One Night Stand With The Mafia Boss
Chapter 35

“Mr Rinaldi, I apologise profusely as I was only making conversation. You’re right, that was wrong of me. I promise to never ask such disrespectful things again.” He has his hands up, showing his surrender, then waving around trying to act all innocent.

I squeeze Landon’s hand and rub my fingers over the top part of his hand, staying away from his knuckles. I knew not to say anything at the moment and just wait for him to calm down. He has to be in control of the situation so he has to direct what we do next. I don’t want to do anything wrong in this situation as I know Nico is a game player and the other guy, Gabe I am sure he is as well from the looks he was giving through the conversation.

“We will discuss this further after this delicious meal Ben and Maxine have graciously prepared for us. Ben apologies for the interruption. How have your clubs been performing?”

Nico just nods and takes another sip of his wine, keeping his attention away from me, but I know he is watching me out of the corner of his eye. Ben waves off the problem like they were just arguing about who should have won the latest Basketball game.

“All are going well except the new one…” the conversation goes back to an easy flow but there is now that underling tension in the air. Even Maxine keeps quiet now and stops talking about what we are doing over the next few days. I swear she does everything she can not to look at Gabe as well.

There really is something about him and this Nico!

The men go to Ben’s office straight after dinner is finished, saying they will have dessert in there.

Landon and Leo both give me searing k****s to brand me or basically piss on my leg for Nico and Gabe to see before they go into the office.

Maxine and I move to the conservatory.

“You hate them as well, don’t you?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Of course not, we don’t hate anyone here, we just watch our backs.” She says then winks at me.

“Does Ben know you don’t trust them?”

“Gabe, yes, but Nico no. He thinks I am just being silly.”

“Has Gabe ever threatened you?”

She shakes her head slightly again as she puts her finger to her lips as a maid comes back in with our desert. “So tomorrow is all sorted, I will pick you up at 9. Walking shoes are a must.”

“Good because I live in jeans and sneakers, so normal attire for me.”

We talk for about another 15 minutes and only just finish our dessert before Landon and Leo appear without the other 3.

“Sorry Maxine, we must be off. We thank you again for your hospitality.”

“Oh, it was our pleasure. I will see you all in the morning.”

She walks us to the door as Ben suddenly appears beside her. We do the customary handshakes and k****s before the maid hands us our items back and we head out to our SUV motorcade.

We only just left but I couldn’t keep it in. I checked that the driver was one of our guys before opening my mouth. “You need to investigate Gabe.”

“Why?” they ask almost in unison.

“I swear I have seen him before and there is something about him. Even Maxine doesn’t trust him.”

Leo doesn’t say anything and nods his head before picking up his phone and making a call. Landon tilts my chin to look into my eyes properly “You have a bad feeling?”

“Yes, my gut is telling me something is not right with both of them, but mainly Gabe.”

He studies my face before nodding and kissing my forehead and pulling me closer.

Leo is still talking on the phone, but in Italian and I can only make out a word here or there that doesn’t really help. Once he hangs up the rest of the ride is quiet.

I think we have actually walked into a bigger s**t show than what the boys knew!

Oh boy was I right!

Maxine and I had a ball for the next 3 days with her taking me to everything from Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, 2 museums and Central Park. Yes, of course, we ate from a street vendor and laughed about it.

I was actually surprised at how low key she kept it and enjoyed being a tourist. All the guards, and there were a lot, were all in jeans and t-shirts to ‘try’ and blend in as well.

Detective Douche as Maxine had called him, had visited us at the hotel the previous day but Landon and Leo had Gio keep me company in one of the bedrooms, so I didn’t even see him.

My men tried to leave the issues at the door, as they say, but they were both very tense and jumpy. All the men were!

We were supposed to be going out to tea on the third day but when Maxine went to drop me off at the hotel something felt wrong. I looked around as I got out of the car and instantly spotted Gabe pretending to relax in the foyer, his whole demeanour was off… well more off than normal.

I looked at Gio, “get everyone back in the cars. We have to go now!” He said something in Italian to the other guards and hoped in beside me. I really have to get better at Italian! Seriously!

“Go!” Gio yelled as he closed the door. The driver instantly took off.

I quickly called Landon as Maxine looked at me in alarm.

“Amore?” He sounded worried straight away.

“Gabe is in the foyer acting suspicious. Everything felt wrong so we left.”

