Chapter 40 – The Mafia Nanny (Davina & Gabriel) Novel Free

She responded immediately by looking up at him, her face fearful.

I really couldn’t understand why she was so afraid of him when he seemed not only to have such a deep love for her, but was also so protective of her.

Alex’s phone began to ring then. He picked it up, his gaze on Gabriel. He listened for a moment and then fired off some rapid Russian instructions before turning to Gabriel then he said something to him, also in Russian.

Gabriel frowned and nodded.

Both men rose to their feet. Gabriel turned to Michele and gave her a gentle smile. It changed his entire stern outlook.

Once, all I could see was a rude beast of man, now I saw through the cracks the bright light inside him.

“I’ll be back soon,” he said to me. “The afternoon was planned with a bicycle ride on the beach, but you can do that with Michele.”

I didn’t want Gabriel to leave. I could feel my heart sinking. With a warm squeeze on my shoulder, he strolled away with Alex and I hoped whatever it was he was going to he wouldn’t return in a bad mood.

I turned to Michele and decided to speak frankly with her since we were alone. I had only a few more days left and I needed to get to the root of this intense fear she had of her uncle. “Honey,” I called and she raised her head to me. “Are you all right?”

She nodded.

“Will you tell me if something was wrong?”

She thought about it then nodded slowly.

“Are you afraid of your uncle?”

She swallowed hard and swung her head to look at the departing men.

“Are you?” I prompted.

She bit her lip.

“You can tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Slowly, she nodded her head.

“Can you tell me why?”

Suddenly, her eyes filled with tears.

It broke my heart to see how hurt she was. I reached over and pulled her into my arms. “It’s okay. Don’t cry. Whatever it is we’ll work it out together, okay?”

She didn’t say a word after that, so slightly frustrated, I let it go.

Finally, after a while we were done eating.

One of the workers, named Anton came and smiled at us. He had leathery face and he wore a cap. “Do you both want to pick some grapes?”

I looked at Michele and my heart warmed when her excitement seemed to be returning.

Half an hour later, we were below vines of grapes and eating more than we were harvesting. I took a little water bottle with me so whenever Michele wanted to slip one in her mouth she brought it over and I washed it for her. They were fat, richly colored and extremely sweet.

I didn’t want them to upset Michele’s stomach, so we handed over our fruits to Anton. After that, we went with Brain and two other security staff to the beach.

“The chateau is close to the Omaha beach,” Anton said.

I was already exhausted but I could see that Michele’s whole face had lit up. Two bicycles were brought to us, a tiny pink one for her. We cycled along the beach, then we stopped at a cove and swam and played in the sand. It was wonderful spending time with Michele, but all the time my thoughts kept drifting back to Gabriel.

The sun was hot and both of us were near falling asleep. By the time we returned to the chateau, my body was hurting a little bit more than usual and I fell on my bed and fell almost immediately asleep.

Gabriel It was almost midnight when I returned. I’d wanted to spend as much of the day with Davina and Michele, but unscheduled urgent meetings had kept Alex and I occupied for most of the day.

I didn’t want to turn on the light, so I took a quick shower and turned in. I laid down beside her, my heart beating just a little bit too fast. Spending last night with Davina had been the best sleep I’d had in as long as I could remember. The windows were open, so the cool summer breeze could come in, but when I pulled her into my arms, I found her body was burning up and she was covered in sweat.

“Davina,” I called.

She came awake and smiled, a sweet, innocent smile.

It went straight to my heart.

“Gabriel?” she whispered.

“You’re burning up’”

She lay her head on my chest. “It’s nothing. I always get fevers for no reason. I’ll sleep it off,” she said, drowsily. “I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

The next morning came and a doctor had to be called. Her fever didn’t go down during the night despite the cold cloth I continuously ran all over her body.

“I’m fine,” she said to me with a flushed face and a weakened tone. “This is nothing. I’ve ridden out worse fevers than this. It’s probably just too much sun. I usually get better after taking a couple of painkillers.”

I sighed. The casual way she was dismissing her illness made me think of her foster upbringing. “How hard was growing up for you?”

She shrugged. “Hard is not the word I would use. I moved around a lot. And I was angry a lot. That’s what I remember most. Oh, and I also felt abandoned a lot, but you know… I didn’t take it personally, at least I tried not to.” She shrugged again. “I told you before that my mom gave me up when I was Michele’s age, right?” She looked directly at me.

I nodded. This wasn’t the time to tell her that I’d done some research and found her mother and she was the mother of the woman who tried to sit next to me at Grosvenor House Hotel.

“Basically,” she continued, “I was ruining her life. Her parents had kicked her out for having me so early, so she was really struggling. I didn’t really hold it against her, but when I found out that things got better for her, a lot better, and yet she never bothered to check up on me, or even look for me, that really hurt.” She swallowed hard as she paused.

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