5 The Intro

"Nice of you to join us, finally,"

I rolled my eyes at the passive aggressive remark and wandered towards the kitchen island, which was loaded with carbohydrates, artificial sugars and bad cholesterol in the form of toasted baguette slices with melted mozzarella, pâté, and fresh sprouts on top. The rest of the massive heart attack waiting to happen came in the form of waffles, cannellonis, bacon, and something akin to fried ham.

My mouth watered immediately. I was starving. The last time my mouth had experienced the delights of food was the night I got kidnapped, and even then, I hadn't gotten to eat any of the good food, just some appetisers.

"How long have I been asleep?" I giddily skipped towards the baguettes and started loading my plate with them. Next, came the fried ham, or whatever it was.

"You slept through the rest of the day and the entire night, so, two days," Marco smiled pleasantly at me from his seat on the island/bar. His plate was pretty decently filled, and the pile of food was only getting bigger.

"You let me sleep for that long?" Thanks were in order for that. It was very noble of him. Also, I was going to need a second plate for the sweet portion. Those cannellonis were calling my name.

"Yes. I need you well rested for what's ahead of you," came his simple reply. How annoying, he already had something for me to do.

"Calm down, I just got here," I took a bite of a cannelloni and almost died. It was like heaven in my mouth. "These are amazing!"

"Thank you, I made them from scratch," a feminine voice sneaked up behind me, making me jump and almost die. My heart almost came out through my mouth. I turned around all wide eyed to see an older woman standing directly behind me a few feet away. Her eyes were the first thing that caught me. They were so alluring in a hypnotic way. She was stunning. "I am glad you are here."

My jaw was probably on the floor, sadly, and it took me a moment to recover from the shock of fright and the allure of her beauty. Whoever this woman was, she aged like the most intricate alcoholic beverage. "I'm sorry for my rudeness but you are... wow."

The woman laughed daintily, waving her hand at me like she was bashful. Her aura was intoxicating and I just had to know who she was. "Marco, you struck a goldmine here. I'm Aurelia, this big lug's mother. It is a pleasure to finally meet the Spanish Princess," she held out a hand for me to shake. I took it out of instinct, but I was staring between her and her son almost in a daze. How could that thing come out of such a goddess?

"Mama, don't be so nice to her, she's Santiago's daughter," Marco rolled his eyes and bit into his bread. His mother gave him a bleak look, almost like she wanted to smack him. I understood the feeling.

"No shit," she turned and smiled at me, sliding a glass of what looked like juice beside my plate. "I'm sorry about the unconventional means my brute son used to bring you here."

"Yes, so am I," I gave Marco a scathing look, to which he rolled his eyes. "But what exactly was so important that I needed to be kidnapped?"

"Oh don't you worry about that now, just eat," she smiled once again and left the kitchen, sauntering off to god knows where.

I shrugged and bit into the baguette in my hand. If I was going to be kidnapped by the mob family, might as well make the most of it. The food in my mouth was currently making me feel things only felt in the soul, anyway. If there was something no one could deny, the Italians could own a kitchen.

"Marco," the man looked at me expectantly. I was curious to know how much research he'd done on me. "How long have you had people following me around?"

"What do you mean?"

"I noticed one of your goons looming around when I was on vacation in Kyoto. I thought it was just a coincidence until I noticed the same man in Croatia. At first the thought crossed my mind that maybe we had the same travel schedule, but I was on Croatia for a business trip, and the city I was in was very small, so it made no sense," another bite of the heavenly cannelloni. "So, how long have your people been following me around? I think at least two years, but that can be unlikely."

Marco was staring at me like I'd told him he had absorbed his twin in the womb. My guess was that he wasn't expecting me to have it figured out, but his first mistake would be to underestimate me.

"How did you know?" I couldn't hold back the smirk that pushed its way through my serious façade.

"So it is true."

Somehow, in between all my talking, I'd managed to eat almost all my savoury foods. I placed the cannelloni onto the bigger plate with baguette, fried meats, and fruit. Where in the hell did they get plates this big? I didn't even notice how large it were until I'd placed all my food on it.

"If I'm going to be kidnapped, I'm assuming you won't hold me like a prisoner, so I'm going to hang out in your living room for the time being. Toodles!"