“He put doubts in my head. If Papa died while we were married, you would’ve taken over. With me being single it would go to Faro, but since they killed all of our dads we took over.”
“Why couldn’t you let me be by your side as your husband? I’d do anything for you.” I’m down on my knees in front of her. She touches my face. “I’ve missed you so fucking much.”
“I’ve missed you, too, and I’ve hated not having you in my life. I went to call you so many fucking times. I felt horrible about how I left things with you. I never wanted to walk out on you. I didn’t know Papa told you about this life.”
“He wanted me to know what I was getting in to and if I truly loved you. I let him know I loved you with everything. He even took me to a gun range. I was quite good, too. I still go on weekends.”
“You fire a gun?” I laugh. I play with his hair as I stare into his hazel eyes. “Do you like it?”
“Love it. We should go sometime. I prefer what they call a long gun. The place I go is owned by a former Marine sniper. He’s been teaching me the sniper ways. It’s so fucking cool.”
“I prefer knives, but a long gun is my jam. Let’s go through your computer. What were doing when you signed on?” He walks me through everything and signs into his Messenger. Nothing pops up right away and I copy everything over from Faro’s computer. I also install a Trojan horse no one can detect on the computers, so I can always monitor his activity. He has spyware constantly running, but this won’t be found. Biting my lower lip as I comb through some things on the computer, I hear apingfrom Lio’s computer. I move my eyes to his screen. “Get him talking so I can run some sort of trace.” He nods as he pulls a chair around to sit next to me. This feels so familiar from our study nights in college. It could be dangerous for us to go back down this road.
UNKNOWN: Mr. Rossi, do you want Mirabella dead or alive?
B.R.: Who the fuck is this?
UNKNOWN: Language. Answer the question.
B.R.: Why should I care either way?
UNKNOWN: You went to her house today and the funeral.
B.R.: I was paying my respects to a man I thought was going to be my family. Nothing more, nothing less.
“You know I came for you. It had nothing to do with your father. I love you and want to be in your life,” he tells me. I smile at him.
“Can we talk after this?” He nods, going back to the computer.
UNKNOWN: Interesting. Do you know what she was doing when her father was killed?
B.R.: Why would I care?
UNKNOWN: She was fucking some guy.
My breath hitches, but I cover it up quickly before replying.
B.R.: Who the fuck cares? She can bang the pope for all I care. She’s not my wife.
UNKNOWN: I’d believe that if you weren’t sitting next to her.
He shakes the chair to get my attention. “Fuck. They must have remote access to your computer.” I take the keyboard and run a search. There’s a backdoor open. “You always had shitty protection.”
B.R.: So, you want to kill me? Come and get me. I’ll be waiting. *Kisses Mirabella Morelli*
I quickly shut down his computer.
“Fuck!” I slam my hands down on the desk. “You almost got my system fried. Did you learn nothing from my constantly hacking you?”
“No. I don’t understand what you were doing. You always told me not to worry about safety because you’d take care of it. What does this mean?”
“He knows where you live, your accounting information, and all that stuff.” I shake my head. “Do you teach tomorrow?”
“No, I took some time off from work. Why? What’s up?”
“I have a lot going on, and was wondering if you’d like to stay the night.” I bite the inside of my cheek. Why did I just ask my ex-fiancé to stay the night at my house?
EIGHT