Page 107 of Auctioned to the Mafia Don
Necessary.
Omar sets his cup down. “The plane will be ready by noon.”
He starts for the door, then pauses.
“Stefano.”
I look up.
If you are going to betray her,” he says, “do not make the mistake of believing she will stay because she loves you. She will stay only until the truth gives her somewhere else to go.
Dolores watches me over the rim of her coffee cup.
Omar leaves before I answer.
For several seconds, I remain behind the desk, listening to the house wake around me. The sound should settle something. It does not.
Tomorrow, we go to Boston.
Tomorrow, Maya will stand in the same room as Leon O’Reilly.
Tomorrow, I will give her the opportunity to see him fall.
Tomorrow, I will decide whether she sees what comes after.
What I have not decided is whether I am cruel enough to let her watch it. Tomorrow, Maya will decide whether that is justice or another betrayal.
Maya is already awake when I reach her room.
The door is open a few inches. She stands near the window in black leggings and one of my shirts, her hair falling loose around her shoulders while she studies the front drive below. The shirthangs low against her thighs. I should be thinking about the men outside the gate.
I am.
I am also thinking about the fact that she wears my clothes as if she belongs here.
She hears the door open and turns.
“What happened?”
No greeting. No hesitation. She reads my face too well now.
“The meeting changed.”
Her expression tightens. “When?”
“Tomorrow night.”
For a second, she does not move. Then she turns back toward the window and braces both palms against the sill.
“So Leon pushed it forward.”
“Yes.”
“Because he knows you took the children.”
“He suspects. And he has men watching the house.”
Maya glances over her shoulder. “You were going to tell me that part eventually too?” Her voice is flat now, controlled in the way it gets when she is trying not to show how much this matters to her.
