Little Queen

23

Draven's POV

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It's been nearly a week since I brought Idalia here and each day I watch her slip a little further away from me. At first, I thought it was because of what those bastards did to her in the kitchen but then I noticed other small things. She would be with me physically, curled up in my lap or next to me watching that trashy tv show she's obsessed with and her mind would be totally somewhere else. Her smiles have become more forced and her constant chatter has almost completely disappeared. We still haven't picked who her guards are yet and she's been spending less time with me and more time in her room, or mine as long as I'm not there.

I groan in frustration and shove my papers away. I'm so busy worrying about Idalia that I'm not getting any work done. Any time I ask her what's wrong she instantly has a smile back on her face and tells me she's fine but I know she isn't.

I run my hand down my face and throw back what's left of my bourbon when there's a knock on the door.

"Entrare."

Drew strolls in with a serious look on his face, "He's here, where would you like to see him?"

My eyes narrow, "it's about damn time where the hell has he been?"

He shrugs, "you told me to make sure his arrival was quiet, so we did."

"Well next time make sure his arrival is speedy and quiet, I'm not gonna fucking wait around again chiare?"

"Cristallo," Drew nods solemnly.

"I'll meet him at Ignacios in an hour, he's all caught up on the situation, si?"

"Ovviamente."

I dismiss Drew with a wave of my hand and straighten up my desk. I lock the door on my way out and tuck two guns into the holsters at my hips. I look for Idalia in my room first, sighing when she isn't in there. When I slide her door open her blankets are rumpled and pulled up to her chin. I walk over to the side of the bed she's facing quietly, in case she's sleeping.

Her big brown eyes stare straight ahead, not even acknowledging me. I crouch down to be eye level with her.

"My beautiful girl, please just tell me what's wrong so I can fix it."

Her eyebrows furrow and her eyes slowly drift to meet mine.

A small smile pulls at her lips, "I'm okay Draven, just a little tired."

I suck in a deep breath and press a kiss to her forehead. My hand drifts over her hair, smoothing it away from her face.

"I'm here okay Little one? I have to go take care of some work for a little bit, two hours tops and I'll be back okay?"

Her nod is minuscule but at least she's responding today. I give her forehead one more quick kiss and leave, closing her door softly.

I drive myself to Ignacio's in a discreet BMW to make sure no one finds out about this meeting. I toss the keys to the valet and stride into the restaurant, immediately being brought to the private room in the back.

My bourbon is ready and sitting on the table for me but the room is otherwise empty. I sit, slowly sipping the drink until the maitre'd enters again.

"The rest of your party is here, Sir."

I nod my head and wave him in watching as il portatore di morte enters behind him.

He sits across from me as a glass of water is placed in front of him. I glare at the maitre'd when he lingers making him scurry away. I give il portatore a smile and fling one of my throwing knives into his shoulder. He grunts quietly, bringing his hand to cup the injury.

I take a slow sip of my drink and settle the crystal back on the table, "Next time I call you in do not take a week. If I didn't need this to be discreet that would be a bullet wound instead of a god damn knife."

He yanks the knife out and tosses it on the table in front of me. I wipe it off on the edge of the table cloth before tucking it back into my sleeve. Il portatore has his napkin pressed against the wound, slowly turning the white cloth red.

"Mi scuso per il ritardo," He growls out, glaring at me.

"Indipendentemente, we have a rat. Maybe more than one."

He raises his eyebrows, "is he alive?"

I scoff slightly, "just barely, the fucker is watching his wife and kids be tortured and he still won't come clean. He says it's just him but I don't believe it, he was too low ranking to be able to cause this much shit."

He nods slowly, I can practically see the gears in his head working. Just then the maitre'd enters, his eyes widening at the sight of blood but he quickly composes himself.

"Are we ready to order or would you like some more time?"

We each order and watch in amusement as he practically runs from the room. I spend the next hour filling Portatore in on any new information acquired in this past week along with specific details of the shipment ambushes. I wipe the corners of my mouth and stand from my seat with a twisted smirk knowing we're both ready to go deal with our little rodent problem

"Let's go have some fun."

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It's short I know! This chapter just kind of popped up while I was playing around with a few ideas but I hope you enjoyed it anyway!

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