Shit!I couldn’t understand a word of it.
Nazzareno responded, and I understood one word:moglie.It meantwife.He must have been wanting to know where I was. If he caught me, he caught me, and we would do this here, but I wanted to wait until we were alone.
He couldn’t do this. Risk his life for something he already had.
Me.
A few seconds later, my gut told me the guy who had pounded on the steps had gone, and it was just the men who’d been in the room left. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Their voices were deep and low. Besides, they were probably speaking Italian. Sometimes Nazzareno would switch to Sicilian. I’d asked him about it before. He was fluent in both since he had family there too.
I could wait them out, but then Nazzareno would know I was over on Beni’s side if he made it to our side first. Then again, I might rush out and run right into them.
I decided to make a run for it. I slipped off my heels and peeked outside of the room.
All clear.
I rushed downstairs and made it to the kitchen, about to run for the door, but I jumped clear off the ground when Nazzareno suddenly appeared from behind me. There must have been another staircase on the other side. I thought the door was for a pantry.
I set my hand against my heart, hoping to keep it inside of my chest. “You scared the shit out of me!”
He stood with his shoulder against the wall, a towel around his neck, sweat dripping down his bare chest. He said nothing, just staring at me with those olive-colored eyes that sometimes made him look wicked.
“This is where you’ve been coming?” I asked. “Just to Beni’s side?”
He nodded. “The distance between his side and ours is enough distance between us.”
We stared at each other.
I wanted to ask him why he didn’t mention that, but I knew why.Swords.So, I only nodded back. I opened Beni’s cabinet and grabbed a bottle of Chianti. Beni had gone out on a date with a winemaker’s daughter, and he had gifted Beni a bottle he thought Beni would enjoy. Beni offered it to go with dinner earlier.
I looked down at my watch and then wiggled the bottle, thinking of how alike the inside liquid was to my own. Fate was swishing me around and changing everything. “Almost time for dinner.”
Nazzareno nodded and placed a hand on my back, escorting me to the other side. The men were already there, and they were sitting around the dining table in suits, having a conversation in Italian.
A man I recognized as one of the soldiers came toward us and nodded at Nazzareno. He nodded back. He went into our room after, and in record breaking time, took a shower and changed into a suit. He’d added his signet ring to his finger. The lion’s eyes glowed under the lights.
Brando, Rocco, Dario, Romeo, Aristide, and Beni followed behind him to the door. They crowded around him, two on each side, the rest at his back.
I couldn’t see him, but I stood behind him, too, listening.
It sounded like more than one man on the other side, and after Nazzareno said yes in Italian, I had a feeling what was going on.
This was some sort of formal challenge.
Nazzareno had accepted.
The men around him squeezed his shoulder before they moved to the side, and he was staring directly at me.
It seemed like everyone just disappeared after that, leaving just the two of us.
“What’s going on, Nazzareno?” I whispered.
“A formal summons,” he said.
“You accepted Renato’s challenge.”
“Sì,” he said, standing taller, like a solider. He placed a hand over his heart and said something in Italian. Then he translated for me. “In your honor. He also accepted mine.”
It seemed like all the blood drained from my face when I realized…there might have been a chance for this to be avoided, but he wanted this.
