“No.” I sighed.
She brushed away a curl of hair that clung to my forehead. The cool air of the ocean replaced it and calmed me. “I’m going to check.”
“You can’t help it, can you?”
Her expression spoke for her. She curled into the same non-threatening kneel she’d adopted on the plane. The silence, while comforting in ways I didn’t understand also put a barrier between us. And that would not do. She needed to know that in everything, she was perfection.
“Your compassion toward wounded creatures doesn’t change the fact that I am hopelessly in love with you. Not because you care for me when I’m like this, but because I’ve found my heart. You’ve found my heart.”
“Oh, Mario, I?—”
A knock on the door interrupted what she was going to say. Despite my state of undress and the sacredness of this moment, I had to answer it. And preferably without exposing my lovely bride to scrutiny.
I rolled out of bed and dragged a robe off the chair. Allie scrambled to cover herself up to her chin with the comforter. I answered the door. Firenze was behind it, attempting to look anywhere but inside the room. In rapid-fire words he summarized the situation.
“Ringo has surfaced. He is at the cliff house. There’s a woman with him.”
I lowered my volume. “Does this woman look like my wife?”
“Sì, Don Valentini.”
“Do not take him there, especially in front of the woman. He’ll come to us. Prepare. I want him alive.”
“Mario?” Allie called from the bed.
I thanked Firenze for his warning and rejoined my wife.
“Is everything okay?”
“It is fine. Have you heard from your sister lately?”
Allie frowned. “No. I’m worried about her.”
“There may have been progress on that front.”
“Really? Did you find her? Is she okay? Can I see her?” She scrambled out of bed and began to grab lingerie from her sister’s suitcase. She picked a bright blue pairing that reminded me of spring flowers.
“Allie, it was only a sighting. They wanted me to know.”
Her shoulders deflated. “Oh. Did they say where she was?”
I smiled. “Did your itinerary include Pisa?”
It only took a moment for her to recall the plans she’d memorized. “No, we opted out of it because of the travel and Cinque Terra being off-season, and…She’s there?”
“Perhaps.”
Allie’s hope slowly drained from her face.
“What is wrong, my love?”
“She hasn’t even tried to call me.”
Ah. In a small way, I understood her disappointment. Ringo hadn’t made contact, either. Of course, I expected him not to, except in the most violent of ways, but that didn’t change my disappointment.
“She will call.” She’d better. Or else I’d send Firenze and Loppa, and perhaps a dozen more men with them to extract her from my very dead friend’s clutches.
14
