Mafia Queen

Chapter Thirty Seven

Angelo

I knew Charlotte was invested in this, but seeing her on that camera was surreal—like watching a movie. She fucking killed it, leaving Niko scrambling and completely powerless to her. It was incredible, and maybe one day, when all of this had settled down, I'd show Luca these tapes so he could see how awesome she'd done.

Most people took years of training to be an UC and Charlotte had mastered it in a few short hours. She was quiet when I picked her and Axel up that night, and I could tell what she'd seen was haunting her. I felt bad for her, knowing what it was like to see such horrors first hand. It was different to hear about it was happening or to hear about, but when it was thrown right in your face like that, it made you reevaluate everything you believed in.

It had been two days since then, and Char was finally coming around. Marco and I tried hard to cheer her up with whatever we could, knowing leaving the apartment would be nearly impossible. Movies and games and puzzles. Marco even surprised her with a bunch of painting supplies, but they sat untouched. It was like we were having a giant middle school sleepover, not toying with an international criminal.

Despite everything we were doing to ease her mind, the wait was excruciating, and the longer it went on, the more Charlotte thought she had failed. We expected Niko would call immediately, but apparently, he was going to take his sweet ass time.

Tonight, Char made us sit through How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days, to which she promptly fell asleep. The only time she stirred was when Marco tried to turn it over to Sportscenter.

"Open your mouth." Marco grinned, clutching a bowl of popcorn in his hand. The guy was like a garbage disposal. Always eating.

"Excuse me?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

In response, he threw a kernel at me, hitting me square between the eyes. I chuckled, playing along. I opened my mouth wide, and Marco landed a kernel perfectly inside.

"Gooooooal." He threw his hands up in the air.

"Gimme that." I grabbed the bowl from him and took a handful of popcorn. When Marco opened up his mouth, I chucked the entire handful at his face, sending popcorn flying in all directions.

Marco dodged the mess, leaving most of it to land on Char. She promptly sat up, glaring.

"You guys are worse than my children. Look at this place." She grumbled, brushing popcorn off of her chest. Marco and I both had to stifle our laughter.

"Well, good morning." Marco elbowed her in the ribs. "You missed the whole damn movie you picked out."

She yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "I was tired, okay? I've slept better here than I have in months."

"Look at what I got from Julia while you were sleeping."

I showed her the picture that Julia sent me of Leo earlier today at the park. A smile spread across her face as she looked at the picture, as her eyes filled up with tears. It was hard on Charlotte to be away from the kids, and not even being able to speak with them was worse.

She blinked the tears away quickly, not wanting us to see, and reached for her phone on the coffee table. Her eyes widened, the expression on her face completely shifting.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, a little concerned.

She sucked in a harsh breath and then looked up at me. "Niko wants to have lunch tomorrow. Without Axel."

We all sat speechless, staring back and forth between each other. The fact that he didn't want Axel there was a little unnerving. Did he catch on? Did he not trust Axel?