Chapter 61: Chapter 61

Belgrade, Serbia

◇ KEL ◇

"Stop staring."

I blinked at the guy wearing a black button-down and a frown, my senses almost recovering from the numbing shock. The guy's warning snapped me out of the daze almost instantly.

Was I hallucinating? Or was this just a nightmare?

"Act normal," Niccolo mumbled. A sigh of what I could tell was annoyance was his initial reaction to my speechlessness. He even scowled at me as if my utter shock bothered him a great deal.  "Wanna eat something else? Drinks?"

I couldn't stop the palpable throbbing in my chest. As if the sight of a dead man asking me what I'd like for brunch wasn't traumatizing enough, the guy even poured me a glass of water, his movements impressively calm and casual.

"Sorry." Niccolo leaned forward so we could resume talking quietly.  "You good to talk?"

I distractedly glanced past the large crowd around us. Natural light streamed through the large glass windows, and the huge maroon draperies mostly hid the faces of Enzo's armed bodyguards just waiting outside for me.

I didn't care about that right now, though, or the fact that Enzo let me explore the city alone so he could take care of some "urgent errands".  What held my entire attention was the supposedly decapitated corpse sitting at the other side of the table, about to share a meal with me.

"I didn't come here just so I could watch you stare at me all day, Kel." Niccolo drank some water and ignored my steady gaze.

Every part of me just felt restless I could barely sit still.  "What'd you expect? We thought your head was chopped off," I whispered with caution, my intakes of breath still shallow and audible.

Why was he here instead of Andrej Dudek?  And how did he even know I was here in Belgrade with Enzo?  Did he hack into my emails? Phone? Was he keeping track of my activities or Enzo's movements? Or both?

"Did he just leave you here? In the city?"

"N-No." Was he referring to Enzo?  Most likely.  "Two guards waiting outside." I sat up straight, trying not to mind the unexpected chaos jumbling my thoughts.

How was he alive? Did Nicco fake his own death? Or did Enzo's contact in the Serbian police force lie to us? Did Enzo lie to me? No. He wouldn't. Or did he?

Drats.  I might just be the stupidest person to ever exist.  "We all thought you're dead. Did you... Does your family know?"

"Just a little misunderstanding," Niccolo muttered.

"Have you even called them?" I retorted through clenched teeth.

"One of these days," he replied coolly. "They'll get over it."

"Why not just tell them?"

"So they'll stay safe."

Safe.  I squinted at the word. He wanted to leave his parents totally in the dark, losing sleep and constantly in pain, just to keep them "safe".  Exactly like what Miles was doing to me.

Great. Just great.  Did Miles know Niccolo was here? To meet up with me and warn me about something? What did Niccolo know about my biological father? Was Ilija actually alive?

"Where's Andrej Dudek?"

"I'm Andrej Dudek," Niccolo said with a grin that slightly narrowed his beautiful dark brown eyes.  "Why?"

I shook my head. For a moment, I mentally cussed at myself and my cluelessness. So he tricked me all this time. But why pretend to be someone else?  "Why? I don't get it."

"You will. Just take it easy," Niccolo advised with a small smile that made him look less mysterious and a bit friendlier.

Perplexed, I kept a comment to myself and tried not to scowl at his vague replies.

The stiff silence prolonged the tension until the waiter brought the food he ordered for us.  The second we were left alone again, Niccolo resumed our conversation, but he shifted to a more serious subject I wasn't quite expecting.

"The Tomassinis finance a human trafficking syndicate, high-priced escorts, a drug ring,  that kinda deal.  Those assholes aren't screwin' around with small-time crooks.  Once the merger's settled, Leandro will be running the whole show with Stefano using the Falcos' shipping business."

"What?"

"Make perfect sense to you now?" Niccolo muttered. "Would've warned you better if I had enough evidence. I don't. Not yet."

Evidence? Did he mean he was investigating the Tomassinis and the Falcos? Including Enzo? So, Enzo was directly involved in dirty businesses?

"And I especially don't wanna end up mangled in a shark's belly." Niccolo chuckled and slightly rubbed his shaved head.

"That's not...something you just throw around to spite someone you don't like, Nicco." I blankly stared at the plates of food on our table. My blood pressure must have spiked again. The ball of anxiety and disbelief  stuck in my throat just got bigger.

"Been working on it for months now. You can ask Lorenzio if you want. But I doubt he'd tell you the same."

Crap.  Did he mean Enzo knew about such business deals all along?  Therefore, Miles had to help ensure the merger's success, because his father was helping the Tomassinis with their gravely illegal underground operations?

