Just the act ofdoingsomething to get them out of this mess gave hope, and she needed hope.
The moment Niccolo said Lorenzo had died in the church, she’d known what the implications were. The danger she wasin had magnified by a million. The Espositos knew she was pregnant with Niccolo’s child. The odds of them letting her live had gone from evens to a million to one.
Until that point, she’d assumed herself to be an unwitting pawn in a game between Lorenzo and Niccolo, targeted by the former to flush out the latter. It hadn’t been personal. Now, all bets were off, and the danger to them both was very real.
But hope was powerful, and Niccolo’s confidence and assuredness over the plan he’d yet to share with her was feeding her hope. For all that, the relief that flooded her when Niccolo began talking on the antique phone was so strong that for a long moment she couldn’t even breathe.
The call ended quickly.
“He’s going to get Dante to call me back,” Niccolo said.
She had a sudden ominous thought. “The Espositos won’t be tracking Dante’s phone too, will they?”
“It’s possible, so his father’s going to get him to call me from one of the castle’s landlines. They can’t have touched those.”
“Can you ask him if Callie’s okay, please?” It still didn’t feel real that her sister, a woman who couldn’t bear to be touched by men, had fallen in love, and with, of all people, the man who’d held her captive in his castle for almost a week to stop her putting into motion everything that was happening now.
“If she’s still with him, she’ll be safe,” he assured her. “Dante’s castle is a fortress. No one can enter the grounds uninvited.”
“I’m thinking more about her emotional state. If she knows what’s happening with you and me, she’ll be going out of her mind with worry.”
The house phone rang, making them both jump.
Niccolo answered it immediately. “Dante?”
And that was the only word Georgia recognised. For the next few minutes came a conversation in rapid Italian she couldonly hear one side of. Judging from Niccolo’s loosening body language, she didn’t need to be able to understand it.
“He’s willing to help us?” she asked when the call ended.
“Yes.”
She inhaled slowly, letting another wave of relief flood through her system. “And my sister?”
“Out of her mind with worry but safe and well.” His brow furrowed in disbelief. “I think you might be right that they have got together. His voice sounded weird when I asked about her. He sounded…possessive.”
“That’s good to know.” She hated to think of her sister in any kind of distress. Hated even more that if she’d been honest with Callie about the Espositos when she’d caught her about to fly off to Naples, her sister wouldn’t be thousands of miles away. “If anything happens to me, she’ll need someone to love her because you can bet your life our parents won’t step up to the mark.”
He was on his knees in front of her before she could blink, his hands on her shoulders, his dark stare penetrating her intently. “Nothing is going to happen to you,carina. Nothing.”
She palmed his cheek. “I love your certainty. Now tell me what the plan is so I can have certainty too.”
“You won’t like it,” he warned.
“If the endgame is that we all live, then I’ll love it.”
And so he told her.
Night had fallen. Thick clouds were hiding any sign of the moon. Outside, everything was black; the perfect cloak for dogs on the prowl to hide in.
“You’re jumpy,” Niccolo observed when Georgia peered out of the French doors in the living room that had earlier looked over a vast garden encircled by thick, high trees. Now she was looking out over a black nothingness.
“I don’t know if it’s better to see or not to see,” she said, hugging her arms.
He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “They won’t have found us yet.”
She wished she had the same confidence. “How can you know?”
“Benjamin wasn’t on the wedding guest list,” he reminded her. “We can assume their dogs are in the UK looking for us, but I spent four years studying here. This was my home, and I have many friends here whowereon the guest list. They will be targeted first.”
