Mafia Queen

Chapter Thirty One

Charlotte

I watched Angelo carefully as Axel went over his plan. My body was trembling, a mix of anxiety and adrenaline rushing through me. We were so damn close to finding Luca and bringing him home, and Angelo just had to see it my way. He was rational, and I knew that his reasoning was right, but it didn't matter. I didn't care how dangerous it was—I had to find Luca if he was still out there.

Axel's plan was simple. He wanted to dress me up and parade me around as a wildly successful escort owner from Sicily. I'd show up at a few places we knew Niko would be, pique his interest in partnering with me, and convince him to bring my operation into his own. Once I was inside, it would only take a few days, tops, just long enough for them to collect the information they needed to attack.

I knew I could do this. All it was was playing a part for a few days and then bringing my husband home. Could it really be all that hard?

Part of me was excited. When I was in college, I took a few acting classes. Obviously this was vastly different—I wasn't acting for a grade, I was acting for my life and for Luca's, but it calmed my nerves if I thought about it in that way.

"You think we can pass her off as the head of an escort service?" Angelo scoffed. So far, he wasn't going for it.

Axel sighed. "It's that or a sex worker and I assumed that option was off the table."

"Yeah." Angelo growled. "It's off the fucking table."

"If we prep her well, Niko will buy it. He's out of his element in the escort work and usually only works with prostitutes and brothels. If she throws around the right terms, he won't ask any questions."

"The last time we counted Niko as inexperienced, we lost twelve of our own men and forty innocent people. Excuse me if I am not willing to go into this half-assed because he is inexperienced." Marco glared at Axel.

"We're not half-assing anything. We'll prepare her so well that no one will question who she really is. She'll have a solid back story and we'll make sure she know sit backwards and forwards."

"You think we can do all of that by tomorrow night?" There was an event that Niko would be at and Axel thought it was our best shot at making initial contact. There would be a good size crowd, and it was a trafficking auction so we could play it off like I was there looking for girls as well.

"Tomorrow night is nothing more than planting a seed. She may not even talk to him tomorrow. In fact, it's probably better if she doesn't. I'm telling you, if we do this right, Niko will be begging Charlotte to join forces and she won't have to do a damn thing."

"Except for waltz into a room full of horrific crime bosses and try to act like she belongs there." Marco let out a sarcastic laugh, shaking his laugh. "This will never work."

"It's not rocket science." Axel shrugged. "We're talking a couple of meetings."

Angelo narrowed his eyes, only growing more irritated. We were spending so much time together lately that I was picking up on his mannerisms, too. "It's much more dangerous than rocket science, actually."

"Look, I'll be with her the whole time." Axel continued to defend. No one in the room wanted to be the first to back down, and the tension was only rising.

"Let's get one thing straight." Angelo stood up, nearly knocking his chair over. "I trust you even less than Luca did. There's not a shot in hell that I am letting you go in there alone with her. I'm willing to go along with this half-baked scheme, but we're going to do it my way."

I hated the way they were speaking, like I wasn't even in the room, like I was a child having decisions made for me. No one bothered to ask my opinion on the whole situation, and they were just content to battle it out between themselves. If I could leave all of them behind, I'd do it happily at this point.

"That's fine, but even you have to admit that it's a death sentence to send you or Marco in there with her. He'll recognize you immediately and then you're all in danger. Plus, I met Niko before, when I was working undercover at one of these auctions. It wouldn't be farfetched for us to run into each other again."

Angelo seethed, contemplating what Axel was saying. I had seen that look before; he didn't want to admit that Axel had a point.

"You're comfortable with this?" Angelo finally asked me.

I nodded. "I think Axel is right. He already has a relationship established with him as an undercover. The goal here is to find Luca and we'll just be wasting valuable time if we have to start from the beginning."

Angelo

"Fine." I crossed his arms over his chest. "You'll go with her, but you'll both wear ear pieces at all times. And if we can't get this together by tomorrow night, or it's shotty, I'm pulling the plug. No one is going in unless they're rock solid. We'll get a make-up artist and wardrobe here in the morning, but you two better practice your story tonight. I'll set up an apartment in the city for you as well."

"An apartment?" Char frowned in confusion. "For what?"

"To stay in." I scrolled through my phone, looking for my Jace's number. What the fuck did she mean for what?

"Why would I need to stay in an apartment?"

I stared blankly at her. Was she serious? This was exactly why I didn't think she was ready for this shit. She hadn't given it any thought besides the surface and had no fucking clue what she was getting into.

"Because you can't pretend to be someone else and come back to your life every night like nothing happened, Charlotte. That's part of the gig. Did Axel not explain all of that to you?" Of course he hadn't, because he needed her on board to sell it to me. "If you're doing this, you need to commit one hundred percent. That means you won't see the kids for a few weeks, you won't see your friends. You don't just pop in and out when it's convenient. Niko will have people following you every second of the day and the slightest mistake will derail this entire fucking thing. I suggest you think long and hard about this before tomorrow because once we start this, there is no going back. You're either in all the way or we need to get the hell out."

"I'm in all the way, Angelo. I promise." She bit her lip sheepishly, shrinking back, and I immediately felt bad for snapping at her.

"Why don't you go home and get some rest? Tomorrow is going to be a big day." I softened a bit, trying not to upset her more than I already had. It wasn't exactly reassuring that I was relying on her to bring Luca back. She was getting better, and in other circumstances, I could see her pulling something like this off easily, but she'd been completely unstable in the weeks we thought he was dead. This was a nightmare.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She grabbed her purse and heading out into the hallway.

"Look, Angelo, I won't let anything happen to her. You know that, right?" Axel asked once she had shut the door behind her.

I didn't trust this bastard as far as I could throw him, but without him, we didn't have a ton to go on right now. It didn't mean I was going to bow down to his bullshit. "Just so we're clear, Axel, if anything happens to her, I will personally rip every limb from your body and set you on fire. Understand?"

"I got it, man." Axel smirked condescendingly. "It makes sense. Totally normal for you to develop feelings for her once Luca was out of the way."

Reacting on impulse, I reared back and smashed my fist into his cheek. "How dare you?"

Axel rubbed his jaw and chuckled. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow, boys."

I concentrated as hard as I could on slowing my breathing. Axel knew every button to push to fire me up, and he had no qualms about it.

"I can't fucking stand that guy." Marco hissed, slamming the door to the office that Axel had left open.

"Neither can I." I gritted my teeth. "I want eyes on him every second. And let the guards know he isn't welcome at the house. He doesn't get within a hundred feet of Charlotte without one of us there."

"And tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow they'll both be wearing wires, so we'll know exactly what his game is."

"What do you honestly think about his plan?"

I sighed. "I think it's so stupid it just may work."