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Anastasia Lenkov wants to live a normal life as a nurse after escaping her old, brutal life. But her past keeps catching up with her. She is on the run from the Russian mafia, because her father, the boss, will n...
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He raised an eyebrow and looked at me in surprise. He shook his head with a slight grin as he entered the room.
The chatter died away and silence reigned in the room. I walked slowly beside the tall man next to me. The sound of clattering cutlery could be heard, and furtive glances were directed at me.
A long table was located in the middle of the large dining saloon, about thirty men sat around it. Some wore suits, others were dressed more casually.
All kinds of food decorated the center of the table. A couple of maids in black uniforms walked around with trays in their hands, offering drinks to the men.
Several men rose from their seats when they saw Antonio enter the room, but he motioned them to sit down with a wave of his hand.
"Sit down." he whispered close to my ear and walked to the head of the table and took a seat. The conversations carried on.
I let my gaze glide through the room and saw Elio sitting to the right of an empty chair. I walked towards this chair, the other man to the left of the empty chair let his gaze glide over my outfit. He looked amused?
Arriving behind the chair, I stopped and put my hand on the chair back. As if sensing my presence, Elio turned to the side and looked up at me in shock, "Miss-"
I interrupted him, "Is that chair taken yet?" I gave him a warm smile. I have learned how it works. "You can sit down." the unknown man interjected.
He ran his tongue over his lips and pulled the chair out a bit so I could sit down. As I sit down, I look at all the food in front of me. Bowls, plates and full trays were filled with all kinds of dishes.
"Spaghetti alla carbonara." mumbled Elio. I looked at him questioningly and he pointed to a plate filled with steaming spaghetti in the middle. He took the empty plate in front of me and scooped some of the food onto the plate with a ladle.
I sensed eyes boring straight through me and raised my head in the direction of the piercing eyes. My gaze met Antonio's eyes as he sipped from his glass.
I was snapped out of my trance when Elio put the plate down in front of me. "Thank you." I said softly as I began to dig into my food.
It's been so long since I've eaten anything. The first bite into the delicious food made me feel downright dizzy.
After a while I was almost done eating when Elio started talking, "How did you do it?"
I swallowed the last bit of food in my mouth and looked at him appraisingly. A few men turned their attention to our conversation.
"Earlier. How did you know all of that about me?"
I grinned slightly and turned in his direction, "Observation."
"Observation? You found out my name by observation?" More faces turned to us. Only now did I realize how many armed people were actually in the room.
I've never been unarmed in dangerous places and that's not going to change. As I let my eyes roam over Elio, I knew I wouldn't be without a gun for long.
