Chapter 5

"This damned cat! Fuck you!" As the door is kicked in, a loud voice yells.

Mattia walks in with Ares in his hands and hissing as Ares tries to get away. Mattia throws him down so hard that he lands on his paws. Ares sees me and runs over to me.

"Fucking hell, that cat is a devil." Mattia snaps as his hands brush against his black pants, which have small cuts on them.

Nice job, Ares.

Gianni, the person Dontae asked to keep an eye on me, laughs under his breath but tries to hide it by clearing his throat. I already heard it, so it's too late.

Mattia must have heard, too, because he gives him a dirty look and walks over to me while avoiding the cat. "Pick up that thing and come with me, your boss wants you to go to your room."

As Ares purrs against my leg, I look down at him. Now I know that people didn't just call him "that thing."

Mattia tells me to pick him up, so I stand up and follow him out of the room. I can tell Gianni is following me, but I'm not going to look over my shoulder to be sure.

As soon as I walk in the door, I see a big set of stairs going up. Almost like a tight spiral. We walk up them, and when we get to the top, I stop behind Mattia and watch as he types in a code. A green light appears at the top of a big door.

When Mattia opens the door, we go through it and see that it leads outside. I look around at the many trees that are all around us, and the cold January breeze makes my skin shiver.

"Turn here." He tells me what to do, and I keep following him. I hold Ares tight as we walk down what looks like an alley until I see the back of a big house.

As we get closer to it, I can't help but stare at it in amazement. I'm pretty sure I've never seen anything like it.

It's like seeing one of those huge mansions on the Internet and wishing you could buy one. This has to have cost a lot of money.

"What's going on? What do you do?" I ask because I can't imagine how these men can live in a house like this.

Mattia looks at me over his shoulder with a small smile on his lips. "Tesoro, we are many things." He answers. "We are good at a lot of different things. Pest control is one of them."

"Pest control?" I quiz.

"Having to do with people." Mattia responds with a strange smile, then turns around and pulls a phone out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

Gianni laughs at what Mattia said, which shows that he is also following us. This time, I do sneak a quick look at him, but all he does is smirk and turn his head away.

When I hear a dog, my eyes widen and I look ahead to see a huge Rottweiler running toward us while growling and barking.

"Don't do it." Mattia gives the dog a strict order, and I am shocked to see that the dog stands still and listens to him, even though his eyes are still on Ares and me.

Mattia puts out his hand and leads me into the house through one of the back doors. It's almost like a second command.

He comes in after me, and Gianni closes the door behind us. He gives Mattia a quick nod and then walks away from the house in a different direction.

The inside is beautiful, but so far all I've seen is the wallpaper in the hallway where I'm standing. The floors are made of marble, and the ceilings are way up there. They literally don't need to be that high. What's up with that?

"Turn here." As we walk down the hall and into what looks like a grand foyer, Mattia tells us what to do. I follow him up the stairs, and as we go, different people walk by us. I also don't miss the cold looks they give me.

We stop at the end of one of the hallways in front of a door. Mattia turns the handle and opens the door. We walk into the room together. I can tell right away that it's a bedroom because of the huge four-poster bed against the right wall.

A woman is putting the bed sheets back on when we walk in. She looks up when she hears us. She stops what she's doing and walks toward us while adjusting the white apron that's tied around her waist.

"This is Cora, who is in charge of cleaning up. She will help you with anything you need." He introduces me to the middle-aged woman, who smiles at me. "Your boss will see you soon."

Boss.

Wait, Dontae is in charge?