Chapter 59: Chapter 59

◆ MILES ◆

12:09AM

"Found them?" I flumped myself on the sofa and didn't care for my impatient tone. It wasn't like I owed it to Niccolo to be polite. Niceness had left my common sense the second I found out Mykaela met up with Lorenzio again. Which was also why Niccolo came over.

The guy's expertise included digital networks, communication tech, and everything else in between. Luckily for me Niccolo had some time to spare this week.

"Relax." Niccolo chuckled. "They're probably just on a date."

Date? On a fucking plane?

Mykaela could be tied up in some hidden warehouse by now, helplessly waiting to be assaulted by a bunch of sociopathic criminals before they would have to chop her body into unrecognizable pieces.

"If you like her that much, why let her go back to New York?"

"What?"

"You're even sweating." Niccolo grinned at me again and resumed typing noisily on his laptop. "Maybe he took her somewhere private. Like, a cruise to a remote island or some shit like that. He likes brunettes."

"Cut the shit and find them."

"Then what?"

Dammit. The guy just couldn't shut his trap. I gripped my phone, ignoring the thought of punching some sense into his shaved head.   "I'll bring her back to her family in one piece."

"Yeah. Sure. But what about, after that?" Niccolo suppressed another grin and checked his computer again. His dark brown eyes focused on the bright screen, not even blinking.  Maybe he was close to figuring out Mykaela and Lorenzio's exact location.  "You gonna tell her to keep away from the guy?"

"I did."

"Bang-up job so far," Niccolo muttered with a sarcastic thumbs-up.  "You bring her back to New York, and then what? You're gonna get serious with her? Ask her to marry you?"

I shut my tired, stinging eyes and reclined on the couch, the bottle of pills in my hand ready and waiting to be emptied.  "The fuck do you want me to say?"

"Just saying...your mother's no stranger to your father's obsession with collecting young mistresses. But, twenty years later and she's still with him." Niccolo pulled a face. "I just don't get how and why some women put up with that shit."

Wow. This prick.  Did he just indirectly say I was no different from Pappa? "Shut up if you don't want me to shoot that thing into pieces."

Niccolo hugged the laptop to himself and laughed heartily at my threat, his smile showing his pearly whites. "Chill. Get yourself a drink," he muttered before he continued typing, probably hacking his way into satellites and Russian servers.

"What's it say?" I glimpsed the time on my phone. I just hoped Mykaela survived the night.  Make it through the entire week without a single scratch or bruise. My sanity and self-respect depended on it.

"Still en route."

"Best guess?"

"Based on their current trajectory, the jet might land somewhere in Serbia, Kosovo, or farther northeast. But that's still a few hours from now. Lorenzio might get some new ideas." Niccolo snickered.

"Reliable data? Who's your source?"

"You're funny." Niccolo's grin widened while his busy fingers typed away on his computer. "You know I actually kinda like it when you doubt my abilities."

While I imagined what Lorenzio was doing with Mykaela at the moment, my fist clenched again. "Just find her."

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◇ KEL ◇

3 new messages

"You with him?"

Received  21:37

"Stop ignoring me"

Received  21:52

"Where the heck r u going?"

Received  22:09

Four days of no contact.  And now this...

Like last time, it seemed so easy for him to accuse me of consorting with 'Mr. Dangerous',  berate me to conjure blame and guilt without even giving me a chance to explain my side of the issue.

How reassuring.

I bumped my forehead onto the cold window, watching the thick clouds that looked as gloomy as my current thoughts.

Missing someone who didn't give a rat's ass about my feelings—just plain idiotic.  Throwing a brand new phone out of a heavily guarded private jet?  Even more idiotic.

But it was all my tired brain kept imagining, just to keep myself from strangling someone due to repressed emotional stress.  That someone wasn't even here to begin with.

As I sat in silence in the Tomassinis' private plane, the long row of cabin lights slowly dimmed, reminding me of the time.  Midnight colored the horizon pitch-black behind thick clouds we sped through. All of which I could clearly see, now that we flew altitudes of almost 30,000 feet.

Proof? My phone had stopped buzzing furiously in my pocket. At last. Some peace of mind. I hugged my handbag and breathed out a sigh.

All I had with me were some clean clothes, a new phone I didn't even like, and dwindling hope that I'd locate the man I was looking for and be able to see and talk to him in person.

Yep.  I was eager to meet my real father.  I shouldn't bother, like Miles said, but...leaving the issue on a big question mark just didn't feel right.  I had to talk to the man face to face, ask him questions my mom had  wanted answers to ever since he left us just like that.  Something I thought was partly my responsibility.

Whatever means possible, I would get the closure my mom and I needed.  Hence this quick trip.

Another continent.  Another city.  Uncharted territory to me, but, I just couldn't bear the thought of passing up the chance to finally meet the man in person and figure out why Niccolo sent me those records.  Even if it would involve a casket and some mafia muscle I couldn't do without, I would do anything to find the man.

The Tomassinis...

Their clan might just be the biggest of mafia families in Europe today. Otherwise, Miles wouldn't bang on about me staying away from Enzo and his mysterious, influential Italian family.

Contacting the Falcos to confirm my suspicions would be plain stupid.  I'd rather pretend to be clueless than have to talk to Mr. Falco again.  The Italian police, the CIA, or the freakin' Interpol didn't need a reason to include me and my entire family in their 'Persons of Interest' list, and have my family under surveillance for the rest of our meager, working class lives.

Although hanging out with Enzo again wouldn't rid me of such odds, Enzo promised we'd be safe.  I still trusted his word.  And to make my goals happen, I needed all the resources I could line up.  That main resource I should be thankful for?

He now paced along the carpet with a satellite phone stuck to his ear,  his shoulders growing stiff and squarer by the second.  "Come again?  No. That wasn't what he agreed to." Enzo's louder voice unmasked the annoyance in his tone.

Who called him? Their lawyers? Or someone from the Falcos?

"Let's be perfectly—  Of course. Leandro specifically told me what they all agreed on and the terms that needed final revisions. Terms—not just one." Enzo's dark brows stayed furrowed for the next seconds.  "No.  I don't know. How many times are you going to ask me that?" He paused and let out a sigh.  "Perhaps. Try the island."

Who was on the phone with him? Were they arguing about his older brother?  I hadn't met the other Tomassini heir yet.  Nor was I sure I wanted to. Maybe I'd just send Leandro a short email, a signed Thank-You card, or something nicer...

Considering the facts Enzo had shared about his family, I surmised Leandro Tomassini was the total opposite of his younger brother. Not much of a people-person, to put it nicely.

"Twenty-four hours?" Enzo scoffed and placed the satellite phone over his other ear.  "Good luck. It's Monday; he's still in a mood."

Leandro's in a mood? Crap.  I wanted to slap my own forehead at the news.  Definitely not the best day to hijack—well, more like secretly borrow—his older brother's private jet and take it to enemy territory.

Better finish this covert mission in three days or less, then get this expensive plane back in the hangar without a single scratch.  Especially if I didn't want to piss off the Tomassini clan's current boss.

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