Matteo was the human boulder.
He was mostly on top of me, but he tried to cover mom too. She was slapping at him, telling him to get off. At first, I panicked. I started slapping at him too, because he hadn’t moved, but when he rolled some and let her out, he took my hand and kissed it.
“I am okay,” he said in Italian, and I understood him.
“Bene,” I breathed, but it was hard to do when a man who was the equivalent of a big cat was on top of you. “Bene. What happened?”
He sat up, his eyes reflecting plumes of black and white smoke and red embers drifting from the sky. “Boris was sending a message. The French might still be in on this, but the Russians are ruling the war now. Boris killed Wolf’s…one of Wolf’s wolves. The female mate to his male.”
“Like…Evelina is to Wolf.”
Matteo’s face was hard as he nodded.
The men were all huddled around our cars, when a few seconds later, another explosion rocked the ground beneath our feet.
“My car!” Mom cried, reaching for it like she could save it.
It was gone, turned to smoke and ashes right before our eyes.
Chapter 45
Stella
We were on a flight out as soon as we left the cemetery, our destination Italy. Matteo said he didn’t feel ourcastelloin Tuscany was safe enough, so we were headed to Lucca, around Florence, to Magpie and Nonno’s property. I’d never been, but I’d heard about it from numerous family members. Ava had told me it was like Luca Fausti’s own kingdom. It was a walled city within a city.
Matteo wanted that much protection for me, and if he thought it was necessary, I trusted him. What was odd, though, was that, on the plane ride from New Orleans to Florence, we didn’t have an entourage like we usually did. All his family left on planes either before or after we did. And all of Matteo’s closest men flew out with all the family that had been in Louisiana with us. Not long after takeoff, Matteo kissed me on the head and went into the private bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind him, giving Mom and I privacy.
It was the first time mom and I had been alone. I needed that time with her, but I also needed time with my husband. I knew most people couldn’t understand it, but our connection was so strong, and it was pulling me to climb in bed beside him, skin on skin, and just…breathe.
Mom took my hand in hers and squeezed. We barely let go since we reconnected earlier. “My baby,” she whispered. “You’re all grown up.”
“Do I look like you imagined?” I smiled.
“More beautiful than I ever could have imagined. In my head, you’re still my little girl.” She smiled. “How am I here with you? Is this real?”
“Yeah,” I breathed out, tears slipping from my eyes. “It is.”
She moved my hand back and forth. “Should we talk now or save it for later?”
I knew what she meant. Should we hash out all the shit that was behind us while we flew above the ground or wait until after we landed?
“Now,” I said. “I want to know what happened.”
She pointed at the scarf around her head. “This. This is what happened.”
“I know that now,” I said, and the plane shimmied. “I thought…I thought I was just going to spend the summer with Henri. Then…you never came back for me.”
Her eyes welled up. “I was determined to beat this fucking thing. I told myself it was only going to be for the summer, but then…it took longer than I thought. The thought of you is what kept me going, Stella. I would have never gotten better if I hadn’t been so determined to live for you. I wanted you all my life, you know? I brought you into this world, and I didn’t think it was fair to leave you all alone in it.”
I couldn’t help the next words that rushed out, because they were burning me on the inside. I had thought about them for so long, they had branded me deep inside. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She grabbed a tissue from a gold holder and used it to dab her eyes. “I didn’t want that hanging over your head, you know?I didn’t want you to obsess over it. I wanted you to have a fun summer in Paris with your dad.”
“That’s not what happened,” I said so quietly, I wondered if she’d heard me.
She had. She nodded. “I know that now. Henri told me he and his wife were getting a divorce. It wasn’t love between them. He said his wife had a child from someone else. That’s why he gave me you.”
That made sense. I often wondered about Henriette. She was Régine’s through and through, but as far as looks, she didn’t look like Régine or Henri. I never thought much about it; sometimes kids don’t look like either of their parents. But there were whispers among the men.
