Kidnapped By The Italian Mafia

"Absolutely not." Henri crossed his arms and glared at me. "That's a terrible excuse."

"What do you mean?!" My voice was shrill, high pitched. "It's the most realistic excuse I can think of!" Panic was clawing at my throat. Henri just continued to glare at me. "Katarina liked being a heroine, it's realisitc!"

"Katarina wouldn't swoop in to save a random girl from her attacker." Henri rolled his eyes. "She'd pay the attacker to go for round two."

"How dare you!" I stood up with flair, skirts swishing and everything. "Katarina was a feminist, she would never abandon a young woman to suffer fate at the hands of a man!"

"She's right, you know." Moira agreed around her rose gold metal straw. "If there was something Kat hated it was patriarchal abuse of power. If Isabella says she was getting mugged and Katarina saved her, it's not that far fetched."

"But what excuse would an innocent girl like Isabella have for showing up to a black market auction? Katarina's supposed to be dead." My butler raised an eyebrow at my friend, who simply raised an eyebrow right back.

"An innocent young woman like Isabella would be gullible enough to be trapped by Katarina into an agreement she doesn't d.e.s.i.r.e. Connor and I showing up to meet with her would be enough to deter any suspicion. Everyone knows we're Katarina's minions." She shrugged casually, as if she weren't talking about me or the way I liked to trick people into doing what I wanted.

"Is that what people know you as?" I didn't know people referred to my best friends as my minions. That was new information for sure.

"Everyone says that," Connor clarified. "People know us as the Scotsman and the Sassenach."

"Did they get that from that show about the Englishwoman who time travelled?" Because it sure sounded like it.

"That's literally where everyone got it from." Moira rolled her eyes. "And since we're always together, it makes sense. That's what I hate most about it, that it makes sense."

"Jesus," the mob world was undergoing an enormous wave of sensationalism. It was almost embarrassing. Almost. On the other hand, it gave me very good ideas. "I got it. Katarina had a secret girlfriend. That's me."

"How in the hell would she have a secret girlfriend? Katarina loved flaunting her relationsh.i.p.s." Connor reminded me carefully, but his face was one of thought. He was slowly catching on. "Except with me."

"Your marriage was supposed to be a secret, remember?" My head turned towards my butler, who simply leaned against the table and gazed back at me coolly. "I did my research."

"That's not research," I narrowed my eyes at him. "How did you know?"

Henri looked guilty, which obviously meant that he was guilty. My eyes narrowed further. "I was cleaning your room and I saw something. This was before the kidnapping situation."

That made sense. I probably left something lying around from the reconstruction days. Nevermind how my butler knew, I just wanted to make sure nobody else knew. "So does nobody here think that my having a secret girlfriend would be plausible?"

"No." They all chanted in unison. "But love does crazy things. Maybe Katarina wanted to marry you and wanted to keep you secret because of Salvador. It's all a possibility." Moira added.

"It wouldn't be like Katarina to do something like that, but the context makes everything fit. Maybe Isabella is upholding her girlfriend's memory by completing a task Katarina mysteriously asked of her, almost like she knew she was going to disappear." I shrugged, but the plan was solidifying. "Even if you don't like it, Henri, try to find a significant flaw in it."

He frowned down at the floor, muscles bulging beneath his tailored suit. He was tense, of course. The plan wasn't perfect, but it was as close to something that was smooth sailing as possible. "Things might go one of two ways. One, they try to take advantage of you. Two, they respect you as much as they respected her. Another detail is that as soon as you appear, rumours are going to start spreading, and it's almost inevitable that you bump into Salvador. He's going to want to talk to the woman who was his daughter's love."

Shit, he was right. I needed to avoid my father as much as possible, and knowing Salvador, he was going to grill the f.u.c.k out of me in search for information. He would suspect Katarina was alive, and he would go through any measures necessary to get a definite answer.

"You're going to be in so much danger," Moira chuckled. "You know what your father's version of 'talking' is."

"What if I just go as a guest?" It wouldn't be the first time someone took a guest to the underworld and they ended up being trapped. "Why do I need to be Katarina's ex? Can't I just be there as a guest and explore?"

