“He never told me anything. When he left, he would just leave. If I questioned him, he would smack me. I’m sorry, I wish I could help.”
“It’s okay, Tesoro. We will find him. In the meantime, I will give you girls the same option I gave Sofia. If you want protection, it is yours. If not, then just say so.”
I glance at Isabella. I can see out of the corner of my eye Giovanni is tense.
Mia speaks up first. “I am fine with it. Especially after last night. Do you think mine could give me rides to work? I don’t feel comfortable walking anymore.”
“Of course.”
Isabella speaks up next.
“I still don’t like it. Why do you feel I need it?”
I scoff. She is asking me to explain myself. I glance to Sofia and sigh. For her, I will.
“You are close to Sofia. This means that you are a target. If they want to get to her, they will attempt to use you to do so. Like I said, if you do not want it then I will pull them back.”
She looks to Sofia then back to me.
“I am fine with it as long as it is anyone, but Giovanni.”
I hear him growl next to me, but I don’t acknowledge him. I don’t know what happened between them, but I can’t concern myself with it now. My number one priority is protecting Sofia, which means protecting Isabella also.
“Done. I am going to ask that you stay one more night while we get everything situated. I will have someone assigned to you before you leave tomorrow. I will introduce you before he takes you home. Each one of you will have a personal body guard that will be with you at all times.”
“Who is going to replace Matt?”
Sofia asks softly. I sigh.
“I was thinking Luca for now. Once Matteo is doing better, he will take back over.”
She nods her head solemnly. This is what I was afraid of. She blames herself for him. This is why I didn’t want to tell her.
“It’s not your fault, Sofia.”
She gives me a wobbly smile. Then leans into Mia and looks down.
“That’s it for tonight. Gio will set you all up with a phone to reach us if you have any issues or see anything out of the ordinary. Trust your gut. Even if it seems small, report it. We don’t know what we are dealing with yet.”
With that, the unofficial meeting was adjourned.
Sofia
Everything is my fault. The sinking feeling my gut hasn’t stopped since Bash told me that the man was from Arizona. Obviously, Ryan sent him. Was he an FBI agent too? I keep desperately trying to leave my past behind me, but it seems it is going to catch up. Can I keep risking the lives of my friends and the only family I have left?
I gasp.
Uncle Tony. I haven’t talked to him since yesterday. He is probably worried sick.
After the meeting, I went and saw Matt then went to the room I would be sharing with Mia and Izzy. I look up at them now.
“Uncle Tony is probably worried to death. I haven’t talked to him since yesterday and his three servers disappeared.”
“Someone probably talked to him. Isn’t that the way this type of thing works?” Izzy says sarcastically.
She hasn’t talked much since the meeting. She says she is fine, but something is bugging her. She obviously doesn’t want to talk about it though. I just hope she doesn’t hate me.
“I don’t know how this works. Do either of you have a phone?”
