Page 11 of The Mafia’s Girlfriend

“Emma.” Krista’s tone was gentle and placating, like it often was of late. If not for her, I wouldn’t have any support system for my unraveling life. “You can’t even know if anyone did come in here last night.”

“We’ve been here for a week,” I told her as she sat next to me. Her hand was warm and soothing as she rubbed my back, and I leaned into her. “A week without Antonio following me at home. He can’t be taking it well that he doesn’t have immediate access to me.”

“How could he know you’re here?”

“The Tropican is a Giordino property.”

She nodded. “Yeah, but you didn’t tell your dad where you went, right?”

I furrowed my brow at her. “You know I didn’t.” She’d packed as hastily as I did and watched me scrawl a simple note to him: I’m going out of town for a while. The note was short but not sweet. I wished I could’ve made it a farewell forever note.

I’d turned my phone off, too, not wanting him to track me here. When we left, I fretted that he’d assume I was running away, but I knew better. And he knew I knew better. If I tried to bolt, he’d have his men find me. If I tried to hide, it’d send a bad sign to the Marcheses and they’d declare war. I didn’t want all that blood on my hands, and my father was all too aware that I didn’t. I was a rule follower because I never wanted to cause more trouble or death.

What a twisted way to live.

“Let’s circle back to the door.”

I nodded, preferring to analyze facts.

“The door was slid open a little bit, right?”

“Yes. And I know I shut it.” For one, the AC was on and if the door wasn’t sealed shut, it would’ve defeated the purpose of chilling the air that could escape.

“Yeah. But could you have opened it up again?”

I shook my head but frowned as I thought back through the night. “No.”

She raised her brows. “In the week that we’ve been here, we’ve been sitting on the balconies and having some wine.”

We had been. Either here, behind my condo or at hers.

“Not last night. It rained.”

“I stepped outside for a few minutes after the rain came.”

Dammit. She didn’t believe me. “I did too. But I know I closed that door.” A woman trying to avoid the prospect of being pawned off in a marriage she didn’t want wouldn’t be that careless with security. I couldn’t fight the arrangement, but until I was announced as Antonio’s fiancée, until he ensnared me, I would cling to my privacy for as long as I could. I’d defend it, too.

“Nothing was stolen, right?”

I shook my head. I knew what she was doing, trying to suggest that if someone trespassed, it was just any old person.

“Nothing happened to you.”

I cringed but shook my head again. All my clothes had been intact. The camera in my room showed nothing. The first time Antonio “got lost” in my home and ended up in my room, I woke up and screamed so loud that he said it rivaled the screeches from the traitors he tortured. Since that day, I kept a camera hidden in my room.

Yet another thing I’ll have to stop when we marry. I’ll be in his bed. All his to do with as he pleases. A sob built in my chest.

“So maybe...”

I stood, hating that she was picking at my story. “So maybe someone didn’t open that door and I left it open.” I didn’t. Even that sexy, hulking guy suggested that I needed evidence to prove that someone had been in here. “Fine. Whatever. The fact remains, though, that the resort knew that lock was acting funky. And they didn’t replace it on time.”

“Well, we did show up sort of unexpected. And you demanded this condo.”

“Because it’s the furthest from everything else.” I rubbed my brow, tired of holding up this towel.

My life was ending, and here I was being so stupid to think I could hide for a little while and have fun. This dread and anxiety combination wasn’t fun. It was hell.

Between the worry that Antonio was stalking me and the annoyance with that man who showed up and dared to check me out the way he had...