“I think you should see a doctor, though. Your eye is starting to swell shut.”
She was finding it a little difficult to see out of it, but after being punched in the face, she imagined that was natural.
“It’s fine. I can see through it.” Barely.
Aldo got to his feet and she felt that twisting in her stomach once again. Every single instinct in her told her to go to the cops, but instead she’d waited, made multiple attempts to contact Aldo Giordano. Possibly put her life in danger. Was he going to kill her?
He rounded thedesk and perched on the edge. “I had no idea you were trying to alert me to Dante’s extracurricular activities.”
Callie had found the book. Actually, Dante had gotten sloppy and left the book in a large pile of paperwork for her to go through. This was around the time she realized she was working for a freaking mafia man. This is what happened when she had her head in the clouds in knitting or thinking about a future her parents wanted for her. She somehow ended up connected to the mafia.
Crazy.
So fucking crazy.
Dante had sent aguy to kill her. Thankfully, he’d not expected her to fight back, so it had been a brief fight. Aldo had returned her call and one of his men had already been on the way up to her apartment when the attack had started.
Her attacker hadn’t wanted to kill her straightaway but play with her. That had been his mistake. Callie had fought back, giving Aldo’s men more than enough time to make it to her apartment to save her. It was a huge relief. Only, her face hurt and parts of her body from the punches and kicks she’d gotten. On a whole, her body was in pain but not enough to see a doctor.
“Dante had multiple connections believing they were working there with your consent because of a toll. Dante made sure to collect the toll. Some were weekly payments, others were monthly.”
Aldo picked up the book again, flicking through.She was surprised by the sheer detail in the book. Callie had read through it one night and had to make the decision whether or not to return the book, give it to the cops, or find Aldo.
Dante had fired her a week later once he realized the book was missing. Seeing as there were a few cops’ names in the book, Callie had figured going to them to help would be a waste of time. She had hoped that Dante didn’t suspect anything. Of course she had known there had been something because he fired her for no good reason. She’d waited but when nothing happened, she assumed he was just having a temper tantrum.
Aldo nodded. “All of the details are here and I have my man on hisway with Dante. In the meantime, what can I give you as a reward?”
Callie frowned. “Areward?”
“Most men, or in your case women, would want some compensation.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want anything. I just…”
“Yes, what is it your heart desires?”Aldo asked.
This man wasa monster. She had read about him in the newspapers. There was never any hard evidence, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out he had cops on his books as well. She wasn’t a fool.
“I’d like to live. To not worry about havingsomeone … wanting to kill me.”
Aldo frowned. “You could name your price.”
“My price is my life.”
“Sweetheart, I’m a very rich man.”
“I understand that, but all I want is my life.” She nibbled her lip.She imagined people would call her an idiot for not asking for a monetary reward. Callie didn’t want one.
Aldo folded his arms and stared at her. “You are a strange one, aren’t you?”
She frowned, not exactly sure what he meant by that.
His attention waspulled away from her when his office doors opened. A man was yelling, throwing curse words as if they were going out of fashion. Callie turned in her seat and got the biggest shock of the past twenty-four hours. Behind Dante Morelli stood her boyfriend, Ruin. What the hell was going on? Why was he here? Why did he have Dante?
“Unhandme at once, you fucking bastard.”
Ruin shoved Dante to the ground.When Dante tried to get up, Ruin placed a hand on his shoulder and kept him there. Callie stood.
“Mr. Giordano, what is the meaning of this fucking bastard dragging me from my home?” Dante turned toward her and glared.