Chapter three

C H A P T E R  T H R E E

Once they all sat down, Elvio Mancini looked at Athena, leaning back in his chair and speaking, “I am assuming Loris told you a little bit about your job?” he asked.

“He told me what you looked for,” she replied, but still not completely aware of her task.

“Rumour has it, Ms. Vaccarelli, that we have a man working on the inside and giving out to information to people who should not know certain things. We need a fresh pair of eyes and someone skilled to find out who.”

“How exactly do you plan on letting me in on everything though, are women even allowed in any meetings?” She asked.

“That is for us to decide, and now we are saying yes,” Elvio Mancini spoke. “You will mostly be working from the house, searching for data and information, sometimes you might need to finish some jobs for us and work undercover where ever we need you to be. That would mean that you would have to be willing to do anything in order to get a hold of information. Do you understand what that means Ms. Vaccarelli?”

She nodded and felt Giovanni Mancini’s eyes on her.

“Will I stay here?” She asked.

“Only when we are staying here, otherwise you will be staying with us. When we are here in Sicily we will be at this mansion. If we are in New York we will stay at our penthouse. You’ll get your own room there as well,” Elvio explained, and she nodded. “Loris will get you whatever you need and deliver it to your room. Make sure to always have a bag packed, you never know when we have to leave somewhere, and you need to be with us all the time. Remember that we won’t be staying at the mansion long, only on occasions, so consider the penthouse your main place.” Elvio Mancini explained everything and Giovanni beside her stayed quiet, just listening, and occasionally looking at her up and down as she pretended not to notice.

“That is it for now, keep your ears open these days at the mansion, but you won’t have much work to do until we are back in New York” Elvio explained. “You may leave.. brother could you stay for a minute?”

Brother.. so it is true that they’re brothers.

She assumed that they were, but she never had any solid information to prove it. Some say that they are cousins, while other rumours claim they are not even blood related, but she knew that those were far from true because no one could be this high up in the hierarchy and not be a blood relative to the don. She wondered who had a higher position and role between them. She had heard about Elvio Mancini as a business man, but every ruthless story was always about Giovanni. She was curious about what gave a higher position in this life, the ruthlessness, or the business mind.. she made sure to make a mental note to ask Loris about it later as she exited the office and felt eyes burn her back.

***

It was her other day in the mansion, Loris had gotten her some clothes as well as a laptop and a phone that she could send encrypted messages to, back to the headquarters. She had not brought much with her from Washington, not knowing how long she would stay here.

She informed her team back in Washington that she had successfully gotten in as soon as she received the phone, and they delivered that message to her superior.  

It was time for another dinner, and she dressed in a more casual dress than the one she wore last night. This time when she exited her room she found another man looking at her, wearing a black t-shirt that hugged his body and black cargo pants, he looked up at her with a gun strapped to his pants.

“Ms. Vaccarelli.” he nodded and stretched out his arm to his right, gesturing for her to walk in front of him, and she did.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My name is Ares, Mr. Mancini placed me as your guard for your stay here in Sicily.”

A guard.. why did he feel that she needed a guard? It took a second for her to realize that he probably put him to have someone following her track and make sure she was not involved in any funny business. To be honest, she was expecting something of sorts.

When arriving at the dinner table, she saw Giovanni sitting on the chair she sat on last night. She did not think of it much and went to find herself another seat. Elvio said her name, gesturing for her to sit between him and Giovanni and she gave him a slight smile as he pulled out the chair for her.

“You think I need a guard while staying here?” she asked him, with a low voice.

He looked over at Giovanni, sitting beside her. Giovanni did not even give him the slightest of attention, he was scrolling on his phone, but she knew that he felt Elvio’s gaze on him. “Later.” Spoke Elvio and Athena dared not protest, understanding that now was not the time to discuss this. Dinner went by smoothly, not a word was said to her. She felt like the new girl at a school. People looked and whispered, but no one said a word to her. Giovanni was quiet throughout the dinner as well, quite focused on his phone. He barley ate. She tried glancing at his phone but there were way to many people around for her to look without attracting attention.

