The Long Lost Mafia Princess

Book 2 chapter 6

"Knew what?" Asks Roman from the other side beside me.

"Nothing" I quickly rush out.

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"That we...are going on a mission together" I say nodding my head before looking over at Amy with a stern expression that she needs to follow with what I am saying.

"Yes!, yes." She agreed, "Val just told me about that" she continues.

He nodded suspiciously but didn't comment on it.

A few minutes later a waiter appeared and asks us for our orders to drink.

I tell him that I would just like some water before he moved on to the rest.

For Ellie I order some apple juice, because of her being too scared to talk I did it for her.

My heart raced the entire time while talking to the waiter.

Even though my anxiety has gotten a little under control over the years, it's still not going to best.

Talking in front of a big group or doing something in front of a group is petrifying, especially if I don't know the person.

So talking to this stranger was...difficult to say the least.

When the waiter moves on to Amy I sigh out in relief.

Ellie fully woke up a few minutes ago so we placed her in a chair where we can help her eat and drink more comfortable later. Since Ellie isn't sitting on my lap anymore my leg is bouncing a little from that interaction.

Roman notices and placed his hand on my knee.

I look at him my heart still racing but it made a little flutter when I look at him. He gives me a comforting smile while he starts rubbing my leg a little also in a comforting way.

I do some breathing exercises and before I know it my heart rate is going back to normal.

I put my hand on Roman's hand which makes him look at me, "thank you" I say smiling which he returns.

Soon the waiter comes back with two others while they are all carrying a tray with everyone's drinks.

I thank the woman who gives me my water before I go back to conversing with the others when I suddenly get a notification on my phone.

Hello Valentina,
I got some more information about the human trafficking ring that we will be stopping in a week.
Turns out that they don't let woman inside, so if we stop them you'll have to get inside by being one of the girls/woman who will be sold.
Of course we will all be surrounding the place like always but I think that we need more backup and some men to go undercover inside the place like you'll do. This will be the biggest ring in the city that we will take down so it's more dangerous than we thought it would be at first.
Lucas

Lucas is one of my most trusted men in the organization. Him warning me like this and giving this advise means that whatever we will be facing there is probably not going to end without a lot of bloodshed. Now that he is advising me to ask for extra backup inside and outside the place, is...something.

I'll talk to dad about this later when we are going home.

I turn towards Matteo, "so bud, how's school going?" I ask him.

"Good" is all he says before looking back down at his plate.

I frown and look towards his mother, aunt Valencia.

"il agit comme ça depuis une semaine. Nous avons essayé de lui parler mais il ne veut pas. Nous avons tout essayé mais il ne veut tout simplement pas parler. Peut-être que vous pouvez lui parler et découvrir ce qui ne va pas?" Aunt Valencia says seeing my frown.

(Translation- he's been acting like this since a week ago. We tried to talk to him but he doesn't want to. We've tried everything but he just doesn't want to talk. Maybe you can talk to him and find out what's wrong?)

"ouais non ce n'est pas comme lui, je lui parlerai plus tard" I answer back.

(Translation- yeah no that's not like him, I'll talk to him later )

"Merci" she thanks me

( translation- thank you)

"pas de problème" I tell her

(Translation- no problem.)

After that I started to scroll through the menu to look for something to eat.

This morning I ate some pancakes instead of fruit which I still feel guilty about so I'm just going to eat a salad.

After around 5 minutes the waiter comes back and takes our orders.

My heart again starts beating faster knowing that my turn is getting closer and closer.

The waiter looks at me after writing Amy her order down, I sit down on my hands to keep them from shaking.

"Just the salad with apple please" I say trying to hide my shaky voice.

Hearing my order, I see faces turn to me in the corner of my eyes.

I just ignore them and wait until he writes my order down to relax in my seat and try to get my breathing under control.

While doing the breathing exercises I block out the voices around me and when I came back to reality I notice that the waiter left.

I decide that now talking to Matteo is the best time for today because tomorrow is school and I want to try and get this sorted before school tomorrow.

I stand up and ask Matteo to come with me which he does before we walk to the elevator.

"Where are we going?" He asks

"The roof" I reply before pushing on the button that closes the elevator.

He doesn't say anything and just looks down at the floor.

When the elevator door opens up again I take Matteo with me before we both sit down on the rooftop while looking at the city light bellow.

"So what's been going on?" I ask after some silence.

He looks at me unsure before looking back at the view.

"Nothing" he answers short.

I look at him, "I know you better then that, bud. What's really going on."

"Nothing!" He raises his voice a little.

"Come here" I say opening my arms.

Before I can even register what's happening he's in my arms holding back tears.

I just run his back calmly, "you can talk to me you know. I'm always here for you." I tell him, giving him a smile.

"I know" he answers hugging me tighter.

"Is something happening at school?" I carefully approach.

He doesn't answer for a while, "I can't tell you"

"Why?"

"They'll hurt you and my friends" he mutters and starts shaking while sobs come out of his body.