Chapter 16 I tap my fingers lightly on the steering wheel as my car rumbles on . My evening had been the least to say , quite interesting . After paying Bruni Santos a visit , I can finally relax . I can forgive him now , because now he won't dare lay a hand on my siren ever in his life . If he did , then he would just pay with his life . I don't give repetitive warnings . He passed out at sixty lashes and so that cut short our little date . He was still breathing at the time . I did make sure to call an ambulance for him . I was being kind . Nicole Salvatore seems like the kind of woman that could be traumatized if she knows that someone she knew was killed because of her . Not like it would have been her fault in any way . It would have been my decision , yet I know she's the type . It's past midnight when I leave her house , and the darkness is beautiful . Coupled with watching my baby sleep , I am less anxious than I was earlier this morning . She had a very peaceful expression on her face , that is until she woke up , scared . I grin . She's fucking entertaining . The engine of my Jaguar hums in the quiet and my mind drifts . Her eyes . They are so full of life . So descriptive . They're like a window to her mind . And I want to swim in it . Fucking beautiful . Did beauty like that exist ? It must , because I was staring right at it a couple of minutes ago . She had come looking for me . She had noticed that I was in her house . She'd known when the men were there the other day . How she notices even when I was very stealthy still baffles me . The men had been very clumsy . They didn't need stealth . The plan had been to hurl José Salvatore out of the house and bring him to me . They didn't need stealth . But I have been told that I can sneak into a snail's shell and out without the damn gastropod knowing , yet Nicole knows every single time . I won't hear anything else . I have to keep her . It had been fun , the little hide and seek we'd had . Only she was slow . She couldn't catch me . Not like I would have let her . This is not the time to present myself , yet nothing will stop me from seeing her , from moving her hair from her face while she slept so I could get a better view of her face . 1/2 Chapter 16 She hadn't noticed that . Before she began to stir in sleep , I had watched her lie on her bed , gracelessly slumped over the bed in tiredness , yet she was the most gorgeous thing I had ever set my eyes on . Her face had the calmest expression and it took all my willpower to not go over to her bed , pull her up and coax her eyes open so I could stare into those sapphire blue pools of hers . I only stopped at moving feathery light tendrils of her hair from her face . Because I had to see that face . I turn the corner on the next intersection and soon , I am driving on the open highway . I crank up the speed . My windows are down and the air whips at my face . I pull the rubber from my hair and curly locks fall to my face . The loose curls bounce with the breeze . I massage my neck to reduce the tension in it . Stress . And on top of that I know I'll only get a couple of hours of sleep tonight . There's more to be done today . Nicole has finally contacted her brother . The coward has finally responded to her calls . I heard the conversation between them earlier and I know that José Salvatore got a whiff of our plans and ran away deliberately . But now that he has contacted his sister , it is time to act . Our men already surround her house . Her house has our bugs placed in the most inconspicuous places to avoid detection . If she sneezes , we will know . But I'm not willing to act just yet . I feel like I should watch her some more . Have her to myself some more , before I concentrate on her brother and dealing squarely with him ; before doing my job as the Underboss of the Mazza and doing what is right . Before taking retribution on the enemies of my family . I blow out a breath as I step on the gas . I'll give Nicole Salvatore one more day .