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“Boss?”
“Yes.”
Luke looked puzzled, likely wondering why she was so shocked that Gio had spoken to him about the incident. But she hadn’t expected him to care much at the time. Staff being fired for theft wasn’t entirely breaking news. It was entirely commonplace in many households.
“What did Gio say about it?”
“He was spittin’ mad.” Luke shook his head as if remembering it even now. “I thought he was gonna hang me by my balls–‘scuse my language. He ripped me a new one for not vetting the guards properly.”
She reeled at the discovery. Given their recent partnership, she couldn’t imagine that Luke and Gio had come to such blows last year.
“I tried to tell him the house staff was out of my control,” he explained. “I was a Captain and, yeah, interim Capo too. But that don’t mean shit when it comes to private home staff. All I can do is manage my soldiers and step in wherever we’re assigned.”
Ana murmured in understanding. “I guess he just let it go after that?” She prayed he had.
But Luke wasn’t sure. “Don’t really know. Before he hung up, Boss said he was going to have a talkin’ to with your family and see if you could get shifted out of their house.”
Shifted out of the house?
Ana stared at him, stunned. “It was just stealing…” she said hoarsely.
His burly shoulders shrugged. “You were his fiancée.”
Chapter 16
Her question to Luke had been about Celia. To uncover what the woman knew about the guard and how she’d come to know it. But the answer had led her to the person she’d least expected.
Gio.
He had wanted her to move out.
Bitter regret poured through her, along with an unending sadness. How sweet it would have been to escape this house after that night and shed the ghosts haunting her. How much of a relief it would have been. But it had never come to pass. She’d remained trapped in the Mancini house until her wedding day.
What happened after that call?
She had never heard anything from Gio or Auntie about plans to move her out. Her aunt had simply swept the incident under the rug after making sure the guard was taken care of, while Gio had been inundated with his new Don duties. Ana had avoided any calls with him for weeks after the run-in with the guard, faking an illness that her family had corroborated.
If only she had spoken to him then.
Covering her face with her hands, her long strands of light brown hair cascaded over her, cocooning her in her thoughts. That was the thought that plagued her incessantly after Luke revealed the truth–that perhaps it wasn’t right to hide the incident anymore. Not from Gio.
He was on her side; he’d proven it over and over again. So she had to prove she trusted him in return. He wouldn’t shame her over it or judge her unduly. She had to believe in that.
But what if it changed things between them?
Fear snaked through her, poisoning her conviction.
Ana leaned forward until her forehead pressed against the cool glass of the windowpane. The sun had barely risen, but the driveway was starting to become illuminated under the dawn sky, its cobblestones and the flowers between each crack coming into the light. She stared forlornly at the length of the driveway, out to the gates, as if Gio would appear there at any moment.
It lay empty.
Quiet, except for the birds chirping intermittently.
They had been apart for a week now. It would be yet another week before Gio joined her. He had begun the process of hiring additional staff, and she was reluctant for him to push that off. So she’d encouraged him to stay behind a few more days and wrap that up.
It was for the best, even if loneliness coated her in frigid swaths. The distance would give her some time to gather her thoughts–and her courage.
Ana worked straight through to lunchtime, barely focused. The past weighed heavily on her mind.
