Page 44 of Royally Roma
He hated to think she would do something like that, but he couldn’t afford to think otherwise. Not when there was so much at stake in Lazaretto.
Thanks a lot, Cassian.
Niccolo sighed. He couldn’t blame Cassian for the mess he found himself in. Not this time. This was a predicament of his own making.
He needed to make it right. Not for himself, but for Julia. She shouldn’t have to pay the cost for his error in judgment.
Which meant he needed to get in touch with Piero as soon as possible. As he stepped into his trousers, he felt his cell phone vibrating away in his pocket and for once it was a relief. He looked at the display and marveled at the time. Had he really slept so late?
The phone vibrated again, and he answered. “Ciao, Piero.”
“Good morning, Your Royal Highness,” his secretary said.
Niccolo could hear a world of stress in that simple greeting. “I trust you’ve followed my instructions.”
“Yes, sir. Now if you’ll just tell me where to deliver the funds...”
Niccolo took a deep inhale and looked around. He didn’t want Piero here. Not if he could help it. “I’ll meet you at Café Rocha in half an hour.”
“Rocha? The little sidewalk café place? Sir, if I may...perhaps we should meet somewhere less public?”
Niccolo shot a glance at his beard-free reflection in the mirror. “It will be fine, Piero.”
It wasn’t as if they were planning a long, leisurely meal at the café, anyway. Just long enough for Niccolo to render payment to Julia. Then they’d both go their separate ways.
A dull ache throbbed to life in the back of his skull.
It has to end. Better sooner than later.If he’d created this much havoc in twenty-four hours, he didn’t want to contemplate the kind of damage he could do before he extricated himself from Julia’s life.
He needed to get back to work and back to the palace immediately.
“As you wish,” Piero said.
But he didn’t hang up right away, and the silence from the other end of the call felt heavy. Ominous.
“Is there something else you need to tell me, Piero?”
His reply was too quick, too full of cheer. “Absolutely not, Your Royal Highness. We look forward to your return.”
Niccolo ended the call and finished getting dressed. Julia’s microscopic bathroom was roughly the size of his personal dry sauna back in Lazaretto, so it didn’t take him long to locate a tube of toothpaste. By the time he heard Julia’s footsteps on the other side of the door, he was clothed, groomed, and ready to go.
But something still felt off. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it had been about the phone call that left him unsettled until Julia flung the door open.
Valentina shot toward him in a flurry of fur, and he forced a smile while Piero’s final statement echoed in his consciousness.
We look forward to your return.
NotI.
We.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
“Wait. Where are we going?” Julia wasn’t sure why she’d asked Nico to repeat himself. Whatever he’d said in the first place—something about a café—had been completely and wholly unacceptable.
The only proper answer would be the name of a bank.Anybank. She wasn’t choosy. Honestly, she wasn’t. Any monetary institution would do, so long as she walked away from it with two hundred fifty euros in her hand.
