Page 8 of Caterina
Teresa sighs and drops my arm before turning on her heel to face me. "You're doing it, aren't you?"
I stop. "Doing what?"
"Scoping the place out," she says, a knowing look in her eye. "Looking for weaknesses, planning your attack routes. You've been doing it since you drove up to the gate."
"It's part of the job," I say to Teresa. "If I walked into your house and didn't do it, I'd be bad at my job. You'd be disappointed."
She shakes her head, a smile playing on her lips. "That's not what we hired you for. You're here to protect Caterina. She's not even here."
"Call it a free consultation,” I tell her
“I don’t want that,” she says. “I want to catch up with my cousin before you get busy with the job. You can turn it off for the night.”
She's wrong. I can't turn it off. It's not a switch. It's who I am. But I don’t say that. I just nod.
"Okay," I say. "No more shop talk." It's a lie. I'll never stop assessing my surroundings, but I can pretend to, for her. That’s a compromise I can make.
"Good," Teresa says. "Now, dinner will be ready soon. Can I get you anything to drink? Water, coffee, beer, anything?"
"Water is fine," I say. "Thanks."
She nods and disappears into the kitchen.
And just like that, I'm alone in the middle of the living room with Vito Conti.
He hasn't said a word. He hasn't moved. But he hasn't taken his eyes off me either.
He is a man who understands silence. Who is comfortable with it. Who uses it as a tool.
And normally, I would be perfectly fine with letting that silence stretch between us. I am pretty comfortable in silence myself.
But not today.
"How much danger is my cousin in?" I say, keeping my voice low, my eyes fixed on him.
He raises a single brow. "You're here as protection for my sister."
"I know my job," I say, hardening my voice. "But I don't have blinders on. A threat was made against Luca Conti's children. My cousin happens to live with one of them. And it's not much of a stretch to assume your son, your heir, is included in that threat as well."
He studies me for a long moment. "I won't let anything happen to my family."
That's not an answer. It's a deflection. A politician's answer. I hate them.
I can hear Teresa chatting with the woman in the kitchen and know I don't have too much more time before she comes back.
"Let me remind you that they're my family as well," I say, taking a step closer to him. "I'm not okay with the way you started your relationship with my cousin. And if I hadn't been out of communication when it happened, I can promise you the outcome would have been very different."
"And what do you think you would have done, Mr. Texas?" he says, a hint of amusement and mockery in his voice now. "Charged in guns blazing to rescue your damsel in distress? You wouldn't have made it very far.”
“You don’t charge onto an island guns blazing,” I say, wiping the look of amusement right off his face. He didn’t expect me to know where he took her. I lower my voice even more. “Personally, I’ve had a lot more success with an underwater approach."
I reach into my pocket, pull out something small and smooth, and toss it to him.
He catches it instinctively and studies the small seashell that I know he recognizes as a decorative piece from the big house sitting on the island that doesn't show up on any maps.
The one they call Conti Cay.
Even though she wasn't there anymore, was back in New Jersey and claiming to be in love by the time I found out, I still had to see it for myself.
