Page 118 of Koroleva

Nikita tapped her red nails on the table while my father, uncle, and cousin engaged in a heated discussion about how to regain control that we didn’t even realize we were losing.

"Why are you so important to them?" was the next question thrown by my Nonna. Everyone fell silent.

"Mrs. Koroleva already told you that I possess a lot of information, Mr. Cheng did not make a move without my supervision," Xia responded. My grandmother shook her head.

"That's not it. There's something more here... Who are you really, Xia Wang?" For a moment, the woman’s eyes reflected fear, the same fear a mouse senses when it knows it’s about to be devoured by a snake.

Nikita looked toward the Chinese woman and then back at my Nonna, who appeared as if she were in the middle of a card game.

"I don’t know what you mean..." Her tone had lost its firmness.

"Of course, you do, Miss Wang, or should I call you, Mr. Cheng."

We all looked at each other in astonishment, because either my grandmother was bluffing or she had just laid down a royal flush. It was always said at home that she had a sixth sense and could detect things that others couldn’t even imagine. That’s why my grandfather fell madly in love with her, because she was twenty times smarter and more dangerous than he was.

The transmission abruptly cut off.

"What happened?" Salvatore asked. "Was it a network failure?" We were at my father's house, so he got up to check the router.

"It wasn't on our end," he reported.

"Where is she?" muttered Don Giuliano, glaring at Nikita. My wife immediately responded with something she had been safeguarding from everyone.

"In a hotel. Two of my men are guarding her room." She looked at my grandmother in denial. "It can't be; she can’t be..." she stammered.

"Of course, it is. You are too young to stare the devil in the face and realize it’s him. You lack the life experience to perceive these details, you have to look beyond what they want you to believe," my Nonna explained. "Nikita, call your men to make sure they are still alive and that she hasn’t already escaped."

Nikita lifted her phone. It was the first time I saw her hand tremble. No one answered. She shouted something in Russian and threw the phone to the ground, shattering it.

"You couldn't have known," I tried to calm her. She met my gaze, distilling a hatred that belonged more to her than to me.

"That's not enough."

"Which hotel is she staying at?" Salvatore pressed, phone in hand. Nikita gave him the details; it was near the port of Marbella, a bad place for us and an ideal one for her.

"I'll call our men to comb the area," I said, reaching for my iPhone.

"She’s already gone," my Nonna stated confidently, "she has won this round, but that doesn’t mean we concede the war." My grandmother’s knobby fingers grabbed the glass of Limoncello and downed it in one gulp.

"That's why she accepted my protection," Nikita muttered, "to infiltrate my people and know my moves... She used me!" she roared angrily. My grandmother poured another drink and had Uncle Giuliano pass it to my wife.

"Drink, calm your nerves, and sit down. Now that we know the face of our enemy, we can find that porcona[4]. You're not alone, Nikita Koroleva; once you're in our family, you never leave. The mafia neither forgets nor forgives."

When we got home, Nikita continued to blame herself. It didn't matter that I told her I hadn't seen what was so obvious to my grandmother either.

The mobilization of personnel did nothing; neither my men nor those of my father or uncle could find Xia Wang, or rather, Mr. Cheng.

He vanished, annihilating the two guards outside the hotel room with two damn butter knives he had kept from breakfast.

We kept going over the weekend altercation with Aleksa and Andrey. My man was recovering at home from a rib fracture, and the Russian was playing nurse.

If the hotel guys were Cheng's men, why did they want to know Miss Wang's whereabouts? It didn't make sense; something was eluding us, and we didn't know what.

Salvatore insisted it was a smokescreen, meant to further safeguard the Chinese woman's anonymity and take out our trusted men. I didn't buy that theory, and neither did Nikita.

After hours of discussion, Nonna sent us all to rest, saying she wanted to weigh things carefully before deciding how we were going to act.

Nikita didn't even want to drive. She spent the ride in silence, massaging her temples and talking on my phone with her men to keep searching.