Rocco stood taller. “Nemours threatened Ava’s family because he wants her to get in with us and spy. She could be telling us this because she’s a journalist and she knows we will not trust her, but it could also be a ploy to get us to trust her. She has a curious nature and is good with it.”
“Sounds familiar,” Brando muttered, and his eyes had this faraway look in them.
“Ava claims she was drugged last night as well. She believes Nemours did it. She thinks he was there dressed as one of the wait staff as a disguise. He gave her a glass of champagne that was tampered with.”
“We will kill him,” I said.
“If men could be killed more than once, I’d tell you to get in line,” Brando said. “But seeing as it can only happen once, I’ll be the man killing him in my wife’s honor.” He looked at Rocco. “Scarlett doesn’t hear of this. Not now.”
Rocco only nodded.
“Rainer Winters,” Brando said, changing the course of the conversation.
“With Ava in father’s office,” Rocco replied in Italian.
The three of us stood taller, our postures going rigid, whenZioLuca’s voice met us in the hallway. He was singing. Dressed casually. I’d never seen him so relaxed before.
Perhaps there was something to what my father had said about his wife being astrega.He seemed almost bewitched. A spell even stronger than the blood he shed the night before, or even taking control of the family.
When he was close enough, he looked us over, then motioned for us to follow him into the office. The look alone dispelled any signs of bewitching. It was back to business as usual.
Perhaps his wife was just able to give him balance—a true act of balance between the romantic and ruthless he could play out.
As the three of us entered behindZioLuca, Rainer Winters set whatever he was looking at back on the shelf, and Ava sat up straighter in her chair. She watched asZioLuca entered, followed by Brando, Rocco, and then me.
Her heartbreaking face, which was already pale, made even more ghostly by the black smears of makeup underneath her eyes, drained fully of color when our eyes met.
She fainted in my arms a second later.
I had caught an angel, but I had no idea what to do with her.
* * *
Ava’s eyes fluttered open a second later, and she tried to wave off the need for help, claiming it was the lingering drugs in her system, butZioLuca insisted on a doctor after I’d said it.
My great aunt’s husband came in to see Ava not long after. He was a doctor and, at one time, my grandfather’s trusted advisor. Out of all the doctors in the world, I trusted him the most. Brando directed Winter to a different room to give Ava andZioTito some privacy, and Rocco brought me to another as well.
This was a complication I did not need.
A woman who looked like an angel, even in the bleakness of the day, to fall into my arms and for me to want to keep her there.
It was hard for me to leave her, even though she was in the best hands.
The room was dim, and I went to the window. Venice was experiencing anacqua alta, the water overflowing into the streets, and the day resembled evening. My mind seemed to wander off on its own, but my body was in search of its own direction. The urge to move was strong, the aftereffects of last night colliding with this morning, but I tamed it.
I refused to give the head lion another droplet of blood.
He would sense my moments of weakness if I paced, knowing I was unnerved by this woman and what he probably had in store for me. I love my uncle and respect him, but the laws of my family and how to manipulate them, when possible, are ingrained in me. It’s a tight line we walk between respect and disrespect. Knowing how to keep balanced is key to survival.
When we are wounded, sometimes we are saved by the pack. Sometimes we are killed by it.
My uncle’s booming voice seemed to echo down the hallway. He was singing again. He entered the room, and I turned to face him.
We embraced. I kissed both of his cheeks, and he shook my hand, keeping it while he placed one hand on my shoulder and squeezed. Our entire conversation took place in Italian.
“It is good to see you, Nazzareno,” he said, and his eyes were unguarded, somewhat softer around the edges.
He spoke the truth.
