Kidnapped By The Italian Mafia

"How's the face?" I handed Connor an ice pack wrapped in cloth before taking a seat at the edge of his hospital bed. He was suffering from few broken bones and a bruised face, but ultimately he was going to make a full recovery. "I'm so sorry, Con."

"Been through worse, it comes with the job." He didn't even flinch when the pack made contact with his swollen eye. "Remember the fight in Cape Verde?"

"Oh my gosh, I thought you were going to die!" He had nearly gotten his head split in two. "I've never seen Annaliz run so fast for help."

"That woman can really run in heels." Connor sighed and leaned back into the pillows. "I was almost out of it but her stilettos in that sand didn't slip by me."

"Amazing." We didn't laugh, but the air felt less tense between us. I knew we'd be okay. "I really am sorry, Connor."

"I finally understand why you're doing this." His big hand searched out my own and he gripped it tight. "Salvador has been like a second dad to me my entire life. I understand his motives, but I also understand yours. He suffocates you."

"It's more my pride than anything." I sniffled, realising that my entire plan was falling apart. My father knew of things he shouldn't have known, and I was playing puppet master with strings that were too heavy for my hands. "When I'd started this, everything was foolproof. It slowly started to unravel when we got here."

"It's not a completely lost cause, though." Connor's thumb rubbed the back of my hand reassuringly. Under normal circ.u.mstances, I would've hugged him. "Nobody knows who you are."

"One of the people who worked for me was a mole, Connor. One of the people I hired, myself." Shame filled me like an empty glass. "I can't do it."

"I found out who the mole was." Connor cleared his throat awkwardly and adjusted his neck. "One of the girls seduced one of your guards and got information off of him. She's been feeding it to your dad for a while."

"Who?"

"Martha."

"I bloody knew that bitch was weird…" she'd been shifty when she brought up the drink the day that Marco brought his chemist friend to the club. Ever since, she avoided my eyes, even though I didn't see her much. "Where is she now?"

"In a ditch somewhere. The guard is in questioning right now." Connor paused, then looked at me again. "Ye know I love ye, right?"

"I love you too." I held his hand to my face and rested my cheek on it. "I'm going to make this right."

"I know, ye've never let me down. You make stupid choices, but you haven't let me down." We looked at each other and smiled softly. I loved him with everything in me. Maybe not so much in a romantic sense, but I loved him just the same. He and Moira were so special to me. "How's the butler?"

"I don't know, nobody would tell me anything. Last I heard, he was still in surgery." I ran my free hand over my face and sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do if he's gone."

"He's become an essential player very quickly." Connor looked away when Moira walked into the room carrying a tray of crumpets, jams, and butter with three table knives. "M, you bloody godsend."

"I've got your favourite preserves, too." Moira set the tray down and sat on the edge of the bed directly opposite to me. "Here." She handed me a cup of the coffee I'd asked for. "Extra foam."

"Thank you, babe." The first sip of coffee to run down my throat felt like a drop of water in a desert. "How are you looking?"

"I'm good, I'll just need some therapy for the next ten years or so." Moira looked down at her own cup and tapped her fingers on the hot cardboard. "It's not my first body but I froze."

"Usually we're on the trigger end of the gun, not the barrel." My own disappointment in myself started creeping up on me. "I don't know what I was thinking when I started this plan. Nobody else was supposed to be involved in this, only Henri and myself."

"Hey, but you needed help." Connor was beginning to sound like an enabler. I appreciated him, but I had to clean up my own mistakes.

"You guys are all I have on my own. I can't risk you raising my father's wrath anymore, so, I'm going to need you two gone." Without them present, their risk of danger was significantly less. Salvador knew what they were up to and he didn't trust me, so he didn't trust them. Even though Connor and Moira never really did anything other than support me and connect me to people, it was enough to have them blacklisted.

"Don't be stupid, Katarina. You need us." Moira rolled her eyes at me. "I'm not going anywhere and I won't hear another word about it."

"Neither will I." Connor stood his ground. I sighed and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose. These two were stubborn as hell.

"Guys, I appreciate it but this is only the beginning." I lowered my voice and looked around the room before leaning closer to them. "Marco knows my dad is here. Salvador might not know Marco is here as well, though. Once he finds out, he won't hesitate to kill you."

"Hello, are you forgetting that nobody can recognise you? You'll be the first person he kills." Moira tried talking some sense into me. "If anyone needs to leave, it's you."

"Didn't you hear what he said in the apartment?" Salvador had been specific with his words. "He made mention of me working at Club Five, but he linked it with Kat's disappearance. He thinks I'm working there to harm his daughter. He hasn't caught on to the current yet but he will."

"And we'll be there to help." Connor insisted, as if he didn't have broken ribs and a bruised neck. "This doesn't change anything."

"Yeah, we don't work for Salvador, we work for you now."

My eyes teared up and my bottom lip stuck out in an involuntary pout, a habit I'd developed since I was a child and saw something heartwarming.

"You guyssss!" I dabbled at the corners of my eyes with the tip of my finger to prevent any tears from watering off my eyelash glue. "Oh my god."

"I came as soon as I received your message!" Dominico chose that exact same moment to enter the room with a huff and a puff. "I'm so sorry, Miss VanBurren."

"Don't speak to me, I'm having a moment." I waved him away and continued dabbing at my eyes. Out of everything and Connor's life being in immediate danger, I didn't expect them to stick by me at all. My first thought would've been that they wanted to run for the hills, which would've been fair considering. "Oh my god, you guys!"

"Alright, calm down, it's not that deep." My best friend rolled her eyes at me but patted my back nonetheless. "You should've figured this out when we moved in with you."

"I thought you were there to control what I did!" I sniffled and looked up at the ceiling. My eyes wouldn't stop leaking. "I love you guys."

"We know." They replied in unison.