops as soon as the boyfriend is gone, and she attaches the pink bag—which I’m assuming is a lunch bag—to the satchel slung over her shoulder and continues on her way.

Stalking is ridiculously easy on a college campus. Enough people are milling around that blending in isn’t a problem. It helps I’m dressed like one of them in jeans and a T-shirt; casual and unassuming.

The girl makes her way to one of the coffee shops near her apartment, and I consider following her in, but too many people seeing me, even if witness memory is unreliable at best, is not a good thing. I’m not sure what rubric Dominic is scoring this task on, but I’m positive whatever bullshit standards he has are going to be impossible to meet either way, so I don’t worry about moving too quickly.

When my mark steps out of the coffee shop, face glued to her phone once more, I step into her path, pretending to also be busy with my phone, clipping her slightly.

“I’m sorry.” I make myself sound contrite.

She looks up at me, and whatever indignation she might have had because of being knocked into disappears when she meets my eyes. Her cheeks flush, and her glossy lips drop open a bit before she finds her voice. “It’s fine. No harm done.”

“Still, I’m sorry. I really need to pay more attention—though I’m not sure how I didn’t notice a pretty thing like you.”

“Yeah…me too. Need to pay better attention, I mean.” She chuckles and shuffles on her feet a bit awkwardly, cheeks flaming red with embarrassment. I have to bite back my smile as she falls into the trap of my good looks perfectly.

I give her a bright smile. “Well, I better go. You have a good day.”

“You too!” she calls, giving me a little wave before she continues walking.

I wait until she turns a corner before following.

Wasting three hours of my life following my mark around is boring as fuck, there are plenty of other things I could be doing with my time, but this was the task that was set and I’m not going to rush it. Not with Luca and Dominic judging my every move. Both of them have more experience than I do, but I stopped letting that bother me long ago. Nothing good comes from comparing myself to others. Especially not when my way is usually so different from theirs.

The lecture hall for my mark’s third class of the day is up a set of concrete steps, and though it hurts at my pride a little, I let myself trip and fall down them, going faster than she is, so I land in her path.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?”

Groaning, I get up onto my knees and shake out my hand, checking the scrape on the heel of my palm. That’s going to sting for the rest of the day.

“Nothing hurt but my ego,” I say, looking up at her and feigning surprise when our eyes meet. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

She laughs, gentler than the one she gave her boyfriend this morning. “We do. You sure you’re okay?”

I stand and dust my pants off. “Yeah. Will probably be bruised, but what’s new. I’m a bit of a disaster, if you couldn’t tell.”