Just like yesterday, when Michalis Mancini walked away from the dinner table, people started excusing themselves shortly after and Elvio told Giovanni that they needed to talk. As soon as they all got up and the men started walking away, a little child had run right to her, tugging down at her dress, crying.

“Oh sweetheart, are you okay?” She said with the sweetest voice, carrying him.

“Ms. Vaccarelli..! I am so sorry” spoke an older woman, running after the child, making Giovanni turn around and look at her.

“It is okay do not worry..” she said as the child hugged her. “What is your name little one?” She asked the kid as she felt Giovanni’s eyes burning her skin.

His cheeks flushed and he hid his face in Athenas neck making her laugh. “This is Milos,” the maid smiled, offering to take the child from Athenas arms as Milos protested not wanting to leave.

“Vieni qui piccola..” she spoke, but Milos buried his face deeper into Athena’s neck making her laugh.

“Is he giving you trouble?” a tall, beautiful woman walked up to them smiling.

“Mi dispiace, Ms, he ran away as soon as I got his plate,” the older woman explained.  

“Don’t worry about it Jolanda, I can handle him. Thank you. Go have your dinner, I know he did not let you enjoy it.” she spoke as the woman named Jolanda smiled and nodded, before walking away.

“You must be Athena Vaccarelli,” the woman spoke, looking at Athena as she nodded, and Milos stretched out his hands, wanting the woman in front of him to carry him.

“Is he your son?” Athena smiled, asking as she gently lifted him for the woman to carry.

“Yes he is,” the woman spoke. “I am Thalia by the way, it is nice meeting you. I am sure my brothers are giving you hell…”

“Brothers?” Athena asked.

“Those two idiots over there practically gawking at you..” Thalia gestured with her eyes, as Elvio quickly turned around and walked away, but Giovanni stood still, his eyes still burning onto her. She was Giovanni’s and Elvio’s sister..? She seemed so incredibly lovely and warm, unlike them.. At least unlike Giovanni. Athena was almost shocked, and Thalia could see it. “I know I’m much better than them, no need to tell me..” Thalia joked, half serious as Athena let out a chuckle.

“They are not so bad yet,” Athena replied, smiling.

“I understand you are here on business?” Thalia asked, as Athena nodded, “What kind?” Thalia asked.

“The kind I’m not sure I’m able to talk about.” Athena replied, and Thalia cracked another smile, “they trained you well.” She said. “I am sorry about him, he usually is quite shy and does not grow fond of new people so quickly, but he seems to like you..” Thalia spoke, carrying Milos as Athena smiled. “No need to apologize, he seems like a lovely kid.”

“Yeah well this lovely, grumpy kid needs to go night night now doesn’t he?” Thalia said, looking at Milos who still had some tears on his flushed cheeks. “It was nice meeting you Athena, I hope to see you around again.” Thalia said.

“You too, Ms. Mancini,”

“Oh please call me Thalia,” she quickly cut Athena off, and Athena corrected herself. “It was lovely meeting you too Thalia.” She smiled, as Thalia nodded and turned around with Milos already half asleep in her arms.

A part of her almost felt guilty considering how nice Thalia seemed. Even though she was not here to hurt Thalia, she could not promise that no harm would come her way..

She quickly shut out the thoughts and turned around, heading towards the corridor that she now knew lead to her room. On her way there, she saw the office that she was in yesterday with the Mancini boys. Quickly, but quietly making her way there, she tried hearing what was being said behind the door.

“You have to get yourself under control, you cannot slip up and fuck this because of your emotions.” She heard Elvio say.

“What fucking emotions?” Giovanni spoke quietly yet sternly, almost challenging his brother, but got no reply. Not for a minute at least.

“Do not pull any other moves, okay? She thinks I’m the one who placed Ares as her security. I don’t wanna hear about any more surprises after this one.”