AVA
Two months later,we were settling into life in Rome. We were closer than ever, but there was something standing in our way.
Whatever was going to happen with Renato.
Nazzareno had become more focused. Once he was healed and could use his arm, he started a grueling exercise regimen. He’d always worked out before, but nothing this severe.
It gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
He was hiding something from me.
Beni was tight-lipped, too, and so was Aristide. No surprise there, though. They were going with him to the “gym,” almost like his spotting buddies or something.
Nazzareno had an in-house gym, so there was no reason to leave, but whenever I brought it up, he said the other gym had more equipment suited for what he needed.
Okayyy.It sounded harmless, but underneath it all, I felt something ominous.
I also felt he wasn’t truly leaving the building but going over to Beni’s side. Whatever “equipment” he needed was there, because even before ON, Olivier fucking Nemours, he was protective over me. After the crash…he watched me like I might fade from his life.
I watched him like he might fade from mine, too, so we were two passengers on the same cuckoo plane. I figured it was normal, though, because of all that we’d been through.
It was strange for me, though, to react this way. Before, in New York, I had near death brushes quite a bit, and by the next day…over. Maybe because this had to do with Nazzareno too.
Tapping the keys on my keyboard, I stared at the screen a little longer, then sighed. I took off my black-rimmed reading glasses and wiped my eyes before I set them back on. A shadow passed behind me and I turned my head a fraction, but I didn’t catch the man who had caused it. Rarely did I.
Men, or soldiers, as Nazzareno and Beni referred to them, swarmed this place.
I was sitting in the library nook with a cup of coffee. I was thinking of writing something for another travel picture on my Instagram. I had enjoyed doing it while on the plane home from Cairo, but I couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to say, or even which picture I should share. Anxiety was dampening my creative juices.
I even considered sending an email to Edna and Neil. I didn’t, though, and I couldn’t pinpoint why.
Standing and stretching, I decided to do a little snooping. On the way downstairs, a mirror on the wall caught my reflection.
My blonde hair was longer than usual, falling past my breasts, my eyes were bright blue, and it seemed like I’d spent the summer on a yacht in the Mediterranean. The sun seemed to be hiding beneath my skin and made me glow. It was only early spring, though, maybe even still technically winter.
I set a hand on my cheek and breathed out.
Damn.
It was crazy how a person could look the same, but not be the same person at all. I didn’t need anyone to tell me how much I’d changed on a deeper level, because I could see it, and most importantly, feel it.
I was the thinnest I’d ever been physically, but I felt plump emotionally.
Some things would always stay the same, though. I could be a fucking snoop. I was careful on the spiral steps as I took them one by one. I was determined to get to the other side of the penthouse without being caught. Or maybe Nazzareno hadn’t given the men orders to keep me from the other side, just outside. He didn’t feel comfortable handing me over to the city alone yet.
I agreed.
Besides, it was more time I could spend with him. We were still deep in the honeymoon phase of our relationship, and I never wanted it to end.
We’d made so many plans. All the places we wanted to visit. All the things we wanted to do. And for the first time since that moment in Edna’s office when I gazed upon Marzio Fausti’s face…the same intense passion (obsession) sprung up in me, except it was for seeing the world with my husband.
I walked right out of the door to the courtyard that connected the two places but kept them separate. No one stopped me. I walked right into Beni’s place and stopped.
It was so quiet.
Where were they?
It was a huge place, like Nazzareno’s, and it was empty. Or so it seemed. For all I knew, those shadows could be creeping on this side too. And if Nazzareno, Beni, and Aristide weren’t on this side,I’dseem like a creeper.
