"Is Mia still sleeping? She hasn't answered any of my calls." His tone was clipped, impatient, the tone of a man accustomed to being obeyed. "Put her through. I'm at her favorite café. Ask her what she wants."
A pause. Too long.
"Don Salvatore... the Donna did not return last night."
The words landed like a slap. Xavier's hand tightened around the phone. For a moment, the café noise, the clinking of cups, the murmur of conversation, seemed to recede, replaced by the sound of his own pulse.
He told himself it was nothing. She was angry. She had gone to the office instead of coming home. She was punishing him with silence, the way she sometimes did, and he would not give her the satisfaction of panic.
He called her workplace.
"Is this Sara Benedetti? Mia's supervisor?"
"Yes." Sara's voice carried a note of surprise. She had never received a direct call from the young Don of the Salvatore Family before.
"Put Mia on the line. I need to speak with her. How can she be so irresponsible as to not even call me once..."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sara's confusion was genuine, and it cut through Xavier's composure like a blade. "Mia didn't come to the office today."