The Mafia Bride

29.

Cautiously, Leo peeked through the doorway. I too strained my head to take a look. I saw few a men pulling up in the parking lot in their fancy cars and balbbering loudly. They were all dressed well. Call it a hunch or what, I knew they were dangerous.

Leo cursed under his breath. "Fuck! Mica DeLuca... I'll be damned."

"Wait another DeLuca?"

"He's Bianca's brother and the new boss of DeLuca family." Leo explained.

"But, what's he doing here? Didn't you tell me this place was safe as it was one of Nico's contacts?"

Leo almost looked happy. Almost, because he quickly retured to being Mr. Grumpy.

"You're catching up quickly. If I weren't pissed at you gushing over your ex, I might have been elated." He said.

I rolled my eyes and prepared a sassy response. But before I could speak out, we noticed some men walk in our direction. Both Leo and I frantically scrambled to search for a place to take cover. My heart paced as DeLuca's got nearer and nearer.

"Hey! Come here." Leo exclaimed, grabbed my wrist and pulled me before I had a moment to respond.

He quickly switched off the lights and shut the door. The weird smell of soap, chemicals and bleach made me realize that we were hiding in a cleaning store room of sorts.

Leo was peering through the glass when I heard a small squeak.

"Oh God! There's a –" He clamped my mouth shut with his hand before I could complete my sentence.

I glaced through the glass and saw the burly figure of Mica DeLuca briefly look at our direction. Leo removed his hand from my mouth.

"Not so loud." He whispered.

"There's a rat moving here and I think I'll scream. Can you shift a little?" I whispered back.

Leo placed his hands on my waist and carefully turned me. I do not know how he managed to do that without spilling the brooms or buckets. I waved my arms and groped blindly behind me and found a wall. My calf felt something cold against it. It was the suitcase with money in it. With the suitcase already at the wall, I couldn't stand properly. I tried to find a solid support but my legs wobbled.

"Leo... I'm falling." I murmured in the faintest voice I could.

Leo wrapped his one arm around my waist holding me while his other elbow rested next to my face. He was close. So dangerously close. His face merely inches away. I felt his warm breath tickle my face. It was like the darkness made me so much more aware of our closeness. A stray strand of my hair fell on my face and tickled my nose. I scrunched my nose.

"Oh, no no..." He mumbled.

Before I could ask him what, I felt his soft lips press mine. Before I could even register that he'd kissed me, he deepend the kiss. The bittersweet taste of his drink lingered on his lips. I tried my best to not make a sound.

Softly, he broke the kiss.

"Wow! That was a nice apology." I exclaimed, almost out of breath.

"I'm still pissed off at you. Don't think I wanted to kiss you or something. I was just trying to stop you from sneezing." Leo whispered.

I realised that he was still holding me close to him and he made no efforts to push me away. I know I'm supposed to focus on the fact that there are gangsters targeting us but right now I can only focus on Leo. The darkness highlighted his sharp features. Its funny how darkness hightens every sensation. Like his breath fanning my face and his touch on my waist and neck made me shiver. My knees shivered, making me loose my balance. Leo pulled me closer. I buried my face in his chest and felt his heart race.

"sei bellissima." Leo muttered to me.

He was annoyed at me and he wouldn't compliment me openly so he called me beautiful in Italian. He thinks I cannot understand him but joke's on him. I'm a wedding planner, I literally know common romantic words from multiple languages. In case of Italian, belissima and amore are the two most popular romantic words.

For someone who claimed to not want to kiss me, he sure enjoyed this way too much.

"Gracia." I answered.

He was clearly taken aback. He cracked a soft chuckle. "It's not Gracia, that's Spanish. In Italian we say Grazie." He said.

He turned to look outside the glass window. DeLuca and all his men had left by now. Leo distanced himself from me. Ugh this sucks. I wish we were still trapped, if I get to be close to him. He switched on the lights and held the door for me. I picked up the suitcase and walked out.

"Grass-e-yay" I pronounced softly to myself, trying to imitate the way Leo said the word.

Leo chuckled, "That's not right. Careful Dolcezza, if you learn Italian like that, I might start loving you even more."

I mentally made a note to practice the pronounciation of grazie. Both of us made way to Nico's car in the parking lot.

"So, you admit you love me?" I said. Opening the car's lock.

"We're in a relationship Meg." Leo answered, rolling his eyes. "Of course I do love you even if crappy exs from your past show up."

I sighed. Still an asshole.

I kept the suitcase inside. Meanwhile, Leo texted everyone, warning them about the arrival of DeLuca's men.

"We need to leave with the money." Leo said, without lifting his head from the phone.

I heard the sound of steps approaching. Those same dangerous men were approaching us.

"Leo, they found us."

Both of us got in the car and bolted the doors shut.

"Meg, please drive us at the hotel. I need to text others the plan."

I crawled to the driver's seat and took a deep breath. I fastened my seatbelt and revved the engine. Here goes nothing. With that, I raced the car out of the parking lot.

Leo pushed in the cordinates in the GPS tracker. I sped in the direction of our hotel.

"The plan is to sneak in pair of two to avoid detection. Meg and I will go the bank and transfer all this money into the account. Ask Gabriella and Andrew to take up one of their aliases and prepare the jet. Nico, get out of there right now. Make sure you're not detected. Emily, you get our remaining money and meet Nico. Both of you collect our stuff from the hotel. Alex and Amy you guys have to bait those bastards until we transfer the money. Protect Gabriella and Andrew until they have the jet ready. All of you meet at the airport. Keep your phones near, Andrew will text the cordinates. We're leaving the country ASAP."

Danger catches up with again. What will we do now?

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