"Quite surprised Maxim didn't tell you that about the guy's family." Niccolo grabbed his champagne glass. "Enzo's not clueless or stupid." He made a face. "But you look like you imagined something different."

"I...um...I didn't actually think his—"

"Should be more careful, Kel. Don't trust anyone that quick." Niccolo took his phone out and stared at the screen for a while, seemingly hesitating. The veins in his strong, angular jaw drew faint lines on his smooth, brown skin. He had tiny scars beside his lips and one above his left brow. Did he get into a fistfight recently?  "I gotta take this."

"Don't leave me here," I stressed with a frown. "Where you going?" I asked when he was about to get up from his seat.

"Fine. Be quiet." Niccolo held my hand to loosen my clenched fist on the table, his warm touch quite odd and unwelcome. The buzzing of his cellphone stopped once he put his phone against his ear.  "Nyet. Poterpi." It was all he said before he hung up.

"Who was that?" I muttered. I had no idea he spoke Russian. Or was it another foreign language?

"My uncle. He wants to meet you."

His uncle?  "How did he..."

"Today. Here."

"Why?" I sat back, puzzled, my hands clammy and somewhat numb. I shifted in the cushioned seat, unable to think of a sensible reason why his uncle would like to meet me.  "You're stayin' here with family?" And here I thought the mob had kidnapped and murdered him for digging dirt on the Italian mafias.

"Not really. Just catching up with my uncle."

"What's his name?"

Niccolo looked away and sighed loudly, his full lips compressing into a thin line. Actually, he hadn't cracked a real smile from the second I saw him walking  straight to my table and alone. "He'll tell you in a minute."

Although my nerves had somehow calmed down and slowed my heartbeat to its normal pace, my brain was another issue. It just stayed in high gear. Disappointment and distrust were actually jumbling up my thoughts.  "You're not coming back with us to Italy, are you?" The realization just hit me like a big slap on the face.

"No. But I need you to go back to New York today. Alone, if possible."

I couldn't help but scowl at his reply. So my efforts to find my real father were worthless?  We came all the way out here for nothing?  "Why?"

"Still on the clock."

◇◇◇

"This is Ilya, my uncle. And this is Mykaela."

"At long last."

I shook hands with the tall, well-dressed man and put on the biggest smile I could muster. I also responded with a polite greeting, just to seem glad and pleasantly surprised about what was happening.

"You look lovely," commented the older man who looked like he was well in his 50s. The slightly graying hair, baggy eyes, and deep smile lines told me so. He looked fit for his age, though, and his accent wasn't atrocious, either. It even sounded partly English.

"Thank you, Sir." I glanced sideward and stiffened when Niccolo's uncle put his heavy arms around me. The man hugged me tight. I stayed still for a few seconds, feeling the smoothness of his tailored suit and appreciating the cool scent of his probably super-expensive perfume.

"I apologize." Niccolo's uncle stepped away to give me back my personal space. The older man's smile seemed genuine, though. "I rarely get to meet his girlfriends. Always too busy with work, this one."

"Yes, he is," I muttered.

So Niccolo's uncle thought Niccolo and I knew each other a long time. Didn't he know Niccolo dated guys? Or did he mean "girl friends"? Or maybe Niccolo was bisexual like Miles.

While Niccolo stood beside his uncle, Niccolo gave me a cursory glance and checked his buzzing phone.

"How was the trip?" asked his uncle. Ilya's soft, baritone voice sounded a bit gruff.

"Good. It was quite comfortable, Sir." I maintained a polite smile. Actually I was internally squirming and growing impatient for this round of pleasantries to be over. My hands and armpits just felt sweatier now.

"Excuse me. Need to take this call." Niccolo excused himself and walked off to the other side of the restaurant. The unfamiliar chatter around us seemed to be growing louder by the minute.

The lunch crowd had teemed into the premises, but I couldn't help feeling like Niccolo thoughtlessly left me alone with a total stranger...even if he said the man was family.  I glanced to where Niccolo stood by, my throat feeling dry and almost painful.

"Apologies. He told me he's on vacation but he's such a workaholic, as you can see." His uncle chuckled.

"Oh. Not a problem, Sir.  I've...gotten used to it." I squeezed my hands together and kept my tone pleasant. The man didn't look like he and Niccolo were blood-related. No strikingly similar physical attributes except for their height, the pointed nose, sharp jawline, and the dark hair.  "Just curious...are you his mother's or father's brother?"

"Nicco is my godson." We remained standing by the table until the man, Ilya, gestured for me to sit back down. "Please sit. You must be tired and hungry."

I sat back down and carefully pulled my chair closer to the table, repeatedly reminding myself to keep smiling. Be polite.  Nice.  Social.

This wouldn't take long.  Hopefully.

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