Page 53 of Caterina
Olivia laughs under her breath.
I have the attention of Giovanni and Roberto. I can feel it like a weight, and I know it's because they want me to feel it.
Good. Let them weigh me. Better now than later.
Isabella chooses that moment to wobble straight toward me on her unsteady little legs.
I shift without thinking, stepping half a foot to the side so I’m not blocking her path or presenting a large, unfamiliar object in her line of travel. She stops anyway, looks up at me with grave suspicion, then turns decisively back toward her mother.
Smart kid.
“Sorry,” Olivia says, though she doesn’t sound particularly apologetic. “She thinks she owns the place.”
“Doesn’t she?” I say.
That earns me the briefest real smile from Roberto.
Interesting.
He has one, then.
Stephano, meanwhile, has found a spoon and appears to believe it is either a sword or a drumstick. Hard to tell. Bianca reaches out one hand without looking and removes it from his grasp before he can test either theory on the tablecloth.
The motion is automatic. Giovanni’s eyes never leave me.
I look at Caterina. “How often do you use this restaurant during closed hours?”
Her expression hardens immediately, the way it always does when I pull us back to work.
“Are you serious right now?”
“Yes.”
Olivia reaches for her water with a look that says this is becoming entertaining. Bianca just sits back slightly, listening.
Caterina folds her arms. “It’s lunch.”
“It’s an assessment.”
“In a family restaurant.”
“A family currently under threat.”
My blunt words don't sit well with her.
Giovanni is the one who speaks first.
“He’s not wrong.”
His voice is deep, quiet, and absolute enough that everybody else just accepts it entering the conversation.
Caterina cuts him a look. “We're in an empty restaurant having lunch.”
“With staff walking in and out.”
“You think one of the kitchen staff is sending threats?” Bianca asks skeptically. “I hired each and every one of them myself.”
“Who better to get your guard down?” I say.
