Page 5 of Rescued By the Mafia
She watched him stride from the room, his card still clutched between her fingers. And it finally clicked. When she’d been researching The Dragon’s Roast to prep for her interview, she’d come across that name—Dante De Salvo was her employer.
two
All Alone
“Aurelio,” Dante called as he pushed his way into the restaurant manager’s office. He wasn’t overly surprised to find both of his brothers also there, and that was fine. All three men rose to their feet at his entrance but Dante continued up to the edge of Aurelio’s desk, coming to a stop before the office door had even swung shut again.
Aurelio, the man mostly in charge of The Dragon’s Roast, swallowed nervously under Dante’s scrutiny. He was a reliable, hard-working, and disconcertingly amicable guy, all of which had made him an easy choice for the position when Dante had needed a face for the restaurant. His biggest problem, arguably, was that he was a shit liar.
“I assume you would have mentioned to me if we had an issue with our security system?” Dante asked.
Aurelio nodded slowly. Confusion furrowed his brow. “Of course, Boss. Everything’s running smoothly.”
“Good. Get a copy of the footage covering the back lot from tonight sent to Mikey’s email ASAP.”
Mikey spoke up, tone respectfully somber. “What happened?”
Iris’s pale, panicked face lingered in his memory and Dante felt his jaw clench. “Hopefully just a little misplaced vandalism.” He said hopefully for her sake, because the moment he’d asked her about enemies, her reaction had made it clear. She was either running or hiding from someone. Someone who terrified her. Someone who’d hurt her. And while that was the person whose throat he’d prefer to slit, for the time being, he would be pacified dealing with whoever had done the same to her tires.
“Vandalism?” Aurelio repeated, his surprise apparently overriding his discomfort. “We’ve never—” He gave himself a shake. “Of course. I’ll get that footage copied and sent over right away.”
“One more thing,” Dante said.
Aurelio paused, having taken only a single step from his desk.
Dante made sure to keep his expression impassive as he held his man’s gaze. “I want everything you have on Iris.”
Romeo made a brief choking sound.
Dante pointedly ignored him.
Aurelio’s eyes widened for a split-second. “Iris? Sure.” He turned and reached for the tablet sitting on his desktop. “I know she was assigned your table last-minute; I hope there wasn’t an issue—”
“Just send me the information. I’ll let you know if you have anything to worry about.”
“Right, of course.” Aurelio tapped a couple of times on the screen, and a few seconds later, Dante heard a soft ping from the phone in his breast pocket. Aurelio set the tablet down again. “I’ll get the tech guys started on that footage transfer for you now.” He inclined his head and hurried from the room.
Only once the door was shut did Romeo let out a quiet laugh. “Little Red really got under your skin, huh? I kinda thought you were looking for her when you split off earlier.”
Dante flexed his fists at his sides. It was usually easier to let Romeo spout off and be done with it rather than react to his teasing, but he had to fight the reaction this time. He wanted to tell his brother to shut up and forget he’d ever laid eyes on Iris. Almost as badly as he wanted to disembowel every man who’d contributed to her current state of fear.
The only way he could fix either, however, was to control himself. For the time being.
“Let’s go,” Dante said, ignoring Romeo’s jibe. “We’re done here.” He’d get his brothers home, take a moment to bid goodnight to the rest of the immediate family, and then he’d pour over the information Aurelio had forwarded to him.
Her manager had insisted not only on driving her home, but also on paying for the late-night tow. Iris wanted to feel guilty about accepting such generosity, particularly after the encounter she’d had with the owner of the restaurant, but she couldn’t. Not in the face of the fear that had gripped her tight from the moment Dante had left her side.
Even after Aurelio got her back to her apartment and she had locked herself inside, Iris was afraid. She wholly expected to turn around and come face-to-face with the only man who could possibly hate her enough to target her at all. Instead, when she turned and put her back to the door, she found the apartment empty. Quiet. Dark, except for the dim yellow nightlight Elise kept in the bathroom.
Iris drew a deep breath and moved directly to the light switch, flipping on the overhead kitchen light and flooding the majority of the space with too-bright fluorescent light. She had to squint, but the light revealed what she already suspected. The apartment remained still. There was a note attached via magnet to the refrigerator that she didn’t remember seeing before. It was Elise’s usual system, but still Iris hesitated to move closer.
She waited long enough to be as sure as was possible that nothing else was moving.
Then she carefully pulled the note from the fridge and allowed herself to read the confirmation that tangled a strange mixture of relief and fear inside her. Elise had gone out with friends and didn’t plan to be back until the next day. She was going drinking, probably with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, so realistically it would be a couple of days before she stumbled in. That was how Elise was when she didn’t have to buckle down for work.
And that meant Iris was alone.
I lied. It hadn’t been intentional, and it didn’t exactly matter, but it struck her that she’d told Dante she had a roommate who would be home with her. Rather, that she had a roommate, so she wouldn’t be alone. She’d thought the words were true enough. She’d thought Elise would be around, another body occupying the same residence. But she had been wrong.