“Tell him we will head to safe house number 4 in case they have someone heading to our house.” Maxine said quickly as she picked up her phone to probably call Ben.

“Rick, did you get that?” Gio asked the driver.

He nodded quickly as he navigated through the traffic.

“Did you hear that? We are headed to safe house number 4.”

“Relax Amore, we will take care of it. I love you. Put Gio on.”

“I love you too. Here he is.” I handed the phone to Gio, who listened intently to Landon’s instructions.

I love you… I have finally said the words again, but once again it is during a crisis, kind of a pattern happening there.

Well, I am dating the 2 heads of the Italian Mafia.

Gio handed me the phone. “Leo would like to speak to you as well.” I smiled, of course he did.

“Hey sweetie.”

“Are you hurt?” he sounded anxious.

“No, nothing happened. It all just felt wrong so we left.”

“Good. Always go with those amazing instincts of yours, my love. You are so f*****g amazing. We will be there when we can. Stay safe and do what Gio tells you to. I love you.” He hangs up quickly after that before I can say anything. I know it’s because I can hear Landon losing it in the background yelling at someone.

Maxine finished talking on her phone and looked at me. “You have good instincts!”

“What did Ben say?”

She takes a deep breath. “They are instructing some we are heading to Safe House 2 and to get it cleared and guarded ready for us. They are hoping the word get back to Gabe so they can try and trap him there. Did you see anyone else you recognised?”

“Only 1 or 2. They were in normal suits to try and blend in…. Holy f**k!” And bam my brain finally kicked in!

“What?” Gio and Maxine both quickly looked at me, even the driver was quickly looking around, worried a car was going to hit us or something.

“He was in Sydney! Gabe was in Sydney!” I quickly called Landon back.

“Amore? What happened?” he answered, not even after 1 ring.

“Gabe was in Sydney watching you guys in the bar! I knew I recognised him. He was in Sydney hidden at one of the back tables! I even thought he was with you guys on the first night!”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely positive!”

“Was anyone else with him?”

“Only one guy came and spoke to him briefly, that I remember, but I didn’t get a good look at him.”

He lets out a breath “f**k your perfect. Love you.” He hangs up quickly.

I turn to Gio who is staring off into the distance racking his brain to try and remember seeing Gabe back in Sydney.

Maxine was just shaking her head, typing into her phone, muttering “I f*****g knew it”.

The car ride took about an hour and a half. There were only 3 cars left in our convoy with mainly our guys by the time we reached our destination.

We stopped on the way for some take-away tea as I was starving. I either eat like a horse or can’t eat when I’m stressed. Maxine is not a stress eater and I warned her that I was going to feed her like a 1 year old if she didn’t eat even half her burger. She laughed at me, which helped lighten the mood a little.

The house was a cute 2-story weatherboard detached house in a neighbourhood where most houses had a few acres each, so quite a bit of land around them. All three drove around to the back of the house past a standard All-American pick-up truck that was parked out the front of the garage.

I was surprised that when the cars stopped an older man and woman came out of the house greeting us like old friends.

“You’re finally here! I hope your trip wasn’t too bad. Come in. Come in. I have some refreshments after the long drive.” The woman said excitedly, but you could see the weariness in her eyes. She was on full alert like we were and probably putting on a show in case any neighbours or anyone was watching.

She ushered us into the house straight to the kitchen table. “Have a seat and we will give you an update in a minute after we have cleared you weren’t followed. Don’t text anyone to say you’ve arrived, we will look after that. No more contact until we give the all clear but you don’t need to turn your phones off just yet.” She said as she placed jugs of water and some sort of punch on the table to go with the cakes and biscuits already laid out.

Maxine and I sat down with only the driver standing behind me, but Gio and the guys didn’t even follow us into the house. As it was dark outside now, I am guessing they were doing a perimeter sweep or something.

Maxine poured herself a glass of punch and I nodded for her to do so for me too. The older woman sat at the table looking at her tablet. I could see it was all the security cameras around the perimeter.

After a while, I have no idea if it was 5 minutes or 15, Gio came back in with the older guy and 2 other guards. Gio now had a gun in his waist band whereas the older guy and 2 guards all had some other automatic machine gun-looking things.

Gio and the older guy sat down and nodded to the woman.

“Alright dears, welcome to my home…” She started and handed her ipad to the older guy to continue to monitor it while she spoke.

Her name was Beverley or Bev and the older guy was her husband, Frank. They lived alone, so no one else was in the house or expected to arrive.

