Page 106 of Auctioned to the Mafia Don
A knock interrupts us.
Dolores enters without waiting for permission, carrying a tray with coffee, toast, and enough fruit to feed a small army. She takes one look at us and sighs.
“You are both making the house ugly before breakfast.”
“Good morning, Dolores.”
“It is not a good morning with those faces.”
Omar steps aside while she claims the corner of my desk. She pours coffee into two cups, hands one to him, then sets mine in front of me firmly enough to rattle the spoon.
“You have not eaten.”
“I will.”
“You say that every day.”
“And I’m right.”
She gives me a look that has frightened armed men since before I was old enough to hold a weapon.
From the hallway, Erin laughs again. A second later, Heath says, “That is not how it happened,” with the same grave offense he gives any bad storytelling.
Dolores’s face softens.
“They are asking for Maya.”
“She is asleep,” I say.
“She should be. The poor girl looks as if she has been carrying everyone in this house on her back.”
“That is because she insists on helping.”
Dolores folds her arms. “You like that about her.”
I look at her.
She smiles without mercy.
Omar lowers his eyes to his coffee, hiding the fact that he is enjoying this.
“Boston tomorrow,” I say, changing the subject.
Dolores loses her amusement. “And the children?”
“Remain here. Additional men at every entry point. No staff changes. No deliveries without Omar’s approval. No one leaves the estate without my authorization.”
Omar nods. “I will double the internal rotation.”
“Not visibly,” I tell him. “They are children, not prisoners.”
His eyes hold mine for a beat.
Then he nods again.
That is the difference Maya has made. Before her, I would have sealed the house like a fortress and called it protection. Now I have to consider what Erin will see when she looks down a hall crowded with unfamiliar men. I have to consider how Heath will count the guards and decide whether he is safe or trapped.
Inconvenient.
