Chapter 24 Late
It's ten minutes past six, yet my father and Dante are still nowhere in sight. They've told me they won't take long, but they did. They lied. Again. The countless texts I've sent them have been left unanswered. What has gotten them so preoccupied, other than the meeting to plan the capture of Romanos? Where could they be now?
"Do you know where my father and Dante are right now?" I ask Carlo. He stays standing by my bedroom door, his gaze locked on the boring white wall in front of us.
"They're on their way back," Carlo says. Suspicious of his answer, I squint my eyes as I stare at him. However, he remains nonchalant as he guards the hallway in silence.
Carlo said that half an hour ago. How far was the meeting venue? It shouldn't take hours for them to arrive there and come back here. Unless they go to another city, it won't take them more than an hour to be back.
"You're lying," I say.
"I'm not. Here, look at my phone," Carlo says.
On Carlo's phone screen, the truth is clearly shown. My father texted that he's currently on his way and his ETA is thirty minutes. I hate that he's telling the truth. If they're done with everything already, why didn't my father and Dante reply to my text? If they thought avoiding me like a plague would calm me down, then they're so dead wrong. All it does is the opposite.
"Okay. I'm going back to my room," I say with a frown.
"Let me know if you need anything," Carlo says.
Anything, huh?
"You know what I mean," Carlo says, shooting me a look before I get to say anything. Rolling my eyes, I step back into my room with a scowl.
My father and Dante's tardiness in getting back home in time still leaves questions in my mind. Did anything happen while they were there? They said they were attacked before, so there could be a chance they got attacked again. My father told me they won't take long, but they did, and the attack is probably the reason they're only on their way home right now, or maybe, could they have found the Romanos and been taking care of them first before they went back? At least one of those bastards? I really hope they did, but at the moment, I feel like it's just wishful thinking. If none of that happens and they're hiding secrets from me again, I might have to try to run away again. Not actually running away and not coming back. Not right now. I'll do that just to gauge their reactions so they won't keep any secrets from me ever again.
Half an hour has passed, and I hear mumbled talking outside my room. Could it be my father and Dante? Are they back already?
The door opens slowly before I get to leave my bed. There, my father enters the room with Dante following closely behind him. I hope they have good news for me after they've been missing since breakfast. They seem fine right now, so I guess they were safe while on their meeting.
"You're still awake?" my father asks.
"Well, it's still 8.30. What took you so long?" I ask.
"We got an emergency to handle at the winery. Somehow, one of the distillery machines broke down, and some of the wine also failed in the fermentation process, so I have to supervise while the people make a new batch," my father says.
That sucks. How much did he lose? Whatever. He can handle a bit of a fail. I don't think we're losing more than three barrels. I guess. I don't know. Damn. I barely know anything about this wine stuff, and I don't want to know anything more about it for now. What's important is the Romanos and the progress of our plan with them.
"Oh. How about the Romanos? Have you found them already?" I ask.
"No, but we're certain they're still staying near the French border," my father says. Okay. If the Romanos are still there, it should be easy for us to find them. At least we know which area to search for them. I wonder if all of them are there or just one of them.
"Okay. Who is it, though? Did you find out about who's there?" I ask.
"It's Mauro. It's not Alvaro, but it's better than nothing," my father says.
Mauro, Alvaro's third son. He's known to be a player, just like Alvaro's other sons, but he's a bit worse compared to his brothers when it comes to playing with girls. He's a year younger than me, and he's done so much insane stuff in his life since he was thirteen. At least that's what I heard from Dante. He's been into killing people for fun since then. A psycho that he is. Other than that, in such young age, Mauro has raped plenty of girls younger than him, even as low as six years old. That's just how sick Mauro and the rest of the family are.
"What's our plan?" I ask.
"Nothing crazy. Once we get Mauro's specific location, we'll first keep a close eye on him first. When his guard is low and the coast is clear, we'll catch him. He might be suspicious already about our moves so we should act more carefully now," my father says.
"Starting from tomorrow?" I ask. My father nods in response. Good. The sooner the better. If we keep postponing our plan, we'll end up losing them again and I don't want that. Since I'm not allowed to do anything to help them, the only thing I can do now is to hope that our plan will work.
"Yes. Our men will do it tomorrow. They might need to cross the border and get into France to get him, but we'll definitely get them. So, don't worry and go to bed now. Oh, but have you eaten yet?" my father says.
"Yeah, an hour ago," I say.
"Alright. I'm going to bed now," my father says.
"Okay. Good night," I say.
"Good night, tesoro."
Squeezing my shoulder, my father shoots me a little smile and then leaves the room. Dante still stands next to me by the bed. His gaze is unreadable as he stares at me in silence. He seems tired though. A little pale, even. I wonder what's he's thinking right now.
"You should get some rest. You've been outside for hours. I don't understand why my father still assigns you as my bodyguard when he keeps you busy with other stuff besides watching me," I say.
"It's fine. I've got some rest on the road," Dante says.
"Come sit here first," I say, shifting in bed and put my legs down on the floor. A soft grunt leaves him as he takes a seat next to me. My eyes instantly moves toward him, and my eyes land on his hand holding onto his right shoulder.
My gaze lingers on his right shoulder, kind of hoping I instantly get X-ray vision to see through his black button-up. Is it only shoulder pain or something worse? I don't think someone like Dante would get that worked up over something as petty as a shoulder pain, so it's definitely something worse.
"Are you trying to undress me with your eyes?" Dante says. I look at his face, and as I expected, he already has a stupid smirk plastered onto his face. I roll my eyes at his joke. Now's definitely not the time for joke. I need to know the truth.
"I'm not. What's with your shoulder? It seems like you're hurt," I say.
"It's nothing. It hurts just a bit from all the sitting, standing, and being in the car for a long time," Dante says. Liar. He's lying. He's definitely hiding a wound or something like that under his clothes.
"Open up your shirt then we'll see if you're telling the truth," I say.
"You're getting bolder now, aren't you? Just say so if you want to see me shirtless," Dante says with an even wider cocky smirk. I sigh at his response and sends him a scowl.
Even when he's hurt, he still have time to joke around. I need to see if he's really fine or not yet he keep deflecting and delaying my request. He better takes off his shirt right fucking now or I'll just force it off of him. Whatever it takes to make sure he's fine or not.
"I'm serious. Let me see your shoulder," I say..
"I'm fine. What are you going to do with it anyway?" Dante says.
"Just let me look at it. If you have nothing to hide, then show me your shoulder right now."