But a promise is a promise and when Addie’s text comes in with Mistress Valentina’s phone number, I send her a message.
Message:This is Addie’s friend Anna. She said I should message you to ask about the man who showed me around the club. To make sure he’s safe.
Reply:Hi Anna. If you’re looking for confirmation that he is a great friend, a wonderfully competent dominant and strong teacher, then you have my word that he is. Don’t look for anything more than that though, it’s simply not in his DNA.
I sit on the bed quietly for a moment. She didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already suspect or deep down know. Why else would he be coming to the club? It’s not exactly the place to pick up marrying material, more the place to play with a variety of women, right?
And settling for one person, that’s the last thing I’m looking for anyway. I’m just getting back on my feet. I want to find myself, not saddle myself with a man who wants me to conform to what his vision of a perfect girlfriend or future wife should be. But I do want him to teach me so very much.
The thought is liberating in the best possible way. Like being given permission to do what I want without any commitment to the future. It feels like exactly what I need. No questions, no permission, just pure uninhibited pleasure of the most exciting kind.
My phone buzzes.
Message:Change of plans. I’m coming to you on Friday night. That highway is dangerous.
My mind spins with questions. Valentina’s probably told him about Addie, where she lives or something. And he’s not wrong. Bad things can happen on that highway, but he needn’t worry about us. The service Addie’s procured is very secure. They know how to handle any situation.
This is one thing I’m not going to obey. I want to go. My fingers clasp around my cell, tapping out a message, so fast I have to go back and correct the spelling to ensure it’s exactly as intended.
Message:I’m definitely coming to Atlantic City on Friday Night. I can’t explain but I have to get away from here. I need this.”
I watch the message send, cuddled in my blankets, waiting for a very long time until I see the read receipt. My heart almost jumps out of my skin when I read his reply.
ReplyI’ll be waiting for you. Mr. D.
Butterflies dance in my stomach. He still wants me to come, to be with him. I wasn’t imagining the magnetism between us. No matter that Massimo Roselli wants to keep me safe, but Ineed to be free from a prisoner in his estate and Mr. D makes me feel freer than I ever have.
Message:I’ll text when I arrive Friday.
I wait patiently. Mr. D will tell me where he wants me to meet him, of that, I am sure. But, minute after minute, nothing gives me any notice, or location. All I see is silence as I watch my phone.
Message:Sleep well, princessa. I’m looking forward to seeing you again.
13
VINCENZO
Three fucking days of hearing absolutely nothing that I don’t already know about Anna Cassone. I listen to Nicolo on my cell and it’s as if the whole world, everyone but me is convinced that she is dead. “Vincenzo, I’ve got everyone under the sun looking at anything and everything connected to this lady. She’s a fucking ghost. They had a funeral and everything. You know this. We talked about it at the time.”
I toss the documents I’ve been reading onto my desk in frustration. “They did a piss poor job of making her disappear then because that woman they buried was just in our club.”
“Are you sure it’s not a set-up of some sort, Vincenzo? I have to ask. I mean, after everything that went down, she shows up at our club? Pretty fucking suspicious if you ask me.” My eyebrow arches and he clears his throat. “Just putting it out there, but you’re the boss.”
“Anna’s not a fucking plant, and she even looks the same, Nicolo. How is it that the Rosellis thought they could just send out a message that she was dead, and all the crime families would buy that when she’s waltzing around the cities? Howmany times does that work? You tell me?” I ask my brother, my frustration with her lack of security growing all the time.
Nicolo doesn’t mince words, especially with me. We’ve always given it to each other straight. “Remember how you described her when you came back that night? Your clothes were soaked in her blood. You told me yourself that Barcelo intended to leave her dead. You said he couldn’t have thought she survived. His family, you can’t tell me they didn’t know the prick for who he was, and you think they thought he would leave a loose end? No one knows she’s alive, I’m convinced of it, Vincenzo. I just don’t understand why she’s running around the city.”
“You’ve reached out to all our trusted contacts?”
“Yes, story after story about her demise, some differences, but all the same in the end. She’s dead to the world Vincenzo. At least those outside of the Roselli’s inner circle.”
“What, to everyone but this attorney friend?”
“Her friend, Addie Dunlap is an up-and-coming attorney. Her father, Dunlap Senior has been defending many of the families, especially the Rosellis for years. Clearly, the Rosellis trust them, but they still have a shit ton of soldiers guarding that house around the clock Apparently, Addie stays with them when she’s working on a case and Anna visits.”
I blow out a breath. I watch the news too. “And Anna is staying with her while she’s working on one of the biggest cases in the country. They’re fucking targets sitting in that house. Better that she’s at the club with me than in that house right now. She may be working in the defense of a crime family member, but a lot of other crime families out there don’t want that guy to talk either. Best way to shut him up is to shut Addie up, and that’s fucking too close to Anna for my comfort. That’s the only fucking reason I’m allowing her to get back on that highway and come to me.”
And yet she sneaks away from her guards to come and play in Atlantic City even knowing that if Barcelo Gallini’s family knew she was alive they would come for her, kill her or worse in a heartbeat. They would make it their mission in life to make her life a living hell or put her in the ground for good. My head swims with the complexities of this mess. “Make sure the Gallinis are still in Italy. I want every fucking one of them on our radar until I say different.”