Page 72 of Little Deer
He’s right. I’m not a casual kind of person, and I’ve definitely insulted him by implying he is. “I’m sorry.”
He smiles at me. Soft, gentle, and kind. “I know you are frightened, Lucy. I don’t say any of this to pressure you. It’s been a long day, and you are tired. How long until Soren will be awake to be fed?”
“Soon. He usually wakes up every four hours or so.”
“Then you will feed him, and you will get some sleep, yes? Everything else can wait. We’ll focus on it tomorrow.”
It’s an abrupt change in topic, but I welcome it. I feel too raw, too vulnerable. I nod, trying to handle the loss of his touch afterhe kisses me one more time and steps away. He picks up the clothes he set aside, but before he can leave, I remember what I wanted to ask him in the first place.
“Wait, what did you guys end up finding?”
“It turns out that there is a secret entrance and exit that Nico’s mother used.” He explains where they found it, and some of the fog of desire starts to recede.
“This place is full of stuff.”
Massmio chuckles drily. “It is. I had thought that the secret passages in our home were intricate, but that has nothing on this place. It would not surprise me that there is more that hasn’t been uncovered yet.”
“The girls said they’ve already started going back through all the documents that were in the office. But what I’m trying to figure out is how all of this relates to what’s going on.”
“The long and short of it, is that this entire city is a fucking mess. Secret deals, alliances that were never supposed to be found out, even now. Nico has no idea the depth of deceptions under his own roof, or that his mother was one of the master organizers of it. This whole thing started out as finding you, Sienna, and your cousins. Well, once everything was sorted between Nico and Gia. That was the catalyst that set this entire thing off.”
“It still doesn’t seem right. I mean, if Nico’s mother was sleeping with all these men, why a war? Wouldn’t that mean that they probably knew about each other if they were all using the routes and had some sort of alliance?”
“The journal mentioned that she kept them all separate. She didn’t want them all knowing she was playing them all, I guess.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It’s just…I feel like I’m missing a piece of the puzzle in there somewhere. Maybe once the girls have everything written down and sorted, I can see it.”
Massimo smiles widely. “I have every confidence that if anyone is going to figure it out, it’s you ladies. You all see things we can’t. But don’t worry about it for tonight. Get some sleep and we’ll talk about it more in the morning. Yes?”
I nod but give him a wry smile. “I’m thinking about it now, though, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to, but I’ll try.”
“That is all I ask. Now, kiss me goodnight,cerbiatta, so I can dream of you.”
I really shouldn’t, but I do as he asks, sinking into him when he deepens it briefly before finally pulling away. He leaves, giving me a rueful smile, like he wants nothing more than to stay right here with me.
Worse? I really want him to.
34
MASSIMO
“Giovanni wasspotted meeting with Ivan again,” Nico announces briskly as soon as we walk into his office. I can’t tell if the man has slept. He looks like he’s grumpy as hell and I’m pretty sure he’s still wearing the same clothes as last night. I glance at Dante, he looks much the same. What the fuck were the two of them doing?
“At Ivan’s or somewhere else?” I ask, taking my normal position near the window. I’m running on fumes myself, awake most of the night because I kept dreaming of Lucy. How she would feel over me, the sounds she’d make when I slid deep inside her, and the way she’d scream my name when she came. Thank fuck I found another room to sleep in other than Zeno’s because I spent most of the night fucking my own hand until I finally managed to get a couple hours of sleep.
A part of me wonders if this is what it’s going to be like until Lucy finally trusts me completely, but if that’s what I need to do, it’s what I’ll do. I was going to find her this morning, see if Icould convince her to spend a bit of time with me, but then the knock on the door came and there went that plan.
I glance at everyone else and I see they’re all looking tired and a little worse for wear too. We’re all on edge. I can’t fucking wait until this entire shitshow is over.
“At Ivan’s home,” Nico replies tightly. “But our informant was able to get a bit closer this time. He said that Giovanni showed up alone and that there was a lot of yelling between him and Ivan. Angry, things smashing, that kind of thing.”
“Maybe he didn’t want to risk Orlando pissing Ivan off again,” Alessio suggests.
“Or he sent Orlando on a scouting mission to watch what was happening here to report back,” Dante states. His mouth is turned down into a grim frown. “And that fucker is sneaky as shit. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was watching what we were doing, including finding the secret exit in the north wing.”
“He’s the one who told Marco about it, so yeah, I’m sure he was hanging around, the fucker,” Lazaro spits. He looks at Dante. “It’s been sealed off?”
“I found a small little button to open it in a crack on the outside and disabled it,” Dante replies with a nod. “I also sealed it from the inside as well. I’ve set up more patrols in the north part of the property in case he or Marco’s men still make a try.”