"Sure but that won't give you a legitimate reason to go poking around at things." Connor shrugged, eyeing Nazareth who was busy taking a basket of laundry down to the wash room. "I'll be right back, let me know what your decision is."

As soon as Connor left, everyone in the room sighed collectively. "We're getting nowhere with this endeavour. Maybe I should just give up."

"All you need is inspiration. What do you usually do to inspire yourself?" Henri rolled up his sleeves, showing off his wonderful forearms. "I like to cook."

"She doesn't cook, she f.u.c.ks." Moira pointed a thumb at me and whisper yelled. "Usually for twelve hours."

I rolled my eyes at her and fixed my skirt. It was true, but he didn't need to know that. My libido was a thing to be respected and I usually slept for hours and hours afterwards. Sure, the s.e.x helped open my mind to new possibilities, but strangely enough, I didn't feel like doing that right now. I was too preoccupied.

"Uh…" Henri fixed the collar of his shirt. "Is there anything else you would enjoy doing?"

"No. I'm not creative." Cursed as I was, doing creative things wasn't my forte. I was only imaginative whenever I was trying to screw someone else over.

"You figured out that you could change your entire face with temporary fillers and somehow you're not creative?" Moira raised an eyebrow. "You're such a f.u.c.k.i.n.g liar."

"Shut up, Moira." There was only one solution to this situation. "I'm going to have to wing it. Enter as a newbie who knew Kat lightly and just take it from there. Maybe say we slept together a few times."

Henri stared at me with a look on his face. "Katarina has a lot of friends but you would have to be very special to end up in the black market after she died."

This was true. I really should have thought about this before doing anything.

"The less far fetched version is that I worked for her somehow. Maybe I was in charge of… her fur trade?" Did I have a fur trade?

"Nice try," Moira grinned at me and leaned back in her seat. "Katarina doesn't believe in animal cruelty."

Dammit, I didn't even remember what I believed in.

"Faux fur trade."

"That's more believable." She conceded lightly. "But Kat hates fur."

"For f.u.c.ks sake, what the hell does Katarina Montenegro like?" My hands flopped beside me and I ran one through my hair with severe exasperation. There was no way I could get through this. "Wait," I sat straight up. "I got it. A strip club."

"Holy shit," Moira sat up too, staring at me. "Holy shit, how did we not think of this before?"

"Think of what?" Henri looked confused.

"When I was nineteen I wanted to open a club as a cover for all the stuff I was doing, but I had to have a minimum age limit. I did it anyway, but in England were the age limit is less, but what if I somehow roped Isabella into managing it for me?" That was an enormous possibility.

"That's good but it still doesn't explain why you're at a black market auction," Henri scrutinised, but then his face lit up with realisation. "Unless…"

"Exactly. I could be there for the human trade and buy out a few people to set them free. That's usually what I did before, anyway." It wasn't all that impossible and nobody would bat a single eyelash.

"The only problem is that we're going to have to relocate to England, then." Henri frowned, probably thinking about all the silverware he wasn't going to be able to polish. He was manic about polishing the silverware at the estate.

"Not necessarily. It's not so unusual for managers to live outside the country where they work, they just visit for spans of time to make sure everything is going well and that's it. They have assistants for that." Moira was tapping away at the screen of her cell phone, eyes trained on whatever she was doing. "I was actually going to tell you that we finished the second level of club Five a few weeks ago, but then with all this mess, I forgot."

"So if I say I'm looking for people to work at the club, it would be a completely solid plan." I looked at her for reassurance. "Right?"

"I think so." She finished the tapping and grinned up at me. "I've got my people over there making way for you. We're good to go if this is what you choose."

My butler was silent, but I looked at him anyway, searching for any red flags he might have noticed. So far, there didn't seem to be anything, which was great, in my opinion. Henri was a specialist in all things undercover, so I was very lucky to have him here with me.

"Let's do it." He nodded. "It's the closest we'll get to a solid plan, anyway."

"Forget about the hundred million euros, Moira." This was so exciting. Finally, we could take action! And with no need for extra money! This was amazing!