Mafia's Redemption: Terzo - Chapter 82: Chapter 82

DANI
Gasping, I woke up with my heart racing. My neck was covered with sweat.
I could still feel being terrified, screaming as I covered my ears when the loud, rapid popping sound was too much that lasted long enough until I lost my voice.
When my heartbeat began to calm, I looked at Terzo beside me. Finally, he got a good night's sleep he deserved.
I felt terrible for him. If I didn't assure him I would do exactly as he told me, I felt like he started losing his mind.
He looked so peaceful, beautiful, young, and relaxed. The frown on his forehead was gone. I swept the hair off his forehead and pressed a soft kiss before I slid off the bed and tiptoed to the bathroom to use the toilet.
I was already wide awake. The time on my phone was only three in the morning.
My phone vibrated. I just received a text from Serena.
SERENA: Do you know Deck is arrested?
I rolled my eyes. The judge denied his lawyers’ request for bail. It was all over the news and social media. Deck Humphries had fallen. His father would not probably win the election.
DANI: You mean your boyfriend? I don’t care. Stop texting me.
I sneaked out of the room and went downstairs to the kitchen. I wondered why he had only one kitchen with this space.
“Why are you up so early?”
I jumped and yelped. My pulse rose no matter how hard I tried to calm down. I groaned and turned around to face Marco. “Don’t. Don’t ever do that again.”
“I’m sorry.” He raised a hand. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“You did that on purpose.”
Guilt flickered in his eyes. He might not realize what it could do to me.
“It’s fine.” I inhaled air into my lungs. “I’m craving for something. You?”
“I can’t sleep.”
We went together to the kitchen and to the refrigerator, opening the doors.
“There’s a lot to choose from. We just went grocery shopping this morning.”
“I’ll have this.” I grabbed a cup of flavored yogurt and remembered no dairy products. I put it back and grabbed the container of fresh-sliced fruits.
Marco stared at me in disbelief. “Of all these choices, you chose that?”
“It’s good, healthy, not heavy on the stomach.”
His eyes widened slightly. He suddenly smiled and looked amazed. “Your voice is improving significantly.”
My voice was still weak and hoarse, but they could understand me and hear me when I talked.
“It’s already been a week, and I have to heal. I follow the doctor’s order. I avoided spicy food, sodas, dairy, alcohol, caffeine, and sugary food. Literally everything. I deserve to be okay by now. I’m dying to drink coffee and wine, though.”
From smiling, his face dropped.
“Hey.” I gripped his arm. “I’m fine. Stop blaming yourself. I was the one who went down voluntarily. You should swear at me and maybe pray to the god Aradia for me to grow a tail or horns.”
“I could have called Terzo.” He still blamed himself.
“You just followed my request, and I admired you for that.” I started eating my fruit while he made himself a sandwich.
“I wanna share this with you, but there’s cheese in it.”
“Thanks. Go ahead.”
We started talking about our lives. I learned that he grew up in this dangerous world. After his father was fatally shot in the race track, his mother lived peacefully in the province. He had two siblings who were both married and owned a restaurant in town.
“So what about Gio?”
“After his father died, his mother passed away three years later.”
“Apparently, I’m an orphan.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I can barely remember my childhood.” I looked at him. “It’s weird that after learning what happened to my real parents, my life after that didn’t matter to me anymore. I felt like I lost twenty years of my life. My childhood in the States wasn’t bad, but wasn’t memorable either.”
“I actually had a very nice childhood. I had fun with my siblings and cousins. I felt like the internet and social media ruined most of my life as I grew up, and then I started to live in this reality.”
“Are you dating anybody?”
He smiled shyly. “I like this girl. She works at the private clinic, but every time I saw her, I chickened out. I couldn’t ask her out.” His voice carried a hint of embarrassment.
“Why not? You look like someone who doesn’t ask a girl out, but girls come to you and sit on your lap and cling to you like leeches.” I checked him out. Marco was handsome in a boyish way. He had olive skin, very strong, expressive eyes. His hair looked so thick and smooth. He was also tall and fit.
“You’re messing with me, Dani.”
“I swear I don’t joke about something like that. You can ask Terzo. I can’t lie. I’m a terrible liar.” I patted his arm. “Trust me. Girls like straightforward guys. Just take a breath, approach her, and ask her out. As simple as that.”
“Well, if she says no, you’re gonna do my laundry.” While he laughed at himself, I laughed in silence.
After our kitchen chat, he retreated to his room while I went to Terzo’s office to check out my work. He gave me access to his laptop and desk. I was still waiting for him to take me to his wine cellar and make out there.
I turned on his laptop and entered his password. The first thing that appeared was an open file named LOG. Was LOG short for something? There were two files in it. I was sure he could put a password if I wasn’t allowed to access it, so I clicked the one with a bigger memory.
I leaned forward and closed my face to the screen as I pushed my eyeglasses up the bridge of my nose. “What the hell?”
“What are you doing? You like to sneak out, don’t you?”
I didn’t even notice Terzo was already awake and in his office. I raised my finger to signal that I didn't want to be disturbed.
“Dani.” His voice took on a warning tone as he came to his desk and held his laptop, about to shut it down.
“Why do you have that monster’s call logs?”
“Do you know some of these contacts?” His question was genuine, not an accusation.
I shook my head.
“Sweetheart, why are you still awake?” he asked with a tone carrying a note of concern.
My face broke into a wide smile, and I lifted my gaze from the laptop screen. “Did you just call me sweetheart?”
“I’ve always wanted to call you sweetheart. I called you once, but you might not remember it. You’re sweet and kind, Dani. You should know that. And you’re not a monster’s daughter. You’d always known that.”
“Kind? That’s the last thing I can call myself, but if you think I’m a kind person, I’m flattered.”
“Dani.” Every time he called me in that tone, it made my heart skip a beat. He shut the laptop and grabbed it.
I took a deep breath and leaned against his chair. “I thought I had a bad dream, but I couldn’t remember. I woke up feeling scared. I didn’t wanna wake you up. So after I used the bathroom, I went downstairs where I met Marco going to the kitchen.”
“You were hungry?”
“Not starving.”
“Get up. Come with me upstairs.” He offered his free hand.
I got up and grabbed his hand. We went back to the room and sat on the bed. He started scrolling through those unknown numbers.
“Why don’t you dial these unregistered numbers and let’s hear if their voices sound familiar?”
“And alert their contacts. They know by now that Francesco is in my custody and think he’s dead. All his business operations have stopped. “These numbers were calls made from prepaid phones.”
“So there’s no way to trace it?”
“Nope. Most of these numbers are probably out of service by now because that’s exactly what I would do to avoid tying it to me.”
“I wish I could help you.” I rested my head on his shoulder. I immediately felt his lips on my forehead.
“You help a lot. You just don’t know that. Just don’t make it a habit of leaving my side. It scares me.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Terzo.” I cupped his face to distract him and kissed his lips. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Good to hear that.”
“What about our trip?”
“Let me arrange things first. And besides, my assistant is on sick leave.”
I chuckled. “I’m still getting paid, right?”
“I will double your salary if that makes you feel better.”
“No, thank you.”
“What the fuck!” His gaze locked on the computer screen as if he had just found the target, the kind of target he had already marked dead, the kind of target he seemed to know very well.
My heart raced again, prompting of our real enemy, but that wasn’t what bothered me. It was that I wasn’t bothered at all.