Page 4 of Sin City Obsession (De Salvo Empire #1)

Alessa held her tongue for a moment, studying his body language as much as his words.

She watched Rocco’s reaction in her peripheral vision and noted the absolute stillness in Emanuele and Ignazio.

The latter pair gave every indication of being well-trained soldiers, that didn’t bother her.

And as far as she could tell, Don Cavallo was entirely sincere. Or a fabulous liar.

She decided to hope it was the former, straightened, and smiled. “I appreciate that greatly. I’ll try not to be too rough on your men.”

She thought she saw amusement flicker in the older man’s eyes.

“Well, if that’s still all we know, then I would like for you to put out those feelers as soon as you’re able. In the meantime, I’m exhausted, so I think I’ll rest up before I hit the streets— unless something happens. You should have my number?”

“We do,” Senior confirmed. “It was provided with your information.” He looked to his side. “I suspect she doesn’t have yours, son.”

Alessa thought she saw Rocco’s eyebrow twitch, but he swiftly reached into his suit pocket and extracted his phone. “Let me remedy that.” His eyes suddenly met hers and she felt her phone buzz in her jeans pocket. “Done.”

Heat threatened to crawl up her neck and Alessa fought it down.

There was no sense getting flustered over being texted by a man she was going to be working with, a man she already knew had her number.

I’m just tired. Alessa obligingly pulled out her phone and tapped open the message attached to the unfamiliar number.

It was literally just a greeting and the words ‘here’s Ignazio’ beside a second number.

Which was actually thoughtful .

Alessa lowered the device rather than derailing their conversation to add the two numbers just yet. “Thank you.” She had to swallow back his name before it could fall from her lips. He may have given her permission to use it, but this wasn’t the kind of setting where that was okay.

Senior stood. “Well, you go on and rest up. I imagine you’ll be busy starting tomorrow. The restaurant opens at five, and serves breakfast until two. Don’t be shy.”

Alessa stood, as did Rocco, and she bent briefly forward again. “Thank you,” she repeated. “I’ll definitely partake of that in the morning.” She waved her phone before tucking it away. “Please don’t hesitate to contact me if anything develops in the meantime. Goodnight.”

Senior smiled, but it was Rocco who spoke, hands tucked into his pockets, “Goodnight, Ms. Adimari. We’ll speak tomorrow.”

So he wasn’t going to continue the escort. She didn’t know why that surprised her. Alessa plastered a smile on anyway, turned, and didn’t bat an eye when Ignazio opened the door for her. She dearly hoped he wouldn’t insist on that everywhere, but in his boss’s office, she would give it to him.

In the elevator, Alessa leaned back against the support rail and turned her head toward her soundless guard.

“Are you sleeping in the hall or something?” The one line she would absolutely be drawing was if he insisted on sleeping in the same room as her.

Comped or not, that was an invasion of personal space.

Ignazio glanced sidelong at her for a lingering second. “Of course not. I’ll make sure you get inside safely, then take my leave. If you could please text or call me before you head down for breakfast, I’ll make sure to be back at the hotel before you’re ready to depart.”

Well. That was entirely reasonable. Alessa relaxed a fraction. “I can do that.”

They didn’t speak further, and the elevator released them on the top floor with only one awkward intrusion. True to his word, Ignazio followed her into the suite, looked around as if to verify that nothing untoward had happened while they were out, then offered her a nod and took his leave.

And just like that, she was alone in a city she’d never even imagined stepping foot in.

Alessa found herself walking up to the glass paneled wall, letting her eyes drink in the sight.

Bright lights blinked, flashed, and burned in all directions, announcing destinations she’d only ever seen in movies and teasing attractions she hadn’t fully believed were real.

It was a shame she wasn’t there to explore.

Casinos and gambling had never much appealed to her, but it would still be fun to visit such infamous places.

Just for the sake of it. Maybe take a few selfies and—

She clamped a hand over her mouth and spun, putting her back to the nighttime vista. Her throat swelled once more as her eyes burned.

Stupid. Stupid, Alessa. It had been nearly four months already, and sometimes she still caught herself forgetting. Just for moments. Precious moments that let those stupid, heartbreaking thoughts slip back in.

It was a good thing she wasn’t there to explore. Playing tourist would only remind her of the pain waiting back home.

“I don’t remember us talking about me clearing my schedule,” Rocco said firmly as soon as Em had stepped from the room.

Rocco Senior sighed and made his way over to the shelf where his whiskey waited, pouring himself a glass. “Drink?”

Rocco frowned. “I’ll pass.”

His father shrugged, recapped the decanter, and made his way back toward the sofa. “Let’s be reasonable about this, son,” he said. “How’s one woman supposed to make a difference? She doesn’t even know this city.”

“As you pointed out, that’s what Ignazio’s for.” And Rocco was absurdly glad Ignazio had been his father’s choice for the job, because Ignazio had the lowest sex-drive out of any man Rocco had ever known. He’d never once seen the man so much as stare at a woman’s ass.

“Yes, yes, Ignazio will compensate for that to some degree.” Senior tipped the crystal to his lips, swallowing half the liquid down before he continued.

“Whoever we’re dealing with presumably has muscle to spare, and makes seemingly sizable loans to once-wealthy men.

They’re ignorant, thankfully, of whom they’ve provoked this time, but we can’t assume that will last.” He met Rocco’s stare with a furrowed brow.

“The De Salvos will mop up that George fellow soon enough. We want to at least have made some noise in the right neighborhoods by then, to keep them from simply sending out a replacement.”

Rocco sighed and perched on the arm of the sofa, letting one leg stretch out. “I get that, Father. I understand the importance of the job.” He certainly knew what the Dragon had done for them several years before, when he himself had been too green behind the ears to do anything useful.

