Sold to the Capo-Chapter 61: A QUESTION THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING

VINCENZO’S POV

He kept looking at me with confusion clearly written on his face as he tried to grapple with the situation. "So you’re telling me that Lord Rossi, who Adriana is looking for, is somehow alive and could be working for the enemy?"

I placed my head in my hands, confusion also threatening to overwhelm me. "I don’t know, I know it’s the man; I saw him, and I wasn’t drugged or anything, and he was clearly on good terms with him. They know each other"

"Did he say anything to you?"

My mind went back to the time of the warehouse when I was hit on the head. "No, he didn’t say anything but I can remember the sneer on his face"

"How sure can we be about this information?" He asked, his tone still skeptical.

To be honest, I knew what I saw but how true could It have been? Maybe I was seeing things?

"I don’t know. I mean, I know what I saw, but it’s still so surreal. It is him but how is it him?" I tried to make Salvatore see my point, but it turned out I was just confusing the man more, judging by the look he gave me.

"What does that even mean?" He retorted, his tone confused.

"I don’t know, okay? But you know that I wouldn’t have told you if I wasn’t sure" I muttered, leaning forward to pick the file again.

"Yeah, I know" he muttered also.

I carefully flipped through the photos of the four men and I placed all four photos on the table, spreading them out to take a better look at all of them while Salvatore seemed to be thinking about something.

"Are you going to tell Adriana this?"

"And raise her hopes about her father only to dash it against the rocks? No" I said gruffly, not removing my gaze from the photos.

"So you’re gonna lie to her?"

At that, I looked up, annoyance and frustration warring in my eyes. "Lying to her? No. If he even is alive, I don’t think I want her to do anything with the man, I don’t care if he’s her father. Company like that, they’ll end up hurting her"

"Since when do you care about that? It means she’ll be off our backs as long as he can pay off the debts"

For some reason, the thought didn’t sit well with me.

"Wait... If he’s with him... he’s rich. He could get the money, and he knows that she’s here; he was there at the Warehouse when they took her, so he knew, and the bastard didn’t do anything about it. He knew his daughter was there, he had the money to get her out of there, but he still fucking left her" I tried to piece it together.

Lord Rossi did know about Adriana’s plight and while she was working her ass off to find him, he saw her and left her.

"If I see him again, I’ll kill him" I growled, angrily picking up a picture from the table to stare closely at it.

"What are you gonna do about it? Look, Vincenzo..." Salvatore opened his mouth but I cut him off with a gesture.

"Enough," I said simply, and he sighed, leaning back against the chair.

"What do you think about the men?"

I kept staring at the picture in my hand and I frowned. "All these men were born in Italy... it would make sense what they were doing in prison here but this one.." I dropped the photo back. "Is from LA"

Salvatore didn’t bother to look at the photo of the man. "What’s he doing in Italy?"

"He’s been in jail for 5 years over rape... not exactly suited for someone of his size"

"What does that even mean?"

I grabbed the file of the man and opened it. "The woman’s name was Elena, she was Russian, and she was the wife to a lord in Russia; how would he be able to achieve what he was accused of? He is a skilled assassin judging by all the martial arts he practiced and he was once presidential guard... why was he reduced to this?" I pinched the bridge of my nose, my head aching already.

"There are several scenarios for what could have happened, what do you think?"

"He got removed as a guard after a bar fight. He was shamed then he suddenly lands himself in prison for raping a Lord’s wife? What’s this?" I flipped through the pages, confused. "He was released last year, huh?"

"Yeah"

"Find out his whereabouts"

"Why him? What about the others?"

"He never completed his sentence and he got out after being accused of something like that? He had help from someone or he was framed and offered a way to get out. Either way, he fits the description properly. Find him and get me information on this one, too." I raised the photo of another guy, and Salvatore nodded.

"I’ll tell Grace to"

I nodded, ready to call it a day with him so he could leave before the storm would arrive when I heard a voice from up the stairs.

