I turned my eyes some and caught the attention of one of the stewardesses. She straightened her cap and her uniform, hurrying over.
“Whiskey,” I said, my voice low and full of broken glass.
She rushed off.
I could feel angel eyes on me, and I turned some, meeting Ava’s stare.
“I have no clue what’s going on right now, Nazzareno,” she whispered. “I don’t like it.”
The stewardess was back, and she set the glass down in front of me. She waited, until I told her I needed nothing else and thanked her.
“The same could be said for you,” I said.
Her eyes searched mine. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I took a deep drink of fire and let it burn. The gems in the lion’s eyes of my signet ring caught the overhead light and sparked as I set the glass down. “You are different after your meeting with Rosaria.”
“Yeah.” She sat up some. “I am. She’s not very pleasant.”
“Tell me, what did she say.”
Her head went back some. “Are you mad at me?”
“Mad.” I made a deep sound in my throat. “No. I am not mad.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You should.”
“Please, enlighten me,ohgreat one.” She forced my arms from around her body and crossed hers.
“The Encyclopedia Fausti has finally run out of answers.” I sighed, taking another long drink, before I told her all I had been thinking about.
The rules of my family and what could possibly come of this. I wanted to kill the worry in her eyes, but I could not shield her from the truth.
She took the whiskey from me and knocked the rest of it back, barely wincing. “What can I do to…stop this?”
“Niente.”
“I know that one.Nothing.” She looked away from me for a second, before she met my eyes. “How is this even fair? I don’t even know Renato. We had a brief conversation. That’s it.”
“That is enough for some men.” I ran my knuckle down her face, and she closed her eyes. “It was for me.”
“I don’t know what you just said…that last thing, but I can feel your meaning. Me too, Nazzareno Fausti.” She looked out the window, the lights of the city below us dotted like stars. “How long do we have until we know what’s going to happen because of this?”
“Time moves differently in my family, not like it does in your line of work—we do not rush.”
She sighed, and I turned her face toward mine.
“Give me this worry, at least for tonight.”
She breathed out and then nodded. She tucked herself closer to me and fell asleep in my arms. An hour later, she woke up when I strapped her in for the landing.
Her eyes fully opened when we bounced. “That was not as smooth as yours,” she said, smoothing out her gown.
The highest compliment from an angel.
Her eyes were curious as we stepped off the plane and into an entirely different city. They narrowed when the staff who greeted us sounded different as well.