That force of a man had only been one year older than him by age, but everything about him had carried on a different plane. It had been equal parts inspiring and terrifying. And the wake-up call Rocco had desperately needed to pull his shit together.

“So it’s the girl you question.”

Rocco locked his jaw for a beat. Then, carefully, he said, “It’s not as if I’m not generally busy. You expect me to just dump or reschedule all my appointments?”

Senior made a sound of dismissal and knocked back the rest of his drink.

“That’s already done, Rocco. I’ll handle the few that can’t be rescheduled.

The rest have been passed to someone else or delayed.

” He leaned forward, set the crystal on the coffee table, and sat back at an angle to meet Rocco’s stare.

“I’m not saying you have to actively babysit her.

But stay in touch. Be available. Just as she is his voice here, I want you to be mine with her.

” His brow furrowed. “Do you understand?”

Fuck. He understood, all right. He understood better than he would be able to explain to his stubborn old man. Rocco pushed to his feet. “Fine.” It looked like he wouldn’t be able to avoid the walking temptation he’d just brought in from the airport, after all.

Alessa saw her mother patting down the already-smooth lapels of a perfectly pressed black suit as if walking out of a haze. Nothing else was clear, not until her mother spoke.

“You look so sharp, Al.”

Alessa’s father chuckled, the sound tinged with a familiar smoker’s rasp. “Just like your old man!” His voice was full of pride.

She’d be able to see it if she could tear her own eyes away from the sharp-dressed man in front of her.

When he smiled it was as if he lost half his age, going from a man just entering his thirties to a lanky teen of maybe sixteen.

But no matter, because there was no denying who he was.

Her treasured older brother, the one who’d held her hand every single time she’d been scared and the one who always remembered which flavor pie was actually her favorite.

“Al…” Her voice choked as tears rushed her eyes.

He seemed to smile wider, brighter, almost blinding. “Did you hear, Lessa?” He raised his chin and puffed out his chest with visible pride, their father laughing again in the background. “I got promoted to the underboss’s private security detail!”

The excitement and relief pouring through her popped like a balloon, which only made her tears fall free.

“Oh, we’re so proud of you, Alfonso,” their mother crooned.

Al turned his smile in the direction of her voice, before sweeping it forward again. “Today’s my first day on-duty, so I have to get going.”

Alessa’s throat constricted. Her parents started talking over themselves with silly, senseless, oblivious advice he didn’t need. Al began moving out of her line of sight. Finally, as if in a panic, her voice rushed up and words all but exploded from her chest. “Al! Wait, don’t! Don’t go!”

The haze around her swirled, shifting, and Al stopped with a light laugh. “Don’t be jealous, baby sister. You’re doing great yourself, aren’t you?”

Alessa gave a hard shake of her head and reached out, trying to grab hold of his arm, trying to stop him. “No, you don’t understand—”

Al whipped around, suddenly surrounded by volatile energy.

“It’s too late though, isn’t it?” His angry question hung in the air, echoing in her ears, as blood began running from his eyes and nose, then his ears.

And in the next instant, his head tipped back and his entire body jerked as if taking a fresh round of gunfire.

Blood splattered into the air, lingering even when he dropped.

Alessa snapped awake choking on a scream, her eyes burning and her chest heaving. Her vision was blurred and she could hardly breathe as she tried her best to shove the concocted image from her mind.

It wasn’t like she’d even seen his body after the accident that had killed him.

She only knew her brother had been in a terrible accident, that the SUV had rolled, and the gang responsible had gone to the trouble of shooting him up like Swiss cheese before he could even lift his gun to defend himself.

She scooted up until her back was pressed into the headboard, pulled her knees to her chest, and let out a strangled sob.

Her brother had died shortly before Valentine’s Day. It was early June already, but that wasn’t enough time. There would never be enough time.

Her brother’s death had been a tragedy, yes. A tragedy made worse, for her, because she’d been away on a job when it happened. She’d left town for forty-eight hours, and in those two days, her entire world had changed.

Alessa blew out a hard breath and shoved from the bed. The faintly glowing display of her phone indicated her alarm wouldn’t be going off for a while yet, so, once more, she went ahead and turned it off. She didn’t know why she even set the thing anymore.

There was still some time to kill before the restaurant opened downstairs, so she took herself down to the main floor of her suite, put some music on, and started in on a makeshift exercise routine.

The hotel probably had a gym, but there wasn’t much sense in her seeking it out.

A round of push-ups, crunches, wall lunges, and some air-boxing was more than enough.

Once she’d worked up a good sweat, out of breath for an acceptable reason, she jogged up the steps—extra leg work—for a quick, admittedly nice, shower.

It was 5:31 in the morning when she looked at her phone again. Ignazio had told her to text him before she went down to the restaurant, so she chewed on her guilt and opened her text app.

Going for breakfast now.

As soon as she clicked send she immediately cursed herself. The least she could have done was add a ‘good morning’ to the obnoxiously early message. But the damage was done. She wasn’t going to send a second with the greeting, that would make things awkward.

Alessa hiked her purse up to her shoulder and paused again, before turning and forcing her feet to carry her over to the window wall.

From the way the sky had begun to lighten, it was easy to see she would have a spectacular view of the sunrise—or the sunset—if she wanted.

The view was probably majestic. She felt tears sting her eyes as she looked over the skyline for another moment, and she let herself whisper, “Watch over me, big brother.”

Then she drew a deep, steadying breath, put her back to the view, and strode from the room. She wasn’t there for a view or for any soul-searching. She had a job to do.