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Sansone
For months, a seething rage has ridden my ass because of my inability to find someone. I don’t even know if the person I’m seeking is a man or woman or how old they are. One fruitless search after another for the mysterious character breaking into my homes and leaving candid photographs of me has made a joke of my security and left me empty-handed.
If only I could get my sister-in-law, Sloane, to help me track down this ghost. With her skills, she could find anyone, but she and her husbands are busy juggling their new baby.
The last set of photographs was waiting on my office desk two weeks ago. Each time I receive new images, I have my men sweep the property for hidden cameras but nothing turns up. I’m almost convinced this shit is someone’s attempt to fuck with me and not a genuine threat to my safety, but in my profession, I can’t take that risk. Whoever is surveilling me wants me looking over my shoulder, and it’s a miracle I haven’t become paranoid yet. Being reactive hasn’t gotten me anywhere.
So I’ve stopped playing defense.
As soon as the motion sensors detected activity at my door, I sprang the trap I’ve been waiting to use. I have one at everyresidence. Today I was lucky to be en route when I received the message about the intruder at my primary residence, but the person before me can’t be my stalker.
She’s… forgettable is the only word that comes to mind. Her hair is in a frizzy bun and her short height makes it easy to overlook her. Her clothing is uninspiring as is the way it sits on her round body. I want to dismiss her immediately, but something stops me. And it’s not my instant distrust of outsiders. I keep returning to look at her face, though I don’t understand why.
Large glasses with tinted lenses shield her eyes from me, piquing my curiosity. Her deep saddle brown skin appears porcelain smooth. And her mouth… Her large lips dominate her face, and an unwelcome thought presses on me the longer I stare. I want to taste her. Despite her presentation having nothing in common with the women I usually sleep with, she calls to my basic nature.
I fist my hands in denial of the sudden urge to caress her full cheek to discover if she is as soft as she looks, and the need to stroke her lips and plunge my thumb inside her mouth.
She holds her hand out to me in introduction. “Hello, Mr. DeLuca. My name is Zakiya Chase. I’m your new nanny.”
“The fuck you are,” comes blurting out of me. “I didn’t hire a nanny.”
Despite my rude response, she neither flinches nor backs away, increasing the mystery surrounding her.
“You’re correct. I’m in someone else’s employ, but I’ve been tasked with evaluating your fitness as a parent,” she cooly states while peering up and down at me.
I sense her evaluation has begun and I’m already falling behind.
“And by the way, you’ll have to watch your language. It isn’t proper to curse around children.”
For a second, I’m dumbfounded at her mild scolding. Then the reason she’s here hits me, and I forget all about the photographs and the hunt for a mystery stalker. Hell, I almost forget I head Douglas’ DeLuca crime family. For months I’ve been on pins and needles, waiting to discover more about the text I received at my brother’s second wedding. Now, I finally come face-to-face with someone who must know more.
“Back up. You’re my child’s current caretaker? Where are they?” I almost grab the woman to shake her, but she raises her hand to stop me from advancing further up the stairs.
Her other arm disappears behind her to appear moments later with a little girl.
“Jinx, this is your father.” Zakiya’s words sound as if they’re coming from a deep tunnel.
The child peering up at me freezes me in an infinite time loop. Staring back at me is a familiar set of eyes from the shape to the exact hue of blue. Even the same numb gaze. I thought I’d left behind that look after my mother disappeared and I lived alone with my father, Giulio. He was a controlling monster and although I’ve had years to recover from the constant threats he held over my head, one glimpse into Jinx’s eyes brings it all back.
Although I was older than Jinx is now, but not by much. Her small size puts her at around six. I was eleven. Yet we share the same deadened eyes I had before my older brother Valentino arrived.
The day I met my father for the first time, he married my mother, Martina Abramo. Within a year of living under his despotic thumb, I lost my mother under mysterious circumstances and met a brother whose mother also disappeared from his life. Valentino was only two years older and as ineffectual as I was in deflecting our father’s rage. But at least I wasn’t alone anymore.
I shake my head and stumble down a few stairs before righting myself. Once I have my breathing under control, I glare at the woman who has completely blindsided me. “Get the hell off my property. If you show your face again, you won’t live long enough to catch another breath.”
Without waiting for her response, I turn around and flee to my car. Mattia opens the door in time for me to enter. Instead of sitting beside the driver, he follows behind me and closes the door.
“Take me to Valentino’s,” I direct my driver.
“What was that about?” Mattia stares at me while I fight for composure.
I point outside. “Allow that woman to leave, but if she ever comes back, kill her.”
He glances toward the woman and child slowly making their way down the stairs. Zakiya… Her name is already chiseled into my memory despite my desperate efforts to wipe this interaction from my recollection.
“The kid, too?” Mattia asks.
I glare at him for suggesting I’d put a hit out on someone so young.
