"What are you going to do about Lorenzo?" I asked, cutting off one of the characters in the movie Angelo and I were watching.

I hadn't realized that he was basically asleep, "Huh?" He questioned, blinking his eyes a few times, "Oh, I'm taking him back to Italy tomorrow morning."

"You're taking him to Italy? So that means you're leaving Los Angeles," I paused the Netflix movie so that he had absolutely no excuse to not pay attention to me. "You can't come here and then leave just like that. It's not fair."

He looked at me as if I had just spoken another language and that's how it stayed...until I started speaking again.

"Well are you ever coming back? Or do you really trust me enough to not be so mad that I rat you out? 'Cause that's kind of how I'm feeling right now."

"Good god, amore mia. I'm not going to be gone forever. I just have to make sure he actually gets there because he's been known to make sudden course changes. And I'm keeping Dom and Luca here, so it's not like you'll be unprotected."

"Unprotected? You say it as if I need protecting."

"Well..." He trailed off, "You kind of do. A whole new window of challenges have opened themselves just by you being here. Different people are after you, people I can't necessarily...fight off."

I sat up immediately, "And when exactly were you going to tell me this? What do you mean you can't fight them off? Why not? Am I gonna die for real this time?"

"You're not going to die. This is your fault though, mostly. You can't blame me for this, because I'm not the one who gave Italia's name to an invasive prude. Does this ring a bell to you, criceto?"

He told someone?! "Lucas wasn't supposed to tell anybody. He promised that he wouldn't. Italia knows?"

"Oh yeah. She's furious. You've made two different mafia families have to flee from their homes in such a short amount of time. How do you do it?"

I ignored his dumb question and thought of ways I could keep myself safe. "Take me with you," I demanded. "I don't want to stay here."

"I'm not going to smuggle you out of the country though. Do you know how hard it was to get in here without being seen? I can't even picture myself trying to leave in the daylight with you. Your dad has security all over the place, Chloe. It's too risky, I won't do it."

"Isn't leaving me here with an ex girlfriend who obviously doesn't like me, even more risky though?"

"Chloe."

"Angelo."

"I will consider it," he mumbled before throwing the covers over his head as if to silence me.

+

+

+

Luca now sat in the center of my room, looking confused way beyond the word. "How do I know you're not gonna shoot me if I cross an invisible line?" He asked Angelo, who seemed to be deep in thought. "I mean, there's obviously something between you two now, why don't you just do it?"

"You're closer to her age so it's more believable."

"Yeah, I'm a year younger than you. That's so much closer. What do I do if her dad asks me how old I am? I can't pass as a seventeen year old."

Angelo and I both exchanged looks before turning back to Luca. "You totally could," I laughed.

"Ok well, that still doesn't solve the looming problem of her dad trying to kick my ass for this. Who the hell would let their daughter out of the country with some 'teenage' guy she met in New York? I never would. Did you even tell him that you plan on leaving yet?"

I shook my head slowly.

"Of course not. Chloe, if I get murdered today, know that I will come back as a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your life and then when you're dead, I'll haunt you then too!"

Angelo gave him some sort of look, almost as if he thought his little threat towards me was completely hilarious, "You go tell him then and Luca will get ready outside."

Oh man.

I waited until both Luca and Angelo had climbed back down the ladder and were totally out of sight before I left my room and found my dad in his office, hastily typing something on his computer.

Ok, so he was obviously stressed, I could tell just by looking at him. Alright, this was going to be even more of a challenge than it already was.

I walked in front of his desk and pulled up a chair, slowly taking a seat in the leatheriness, "Hey dad."

He looked up at me briefly before looking back down at his computer, the frantic typing had ceased, "Hey, sweetheart."

"Whatcha doing?"

"It's funny that you ask, 'cause it actually involves you," he pushed himself away from the desk a little bit, leaned back in his office chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "I know you're not telling me the whole story, Chloe and I don't really think you ever will. So I hired someone...a few people actually."

Of course he did.

He has money and a lot of it. What else would he do with it other than waste it all on something that's not going to help me in the long run? Or will it...

"Um..." Panic had set in, "W-who exactly did you hire?"

"One of the best detectives in the state of California and someone to watch over you whenever myself of Violet can't."

"A detective?! Really dad? For what? And a bodyguard? I'm not a little girl anymore, I don't need to be babysat." The panic subsided for the time being and anger washed through me.

"I've already gotten some pretty significant leads on what you were actually doing in New York," he totally dodged half my questions. That was ok though because this seemed a little more interesting anyway. Dad scooted himself over to the printer, grabbed a piece of paper and handed it to me.

It was a picture of Luca, Eleanor and I at the grocery store that one time I totally failed at shopping. I'll never be a housewife...at least not a good one.

Who the hell was taking stalkerish pictures of me though?

Oh yeah, dad's detective.

"Who are those people, Chloe? I'll be a lot less angry if I hear it from you instead of someone I had to hire."

I was seriously weighing my options right now. I always told my dad everything, whether they were things he wanted to know or not. But then if I did tell him exactly what happened, I would have the mafia come after me for sure and this time I don't think I'd be so lucky.

Honestly, life was sounding a lot better than death right now so I kept my mouth shut on the matter.

Dad's office door opened just as he was about to say something, and a distraught Violet came walking through, her hands above her head as if surrendering.

It was then that I saw a strangely familiar man walk through, a gun pointed at Violet's back. I didn't think he was part of Angelo's mafia group because the amount of class didn't quite measure up to everyone else I've met so far. So that left two more options.

He could have worked for Italia, Angelo's jealous ex-girlfriend, or he could have worked for the Russian mafia. Supposedly both of them had it in for me now.

I decided that he probably worked for Italia though because he definitely looked like the stereotypical Italian man...and not the hot ones. I'm talking about the ones that have eaten way too many noodles in their lifetime so it really took a toll on their weight.

The corner of the guy's mouth twitched up into a smirk, tinted yellow teeth showing, "You must be the one boss talks about so...evilly. Chloe?" It sounded like a question, but I wasn't about to answer him.

"Who are you?" Dad asked as Violet sobbed in the background. I felt bad for her because I knew exactly how she was feeling right now. I just hoped and prayed that her fate wasn't going to meet a bad end.

"All I can say is that I have very specific orders from the boss and your little one is involved," the fat meatball looked at me with an evil glare. He pushed Violet away and grabbed me by the wrist, "We have plans for you, criceto."

I didn't think it was just a coincidence that everyone called me that, but I don't know how he would have known.

I looked at the meatball, totally puzzled, "How do you know that?"

"Can't tell you," he shifted his gaze from me back to my dad as he took a few steps back to the door, "If you send anyone after us, I will have my men shoot you and your family...after you see your bambina tortured of course," he said as if he's threatened a million other dad's in the same way. He pushed me out of the room, the office door slammed shut behind us and the barrel of his gun was pushed against the back of my head, "You're in so much trouble, bambina."