MY PHONE RINGS IN my clutch, and I scramble for it. I check the caller ID: Mom. I swipe to answer it before I can think, and press the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I say. "Mama?"

Behind me, Antonio towers over my smaller form, his body heat wrapping around me better than any coat, as I take wobbly steps like a newborn fawn, in stilettos that sink into the grass. I can still feel his lips on mine, his palms securely gripping my legs and lifting me up around his looming form.

"Aiyah, Christina, did you hear about the restaurant downtown? There's a drug raid going on." My mother's faint Cantonese accent washes over me soothingly, the familiar sounds transporting me back to a simpler time that was hours ago and yet felt a lifetime away. "It was at that expensive place. What's it called again? Something Italian..."

"Cavalli's," I say automatically, and sense Antonio's gaze on me. "That's the restaurant."

She gasps. "Weren't you there on your... date?"

My mother is too dramatic. I sigh, not wanting to lie to her. "Yeah, it wasn't a big deal."

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of boxes being unloaded from the trunk of the limo. All of them are stamped with the words FRAGILE AND FLAMMABLE—drugs, maybe?

"So, Lucas stopped by the house the other day. He was returning some of your things. Did you know he got a new job?" My mother prattles on, changing the subject, so I try to focus on the conversation once more.

I clear my throat, trying not to think of Lucas's face when he saw me with Antonio. He looked so shocked. Am I really that undesirable that no one else would want to date me? "Yes, I actually, ah, just ran into him."

I meander closer to the grand house as she speaks. "I don't know why you are going on a date when you know Lucas would take you back in a heartbeat, lah."

Antonio falls into step next to me as the men discreetly unload the last of the parcels and bring them into a side entrance of the house.

"For the last time, Mama, I'm not going to take him back. He. Cheated. On. Me." I emphasize the words, not even bothering with being quiet. Antonio might as well know the full, dirty truth since he knows half of it already.

"You could take him back..." my cell reception starts to break up, and I stop short in front of the entrance to the mansion's grounds.

Not knowing if she can still hear me, I keep talking anyways. "I know in Hong Kong polygamy and adultery were legal until the seventies, but it's definitely frowned upon in America."

She sighs and says something I can't hear before the static crackles and becomes clearer. "Be safe, okay? I love you."

I echo the sentiments and hang up.

All of a sudden, I hear an electronic beep. The gates to the gravel pathway, which curves toward the mansion entrance, open and I flinch, stumbling back in my high heels. My head hits something hard, and I wince as a faint pain radiates through my skull. Suddenly, I feel a large hand rest on the small of my back. Courtesy of Antonio Cavalli, drug dealer and gentleman.

"Are you okay?" He asks, and I realize that we are way too close together, because I can feel his voice vibrate through my body. "I know that all of this is... a lot to take in."

"That's putting it mildly," I comment, stepping quickly forward without tripping this time and going to see more of the estate.

There's no other word to describe this place except 'estate': beautifully manicured green grounds, wrought-iron gates with neatly trimmed hedges, and colourful flowerbeds lining the front of the house. Black slate roofs and honey-coloured stone make up the house. A balcony with shining French doors, which reflect the sunset, wraps around the top floor of the house, parallel to the front porch below. It's almost like something out of a fairytale—except for the criminal underworld that no doubt awaits me inside.

"Christina, I—" Antonio's voice comes from behind me but he cuts himself off as the melodic sounds of feminine laughter drift towards me.

A young woman wearing jeans and a t-shirt, pale-skinned with bright blue eyes and sleek black curls, runs out of the house. She looks to be around my age and chasing after a cute, chubby toddler that looks around two or three years old and is excitedly darting after a small, equally adorable dachshund puppy. Maybe she just has a youthful face, but she looks too young to have a child that age.

"Tony! Stop chasing after the dog. One of these days the dog will get hit by a car and you with it. Is that what you want?" she scolds when she finally catches up to the child, and scoops him up in her arms, ignoring the dog that whines at her feet. She looks unfazed by my appearance, and I see a faint resemblance between the toddler she carries--Tony?--and Antonio. They have the same, faintly tanned skin imported straight from the Mediterranean and the same dark hair.

Are they...?

"For the last time, Adelina Carina Cavalli, Tony will be fine. We all lived whether we ran after dogs or not." Antonio holds out his arms to the kid who ignores him, squirming to be let down. "Ah, I see that you spend all day with your zia Allie and she's destroyed any manners you could have had, Tony. This is how you greet your zio?"

I frown at the Italian words, half-trying to translate them from my meagre knowledge of high school French and other Romance languages. Tio means uncle in Spanish, so that must mean... they're his aunt and uncle.

"Hey! He didn't have any manners, to begin with. Bianca never taught him any," Adelina—Allie—points out, refusing to let the toddler out of her grasp. She struggles for a free hand and finally rests him on her hip. "Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Adelina Cavalli, but you can call me Allie."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Christina Martell. You must be Antonio's..." I purposely trail off, waiting for one of them to fill in the gap. They don't look like siblings.

"Sister," they both blurt out in unison. The tension in my shoulders unwinds slightly, and I relax, able to make a face at the toddler that stares intently at me.

"And this is Tony Cavalli, named after his uncle. He's our nephew, I just always get roped into looking after him when she's working," Allie introduces me to the tyke, and before I can blink or do anything to recoil, the little boy licks his tiny palm and smashes it in my face.

I laugh, staggering back a little. Antonio has moved instantly from his sister's side to steady me. Again. Maybe I should stop wearing heels.

Adelina looks between the two of us with interest. "Are the two of you on a date? I have to say, Christina, you don't look like the kind who'd be into going to a guy's place on the first date."

"Oh, well..." I flail helplessly for the words, no one tossing me a lifeline. "We're kind of on the run from the cops, the FBI, the DEA, and maybe also the CIA. And, also we ran into my ex-boyfriend and had to go."

"What kind of dates are you going on, Antonio? That sounds like fun," yet another girl calls out. She appears almost out of nowhere, dressed in a sleek, white dress, and looks older than Allie and I, around Antonio's age. "I'm Bianca, the mother of this little guy. He didn't give you too much trouble, did he, Adelina?"

She asks the question as if daring her to say yes. Allie rolls her eyes and mutters, "Not at all."

Antonio's younger sister sounds utterly unconvincing. I can relate.

"Well, let's get into the house before it rains, then," Antonio says, his hand still on my back. Still guiding me, still leading me. I'm still uncertain of where exactly he's leading me, and if it won't be into certain death.