Page 47 of The Strength Of A Woman

I flick my chin in Cosimo’s direction, who reaches inside his jacket to pay the man for the information before he escorts him out, while I lean back into my seat, pondering what I just heard.

Muffled voices fill the rooms downstairs as I drape an arm over the back of my chair and look in the distance.

A big moon shines over the water, leaving trails of silver across the sea.

The town quiets down, and only occasionally, the soft laughter of a woman drifts through the air.

Several scenarios play in my head as I mull over Julian’s role in all this when a door slams on the first floor.

My first instinct is to flick my head in that direction and touch my gun. I rise at once and move into the house.

There’s a contingency plan for this type of situation. Anything out of the ordinary raises the alert level.

People exchange words on the first floor when another door gets slammed.

I turn around, take a different set of stairs, and reach the ground level in no time.

“What’s going on?” I ask, as the hallway comes into view, and Cosimo sends someone out.

He looks at me.

“Leilani is back in town. She approached one of our men and asked to be taken to you.”

“What happened?” I ask dryly, although a storm starts brewing in my chest.

“I don’t know, but something did. She seemed frantic.”

“Where is she now?”

“Piazza Duomo.”

“Bring her in,” I say quickly.

“Are you sure?”

“Damn sure. Bring her in,” I bark as I pivot and take the stairs back up.

9

LEILANI

Earlier

I didn’t havetime to change or let anyone know about my new adventure. I only made sure that no one in the house had seen me leaving.

I went to the backyard, rounded the house, and followed the trail back to town, walking along the dirt path, moving stealthily through the clusters of trees, while pieces of wood were scraping my legs.

Holding my red skirt with one hand, I moved as quickly as possible through the dark, not looking back, not listening to the sounds of nature, not doing anything that could stop me.

I don’t even know who that Stefano Varela guy is.

I can’t even tell whether the information is real or not––deep down in my heart, I know it is.

All I know is that I need to get to Callum before he changes his mind and retracts his support, gets distracted by someoneelse or something else, or they simply get to him in some way, and make it impossible for me to communicate with him.

I know that it’s already risky and too damn complicated.

I know our understanding is fragile, and while I’m sure of what I felt for him when he held me in his arms, I also know that these things can be destroyed in a second by the stupidest things on this planet.