The Mafia's Nanny

You Again

Chapter 13

Anthony takes me upstairs through a 'private' elevator that is painted identical to the walls. The machine doesn't make a noise when you press the painted-over buttons, that lay behind the curtain across the hallway. Not even when it arrives is there a sound.

He holds the door open with his hand that holds my duffle bag and gestures for me to enter with his free one. I oblige and slide past his frame- I wonder if he realizes how much space he takes up. once the doors close, he suddenly pulls out a card with a small silver emblem in the corner and presses it against a black box on the elevator wall before selecting the second to top button. I peek over his shoulder to find none of the buttons are labeled.

I snap back into place and watch my distorted reflection in the silver box. I see the contrast of the mansion I am in against my jeans. I see the unruly curls of my hair outweigh my entire head. But it doesn't take long before my gaze wanders to his reflection but before I can start to assess him, I catch his eyes already looking at me. 

"You will use this elevator to get to the kids and the garage. Don't use the stairs," he says and I nod my head once.

"It's for safety," he clarifies.

"Mine? Or the children?" I ask.

"I have spent my morning trying to get you to understand how my protection works, and you dare to doubt whether your safety is a concern of mine?" he asks and I am almost proud to hear the annoyance in his voice.

Before I can even rebuttal the doors slide open to revile a beautiful young women to the right of the doors. Waiting for the regular elevator to open, which is next to the private one.

I hold in my breath as she makes eye contact with me. No way, it can't be her.

"Nova?" She asks with squinted brown eyes.

Oh fuck this.

"Emma?" I respond not believing it myself, her thick black hair and beautiful tan skin seemed even more alluring then last I saw her.

She steps aside as we step out of the elevator next to her. She doesn't go in but stays there staring at me. Her hair pulled back and she is dressed in simple black dress pants and a white shirt with a logo on the corner.

A chill coasts over the room as I watch her eyes narrow an expression I am familiar with, it's hate.

"Wow what a small world," she says with a tight lipped smile, and steps forward to give me a cold hug.

"Too small," I say reflecting her fake smile and cold gesture.

"You two know each other?" Antony asks no longer wanting to waste time dealing with this silent tention.

"Hardly."
"Barely."
Both Emma and I speak at the same time glancing at each other.

"We went to high school together," I respond calmly.

"And on the cheer team together," she adds, "Where I was team captain."

"And tennis team where I was captain and star player," I say with an eye roll.

"Plus  Drama club, and I was the lead actress," she turns to face me.

"Also the school Newspaper, where I was editor," I say with a tilt of my head in her direction, still facing forward.

"We didn't do Spanish club together, but we won foreign club of the year every year I was in charge," she's putting her hands on her hips.

"Remember when you did try to play Volleyball but didn't make it. Meanwhile I has the setter position," I turn full towards her, "by the way we both know that the German club was your only competition."

"Ladies," Anthony's voice suddenly sounds and we break from the tension of our stare. I look up to see yet another amused smirk on this mans face, as if me being annoyed or upset is entertaining to him.

"We have work to do Mrs. Martel, please excuse us," he says and pressed the elevator for his private elevator which is next to the one Emma was going to use.

She turns to him with a sweet smile, nothing like the one she gave me, "gladly sir," and glares at me once more.

God she is going to make this job so much harder.

We watch her walk away into the elevator and give me smirk before the doors close and let out a sign of relief. That girl took the energy right out of me.

"You both seem..."

"Viciously, aggressively at each other's throats," I suggest pulling myself out of the memories of high school.

"I was going to say competitive," Anthony says with the same fucking smile on his face, the one where I can see his dimples.

"What's so funny?" I ask and put my hands on my hips turning to face him.

"Oh nothing," he says turning to face me as well, "it's just I never would have thought someone like you, would act so... well childish."

"Excuse me?" I ask defensively and his grin only widens, "you don't know me well enough to say that, Mr. Rivera."

"Not yet," he muses, and I resist an eye roll, staying quiet not wanting to respond.

It is silent for a moment as I stare back at the elevator. I vividly remember her getting into college and having a scholar ship. What went wrong?

"How did you find her?" I say in a low voice, almost shyly. It really wasn't my business to know, but I was curious. I want to know if my guess is correct.
His face hardens slightly, like he is transitioning into business mode.

"We picked her off the streets a couple years ago. She's had a rough past but you already knew that," he says as we begin walking again and I nod my head recalling rumors of her family life. I grab my suitcase handle and follow him.

"Foster care never does take care of people the right way," I say softly wishing she could have had a better home, maybe then she wouldn't be such a bitch.

He raises an eyebrow at me curious to how I know.
"There were rumors and she would blame the bruises on sport injuries," I say with a shrug, "the girl was my number one rival I kept up with her even tried to help once but..."

"But?" He asked with surprising curiosity.

"Well I wasn't really in a position to be of much help," I say with a shrug of my shoulders.

Thankfully before he could ask more questions we got to the children's room when we hear a loud bang.

"What the fuck is it now?" He mumbles under his breath ignoring my 'language' comment and running into the room.