THIRTY |

If I'd been unable to accept Lucas' words before, I was stunned beyond comprehension now. That my father felt he could manipulate and use others was unsurprising, but his plan to literally give me away to one of the most ruthless and notoriously cruel gangleaders? Unbelievable.

I'd heard Arturo mention the Ivanovs to his men in passing. They had their hands predominantly in trafficking and the drugs trade – the latter of which put them at odds with the Luccheses. But I knew they usually kept out of each other's way. Victor Ivanov was a heartless man. He killed indiscriminately – guilty, innocent, he didn't care, the more collateral the better, and as for the women who fell into his hands...

I shook the thought away. If I thought about it I would panic. Just breathe. Arturo wouldn't let anything like that happen to you. He will keep you safe.

"Florence?" Lucas stared at me with concern and snapped his fingers in front of my face.

"I– Arturo won't let him. There's no way."

"It's not that simple. They..."

"They what?" I was growing tired of getting half-answers out of Luke. My anxiety only increased the longer this dragged on.

"They have something over him."

"Something over him? Like what, evidence of something he's done in the past? A video? A threat? Because I fail to see how any of that is going to make him hand me over to my father who, by the way, he hates."

"A threat isn't far off," Lucas said. "But it's less of a what and more of a who."

"They have someone else important to him?" That made sense. If they had somehow captured Sofia, she would present quite the challenge. Asking him to choose between us would surely be difficult. But Sofia belonged to Salvo, she was his problem. The Genovese wouldn't just be challenging the New York Lucchese family but those who resided in Italy too. "A family member?"

"Honestly Flo, I don't know."

A feeling of unease crawled over my skin. If this person wasn't Arturo's family...suddenly I regretted not talking about our pasts more. "A man?" I asked – pleaded, more like.

Lucas slowly shook his head. His expression was grave. "A woman. Her name is Cecelia. She's the same age as Arturo, and Italian."

"You didn't need to remind me she's the same age as him," I grumbled, folding my arms and staring at the ground.

"It could be a member of his family," Lucas suggested.

"Or not."

"He really hasn't mentioned this to you?"

"No, Luke, he hasn't. When you're going to trade your girlfriend for some, some–"

"You don't know who she is yet," he reminded me gently.

"Well when you're going to trade your girlfriend for some other woman you probably don't go parading that news around." I huffed indignantly. "Don't you know her surname?"

"You know I took a step back years ago, after the attack. The information I have was gathered purely by listening in on conversations, they don't give me details anymore."

When I didn't respond, Lucas continued. "I'm sorry for dropping this on you now, Florence. I know we haven't spent time together without mention of the mafia in too long, but you must see that I had to tell you."

"I know," I breathed shakily. "Thank you."

"You don't know that Arturo is planning on trading you."

"No, but I do know he hasn't even spoken to me about any of this. This is wrong, Lucas, I shouldn't have to find out shit like this from you, my boyfriend shouldn't be keeping things from me full stop but when they concern me?" I set my jaw angrily.

Rachie interrupted our conversation as she ran over to us giggling happily and Lucas bent down to pick her up. "Can Auntie Flo come and play?"

"Not right now, Rach. Flo needs some time to herself, okay?"

Rachel's big blue eyes widened. "Is she okay?"

I might have found it adorable the way she spoke about me as if I was some secret and not stood right next to her but I was too angry right now. If I didn't hold onto my anger, then I knew hurt would take over and I'd break down. I needed to be angry to confront Arturo.

"She's fine," Lucas assured the little girl. "Five more minutes then we'll go home and I'll let you stay up a whole hour past your bedtime. Deal?"

Rachie nodded vigorously as her Uncle placed her down and she went running off to one of the climbing walls.

"You shouldn't spoil her," I said, staring off into the distance.

