"What?" I scowl, "Say it."
"That he’s afraid for your safety. That he’d do anything to protect you. That he doesn’t want you out of his sight. That he wants to make sure that if, for whatever reason, you are separated from him, he’ll know where to find you."
"Ha," I scoff. "All this is just a power play. It probably turns him on to know that he can do anything with me. That he could even…even…put a bloody tracker on me so he’ll know exactly where I am every minute of every day."
"And you like that?"
"What?"
"That he’s so…focused on you. That all of his attention is targeted on you."
I flush. Honestly, there’s a part of me that revels in it…but damn, if I am going to admit that aloud. "Frankly, I don’t care for it. Especially not, if it means that he virtually has me on a leash here… Besides, it’s wrong. Can’t you see that? You don’t go around tagging another human being just because of your own insecurities."
"You’re right," her shoulders slump. "It’s not the ‘done’ thing. But then, when have the Capo and his brothers ever conformed to the ‘done’ thing?"
"You sound like you know them well."
"No one knows them well." She half smiles. "They are a force all their own. I went to the same school as them, though they are all much older than me. All the boys wanted to be them and all the girls...couldn’t take their eyes off of them." She adds, "Even our teachers were afraid of them in school. They could do pretty much whatever they wanted and no-one would dare stop them."
"Sounds like nothing has changed." I scowl, "Once a bully…"
"They weren’t all bad though."
"No?"
"They helped my father when he needed money the most."
"Oh? How did they help?"
"The Capo paid off his mortgage, paid for me and my sister’s education."
"Only so he could buy your father’s loyalty."
"That may be the case," she raises a shoulder, "but just the threat of his power would have been enough to have my father fall in line. He needn’t have done everything else that he did. I know he comes across as gruff and uncaring—"
"You have no idea."
"—But that’s just the persona he’s had to create to survive in the Mafia world."
Maybe I did guess that. Maybe a part of me has hoped that’s true. Maybe, in the moments that we had been intimate, I had glimpsed the tenderness that he is capable of… But then he had gone and chipped me, and without even asking me. He may claim that it’s to keep me safe, but surely, I should have a say in it too?
"I am afraid I don’t buy it." I square my shoulders. "Why are you here anyway? If you came to make sure that I am alive, then you can rest assured that I am."
"It’s not only that." She bites her lower lip, "I guess, I just wanted to make sure that you are okay."
I scoff.
"Maybe I just want to help?" she offers.
"You can help me by getting rid of this microchip."
She shakes her head, "I am sorry but I can’t do that."
I push my hair back from my face, "Then get me out of here."
"What?" she says in horror. "I… I can’t. If I go against the Capo, he will have me killed."
I can’t stop the smile from curving my lips, "You owe me, Doc."