"Vincenzo?"

I stiffened and looked up to see Adriana, her eyes fixed on Salvatore and me as we both stared at her.

"Adriana..." I muttered, quickly packing up the files and photos to hand to Salvatore before she would come down the stairs.

"What are you guys talking about?" She asked as soon as she got down the stairs.

"Nothing much" I replied, clearing my throat as Salvatore finished packing the stuff and stood up.

"I should get going now," he said, nodding to her before he walked out of the house and went to the quarters where he was staying.

"You okay?" She asked, a frown on her face.

"I’m fine" I replied, my voice coming out a bit too stiff.

I didn’t know how to face her after Salvatore had brought up the issue of me telling her about her father. Should I? How would she take it?

She peered at me a bit more like she was trying to understand what was wrong with me then she nodded. "I noticed you were no longer sleeping, so I had to come to check up on you. Make sure you’re fine. Have you taken the painkillers?" She inquired in one breath.

A smile curved up the corner of my lips at that. "I should get shot more often, huh? It’s cute seeing you worried about me"

A scowl appeared on her face making her look almost comical. "I call first shot".

I let out a soft chuckle, standing up. "I should go look through the paperwork in my study"

"I should go make dinner. The weather isn’t looking good, so I probably won’t be able to go out for a walk in the evening," She said as she stood up too.

"Okay, are you up for going out tomorrow?" I asked, my breath held as I waited for her answer.

"To where?"

"Just somewhere, it’s my time off basically so just go somewhere"

"Are we actually going somewhere or am I gonna sit in the car and stare at the world through tinted glasses?" She asked sarcastically.

I laughed again at that, the corner of my eyes crinkling. "That was that one time" I reminded her.

She smiled a bit at that and she stared at me for a few seconds. "You hardly laugh" she pointed out.

"I hardly feel anything" I added.

"Do you now?"

The smile on my lips disappeared and I shrugged. "No"

Her brows furrowed like she wanted to say something but she held herself back. "Right"

"Tesoro..." I took a step closer to her and reached out to gently tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, my fingers lightly brushing against her earlobe.

"What?" She was staring at me intently, not even daring to breathe.

"Relax" I smiled, noting how tense she had become at my touch. "I said I’d help you get over your fear. They won’t hurt you anymore. I made sure of that"

"What did you do to them?"

"Nothing they didn’t deserve" I muttered as I lightly brushed my thumb against her cheek. "You should like physical touch, they took that away from you"

She cleared her throat and I immediately dropped my hand.

"Sorry. I don’t know if that made you uncomfortable. Let’s use a safe word, you say it and I’ll stop. What safe word should we use?"

"Red?" She suggested.

I nodded to agree with her and took a step back from her. "Now go do what you said, and I’ll join you for dinner." I smiled at her.

She nodded and left the living room while I looked back at the table where the files had been a few minutes ago. The secret about her father would stay with me. He was dead to me, and it was best she believed it, too. I had a feeling he didn’t want her anymore and I sure as fuck didn’t want her to waste her time on him, she wouldn’t believe me anyways if I told her that her father knew she was kidnapped and didn’t care but works for the person who took her.

My phone started to ring and I brought it out, surprised to see my dad’s name on the screen.

My father had no reason to call unless something had happened and what could have happened in the space of a few days that he had to call me? Usually, he would just send a message telling me to report to the house, so for him to call, he wanted a quick answer to something urgent.

"Hello?" I answered the call, walking towards my study.

"I have a question, Vincenzo and you sure as fuck don’t lie to me" My father’s voice sounded hard, angry, livid.

I stopped at the door of my study not liking where this was going. "What is it?"

"What is Gamma Haven?"

My heart seemed to stop at that and I froze, silent for a split second. "What did you say?" I muttered, trying to keep my voice straight.

"Fucking answer me! What the hell is Gamma Haven and what is it to you?!" He yelled down the phone.

Shit.