“I memorized your map,” he quips and flashes me his sexy, quicky grin.
“Rightttt.” I roll my eyes and continue, saying, “When we come back, I can hide some explosives in the room where they torture people and some spaced out around the compound, so we can blow this place up anytime we want.”
His look is priceless even in the shadows.
“Well, if we need to,” I add, softening the delivery of this other side of me.
“Gotcha. We’ve seen enough here.” He folds the laptop and shoves it in my backpack.
"But--"
Sal touches my arm, stopping me. “Let’s head over to the port and identify where the bosses are. I can get you in there on one of our trucks. They would never think we are working together in a million years.”
“Good point.” I whirl around and make my way down the hill walking close to the expensive cars of that belong to the high-ranking bosses.
“Maybe the girls or Angelo are held there.” Sal’s looking around like an eagle, leaving no corner overlooked and Matteo has our back with an AK-47 at the ready.
I’m beginning to think Sal is a good addition to my team. We play hide and seek with the guards back to the forest where we stashed the black SUV with plates registered to one of Sal’s shell companies.
“Maybe your crew knows something,” I add, and I must admit the danger is turning me on, and so is Sal. We’re a good team, and he’s not a stranger to this world we share. I never realized I knew so much, but it’s coming to me like a natural gift, memories treading together in my head like a computer network. It’s making sense now, and all those little tidbits over the years are creating a complete picture of the empire.
The three of us make it out of the compound and hike back to the black vehicle with a plate registered to one of Sal’s shell companies and cover it with brush.
Sal calls one of his foremen on the phone to come out and meets us. Matteo sits in the front, next to the driver as Sal and I stand in the back of the box truck in the dark as we make the twenty miles drive journey to the port being jostled around.
I’m trying not to bump into Sal, but it’s impossible, and finally, I grab onto him as he holds onto a strap that dangles from the top of it, a strap I can’t reach.
I grab him with both arms as the backpack is on my back and he has one on his as well. We’re so close, I can hardly bear to be near him like this and not kiss him or touch him intimately.
But this is work. I hope we’ll have time for pleasure later. There is a possibility that neither of us will make it out alive.
I hear the brakes squeak and we roll to a stop at the guardhouse; the soldier buys his excuse to come back so quickly saying he had to pick up a worker.
We start to move so we’re past the checkpoint.
“Dante is on his way too,” Sal informs me.
I take in a sharp breath surprised.
“No, he doesn’t need to be here. I don’t want him to risk it. Please tell me you can change his mind,” I plead with him.
“You know how the Micheli men are—once we set our mind to something, it’s hard to change it. Besides, he’s the don, so I can’t question or press him too hard. It would make him look bad in front of others.”
I lean my head on his chest as darkness is now our friend. Matteo opens the tiny window to our area from the cab part of the truck.
“Where to, boss?”
“Park at dock number nine. It’s ours and I’ll look for Pietro. He used to work at my club, so he’ll know me.”
The door closes and we’re in the darkness once again. We come to a not so smooth stop and bang into the side of the box we’re in. Then the back door swings open and Matteo offers me his hand to help me down.
My hood is over my head as there are cameras everywhere.
“I’d turn the cameras off, but I don’t want to tip our hand,” I offer as we walk casually into a warehouse that has a small office inside it.
“Ciao,” Sal introduces himself to the manager of the docks who is in his late forties by the looks of his expanding waistline and willingness to help he doesn’t have much skin in the game.
“So, what can I do for you?”