Mafia's Revenge: A tale of love and hate

Chapter 13

That afternoon after Luca left my room, Matteo knocked on my door.

    "Luca will go to the city center now with Franco for the meeting and told me to take you out for a walk around Rome, or go shopping" he smiled.

    "Shopping?"

    "Yes, if you will see something you like" he said.

    "Oh, okay. So he is not scared that I will not try to escape again like I did with the other bodyguard last time?" I raised my eyebrow.

Matteo shrugged.

    "Seems like it"

I smiled and took my purse and sunglasses.

    "Alright, walk sounds nice. I wasn't in Rome before" I said and walked around him to the hallway.

Our hotel was right next to the center of the city, so just in few minutes we walked around Colosseum or Trevi fountain. The streets were crowded but very magical. Sometimes we even talked with Matteo. I found out from him that he knows Luca for many years now and that they are good friends, even when they don't really show it. I also told him a lot about Prague and other stories so we also laughed together. Matteo enjoyed making jokes, which was a proof that he was a typical Italian. He was actually the only one that seemed nice from the beginning and who actually understood me.

We walked around different shops, even though I was not really a big fan of shopping, at the end I bought myself a soft scarf that I could wear as an accessory on my purse as well. As the nice lady in the shop said. that is what women wore in Italy.

    "We are outside already dor two hours. We have to slowly go to the place of Luca's meeting" Matteo said.

    "Okay but can I maybe just go back to the hotel alone?"

Matteo just gave me a look with a smile and raised eyebrow.

    "Right. Why am I even trying" I smiled and rolled my eyes.

    "Exactly. Letting you to go somewhere alone, you probably already understood that it's a big no. No one could look after you at the hotel now anyway, because I have to go meet Luca. It is just around the corner" he said and we walk towards a building where they had the meeting.

We went inside a big building in the city center, where was Luca with Franco. It was probably a building with office spaces and conference halls. For Rome I must say it was quite modern.

    "I have to go meet them there. Wait here on the hallway, okay?" he said and I nodded to show I understand.

I sat down on the couch there and looked around. The walls had few pictures and paintings hanging on them with different flowerpots. I suddenly heard someone talking quietly at the end of the hallway. When I looked to that direction, I noticed it was Luca's uncle Franco talking to someone on the phone in Italian. He had his back turned to me so he didn't notice me. Even though I didn't understand what was he saying, I heard him mentioning my name in a weird tone. I didn't know to who he was talking to and why he mentioned me, but I will rather not overthink it. In that moment the main door from the conference room opened and Luca came out with Matteo and other people that I didn't know.

Luca gave me a soft smile, but before he said anything, Franco came up to him quickly with a sudden smile on his face. Luca probably talked to him about the meeting because he showed him some paperwork. I don't know why but something seems suspicious to me about Franco. Maybe I was just paranoid from everything but his phone call caught me off guard a bit and made me think why he said my name.

Franco suddenly looked up at me as if he would heard my thoughts.

    "Ah, I didn't know that Stella was here as well" he said and smiled a bit.