“How, Bella?”
“Kei has friends. Powerful friends. He brought the F.B.I. to me. They…” Mira bit down on her bottom lip. She didn’t want to tell him that the American government drilled her for hours on her relationship with him, what she knew of his world. The same people showed her pictures of his life, dead men tied to claims of murder.
“Tell me everything.”
“They wanted to know about what happened to Fabiana. I had to go over my time in Italy with you. Everything. Then they gave me a new identity. Even let me choose the name I wanted. I was placed in the Witness Protection Program. Kei and I left the country. I found out a few weeks later I was pregnant. That’s why I agreed to stay in the program. I couldn’t risk our baby, Giovanni. Why are you making me tell you this?”
“He lied to you.” Giovanni sat on the edge of his desk. “There was no federal agency protecting you. All of it is a lie. I visited America and attended your funeral. I was detained for twenty-four hours.”
“I know sweetheart.” Mira touched her chest. “I saw the funeral on the television. I saw you. I’m sorry.”
Giovanni waved his hand, dismissing it. He reached behind him and picked up a folder. “Kei lied to you. He isn’t the man you think he is.”
Mira stared at the folder. Her pulse quickened. “What is that?”
“The truth about who he really is, and what he’s done. He set up the meeting with fake agents for your benefit. To find out more about me and scare you into running away.”
“He didn’t have to. I was already scared of you, us, all of this.” Mira sighed. “I don’t know who’s telling you these things but Kei didn’t do anything but help me.”
“Read it, Mira.”
“No. Giovanni, stop this. Kei isn’t a threat to you sweetheart. He saved my life.”
“Bullshit!” Giovanni shouted. “Read the damn documents.”
“No.” Mira shook her head. The idea that Kei would betray her was so foreign she refused to entertain it. For two years he was the only person she could trust. Before that he was her best friend, her lover. He wouldn’t manipulate her. He didn’t have to. They weren’t like that. “It’s how our government works. They do this, to help people.”
“That is not how your government works!” he shouted at her. “Why would the American government protect you? Cover up two deaths to let you run from me? What did they get in return?”
Mira blinked. “I-I-I told them about us.”
“So what!” Giovanni threw his hands up. “Every national agency out there has a folder on me. You saw nothing when you were here but Fabiana’s death, and even that meant little to them when they detained me. Think dammit! Why would they give you a new identity and erase you from the public? Convince me that you were dead? What did they gain? Answer me!”
“Stop yelling.” Mira shook her head. Holding back her tears.
Giovanni groaned. “Bella, Kei lied to you. He staged it all. He needed you afraid, complacent. And now he’s put a hit out on me.”
“No. No? He wouldn’t that that. He’s not a violent man.” Mira shook his head.
“And I am? Right?” Giovanni smirked. “He made a big mistake pissing on the gift of tolerance from me. Say goodbye to your boyfriend. I’ll have his ass before the sun sets in New York.”
“No!” she charged at him. She shoved him hard in the chest. “It’s your paranoia! I told you he’s not a threat! He’s not!” She took a step back wagging her finger at him in warning. “Don’t you dare do it, Giovanni. You swore to me that you would not touch him. You swore it.”
“It’s done.”