They had no word yet on what was happening at safe house 2 but knew that there was no one in the foyer of the hotel when it was checked only 5 minutes after we left. So they must have seen us arrive and leave. They were going through the security footage in front of the hotel last time they got an update to try and identify who was with Gabe.

No one had been to our hotel room or Maxine and Ben’s house, but they weren’t sure if any guards on duty were part of the bigger issue now showing up, so it could be compromised still.

Almost everyone was now under suspicion, well except for the people we brought from Italy.

I looked at Maxine and she looked sad and worried. I reached over and grabbed her hand.

“You ok?”

She nodded her head slowly and looked at me “I just… can’t get my head around it. Gabe… and possibly Nico? I hope they torture and rip their f*****g throats out!”

“We’ll take care of them!” Gio nodded curtly. There was no relaxed easy going Gio right now, not that you would expect it. He honestly looked f*****g scary and ready to kill.

“For safety, tonight you 2 will be sleeping in our safe room in the basement. Not to worry, it has a bathroom, power and proper beds. I have already set them up. I have also set up a TV with all the channels if you can’t sleep,” Bev says as she stands up. “Oh, did either of you like a shower or something before you settle for the night?”

“Thank you Bev. You have been amazing. I’m fine for the moment.”

“No thank you.” Maxine smiled at her. As expected, the smile doesn’t reach her eyes though.

It must be hard knowing that Gabe and possibly Nico, Ben’s own cousin, were traitors. How many times had they gone out to dinner or to the clubs together, been in her home, even slept in her home.

Well actually, it hasn’t been confirmed he is a traitor yet, but in Maxine and my mind, Gabe was already a big fat lying scumbag of a traitor.

We walked down into the basement, which looked like your normal concrete walled basement with everything from old paint cans to broken furniture in the midst of repairs and a wall of tools.

Bev pressed something and the wall with the tools opened, showing a doorway into the safe room. It didn’t look anything like the basement. This room had been properly decked out to look like a normal room with plaster walls, tiled floor, nice light shade and even a painting on the wall, not the dark damp basement feel we had just come from.

It had 2 beds Bev told us about, to the side with a bedside table and lamp in between them. Facing the beds were low-lying shelving with tinned food, a small fridge, books, board games and a TV above them. There was a small couch in the corner. Beside the beds was a doorway leading to a small washroom that just had a sink and toilet.

Maxine and I went down, sat on the beds and just stared at the walls, not talking until I finally decided to put on good old Deadpool. It is now my number 1 movie for crisis as well.

We only half smiled or laughed but it did help.

Alex, one of our guys, was in the room with us, sitting on a small couch, gun in his lap, looking at the door.

I must have fallen asleep during Deadpool 2 when I was jerked awake to the sound of the door closing and hushed whispers.

I looked up to see Gio, Alex and our driver, who I really had to get his name as I felt quite rude still not knowing it, in the room with us all standing in front of the door. Alex and the driver had guns ready, whereas Gio had the iPad Bev was using yesterday.

I looked over at Maxine and she was almost shaking, while still lying in bed.

“Sorry to wake you both up.” I looked back to Gio to see him giving me a sad smile before going back to stone face while watching the iPad.

“So I’m guessing there has been a breach?”

“We are not sure, one of the sensors went off.” He said in a hushed tone again. I just nodded.

Being a safe house, of course, this place would have every type of security sensor, camera etc as well as the big think metal door currently protecting us.

I could tell the moment something happened, as Gio somehow got more rigid. All Maxine and I could do was sit on our beds and let our overactive imagination go off.

Either the room was sound proof or there was no shooting, yet, which was a good thing.

After what felt like forever but was probably only 5 or 10 minutes, Gio seemed to relax a bit. Took a moment before he finally said in the same hushed tone he had been using “Cops are finally here. 2 now 3 cars.”

“Is that a good thing?” I didn’t know we wanted the police involved, but I was really relieved they were.

“Yes, it’s protocol for Bev and Frank to act like a scared retired couple and call the cops at the sign of trouble.”

“Clever. What about our cars?”

“We moved them down the street after you went inside.” The driver replied. Good thinking!

“What do we do now?”

“Settle back and wait for the cops to sweep the place.” Gio sat on the end of my bed as the driver went back to the chair and Alex relaxed against the wall.

“What about all the other guards?”

“Link is pretending to be a visitor while everyone else has made themselves scared.”