"I'm going to forget about the fact that you pretty much continuously fed her sweets when we visited you in Cambridge and chalk that comment up to your bad mood." He seemed to observe me for a second, probably hoping for a smile, then he sighed. "You need to talk to him. As much as I hate Arturo and he hates me and I'd love to tell you to run for the hills and never look back, you and I both know that isn't the solution."

I balled my hands into fists. "How am I supposed to trust him when he doesn't even tell me –"

"Flo." Detecting I was building up to a rant Lucas cut me off before I could really get started. "Whatever is going on here needs to be resolved between you and Arturo. You've got to hear him out, and sure, if he feeds you a load of bullshit lies, then be angry. Be very angry. But you've got to hear what he has to say, we don't even know who this woman is or how he feels about her. I sure as hell don't like defending the guy but I know you love him, and how do you know he isn't trying to resolve the problem without getting you involved at all?"

"You're right," I admitted with a sigh. "It just sometimes feels like we only go backwards."

"It will get better," Luke promised. "And if it doesn't, you've got to find the strength to know what to do. Rachie, time to go!"

I stayed silent for most of the journey back to Lucas' house, attempting to cultivate my anger in order to deny what lay beneath it: fear. I was scared of who this woman might be and what she might mean to Arturo, I was scared to find out how much he valued me or whether he would fight to keep me safe. Our relationship had been a rocky one from the start, but especially recently, and this was the sort of storm I was worried we might not weather. Hell, we hadn't even got over our last fight and now another issue had come up? It was ludicrous. Arturo controlled so much of my life, tracked me and fixed my job supposedly in the name of my 'safety' yet now I had found out he might be the biggest threat to it. And if he wasn't, then he still had failed to keep me informed about anything.

"Do you need me to drive you all the way home?" Lucas asked as we pulled up.

"Shit!!" I'd been so engrossed in what Luke had revealed I forgot that Amber was waiting in the car for me. "I'm such a bad friend," I groaned. "Amber has been here this whole time. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd just given up and left me here."

"Why don't you call her and ask?"

I shot Luke a wry glance. "It's a long story. She doesn't have a phone on her, neither do I."

"Should I ask?"

"No. I'll go see if her car is still there, you take Rachel inside." I turned to the little girl and plastered on my biggest smile. "See you soon, sweetheart. Be good for Uncle Lucas."

Thankfully Amber was a much better friend than I and hadn't left me to find my own way home. She rolled the window down as I approached Marco's flashy Porsche. "Finally, she returns."

"Amber, I'm so sorry, I completely lost track of time. Lucas told me something really bad and I just –"

"Flo," she interrupted, "it's fine. Did you sort things out with him?"

"Well, yeah." But everything with Arturo seemed to be broken again.

"Then it doesn't matter. The more time off work I can get the better."

I nodded mechanically and climbed into the car. Amber tried several times to start a conversation regarding my meet with Lucas but each time my responses were minimal. She clearly detected that something was up but she didn't press it any further, allowing the background hum of a radio station to fill the silence.

When we'd been driving for around fifteen minutes, Amber reached over and switched the radio off. "Florence," she began. We had slowed down considerably, the car practically crawling forward. She shot me an apprehensive glance.

"What?" My voice came out more tense than I had anticipated. Whatever Amber was about to say, I could tell I wouldn't like it. Her eyes had an apologetic softness behind them.

"I don't want to be the one to tell you this," she hedged.

My whole body bristled at those words. I couldn't deal with any more bad news. It already felt like I was stood on the edge of a steep cliff, barely managing to keep my balance. One more thing would send me over the edge.

"Does it concern my safety?"

"No."

"Arturo's safety? Yours? Is it life threatening in any way? Does it need dealing with right now?" I continued to press.

"Well, no. I guess not."

"Then I don't want to hear it. I can't take any more bad news today, Amber." She was still watching me with a concerned expression, chewing her bottom lip anxiously. "Is it really urgent?"

This time when she spoke she sounded more certain. "No, it really isn't. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it right now."

I nodded and stared off out of the window. "You can tell me another day. I just...I really can't handle anything else."