Page 13 of Tall, Dark, and Grumpy

Vito

Location. Now.

Amore mio dolce

At a bar.

Vito

Which bar?

Amore mio dolce

Dunno

Vito

Which bar, Miss Meadows? Tell me now.

Amore mio dolce

Keep your hair on

Vito

I am. You’re turning it grey.

Amore mio dolce

You’d think they’d have a “you are here” sign for drunk people.

I’ll ask the barman.

Vito

No.

Amore mio dolce

Why not?

Because she’s the most beautiful woman in the world, and she’ll have men swarming around her. They’ll be trying to get into her knickers. Maybe the barman, or anyone in the bar. Panic surges. I can’t let her be taken advantage of if she’s drunk in a bar. She sounds drunk. She’s arounddrunk people. Anything could happen to her.

Vito

Send me a pin of your location.

I hold my breath. Part of me is convinced she will ignore me, or refuse. One minute ticks by, then two. I have to inhale. I force myself to.

“I use it to keep tabs on… Someone important,” Sev is wittering on, trying to show me some app or another. I give him a death look and he rolls his eyes. “What is the point of being a mafia boss if you’re not going to use shady techniques?”

“Because…” I can’t express why I have to play it straight with Miss Meadows.Cassie. God, I really shouldn’t allow myself to think of her like that. After all, how did I discover it? By having HR send me her file, and reading it over and over again.

I like to think I’m more moral than Sev, which admittedly doesn’t take much. But equally, I don’t have a spotless record,especially if you go back to my early years in Milan. Or last month with Mr Hathaway.

If she knew… Miss Meadows wouldn’t tell me where she was if she didn’t trust me. There’s nothing to keep me hoping, not dots indicating an update on the screen as I watch the static background and re-read our exchange while Sev says unhelpful younger brother things, like, “We could put a tracker on her handbag.”

But then it appears, popping up with no text. Just a map with a precise location in London.