Our elbows were hooked, shoulders together while we stared up at the ceiling. Neither of us had spoken for some time. I wasn’t certain what to say after I’d blurted everything out the instant I’d been able, and Kennia wasn’t one to speak without meaning.

  “I’m hungry.” Kennia’s voice broke through the silence.

  I rolled my head to the side, staring at her hairline until she did the same. She blinked at me, sincerity dripping from her features. So unprepared for the statement, I couldn’t help but let out a disbelieving laugh. She smiled.

  “What?”

  Relief washed through me while the laughter continued. Once it’d begun, I couldn’t hold it back.

  The tears came again, welling in my eyes, but their meaning had changed. They weren’t as desperate as before, as terrified. Instead, they were my body’s reaction to the torrent of emotion that hadn’t let up.

  I shifted and threw my arm over her, hugging myself to her side. Kennia giggled, holding my arm to her chest and resting her head on mine.

  “Just a bit peckish is all,” Kennia said. “No need for the tears.”

  “I know.” I sighed, the laughter slowly dying in my throat. Adjusting, I rested my head on her shoulder. “I just appreciate the distraction.”

  “So…is that a yes on the food?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Before we parted, she placed a kiss on the top of my head.

  Separating, we crawled off the bed. I grabbed my phone and purse while she made sure she had her things as well.

  “I’ll give Chris and Ryan a ring, see if they wanna joins us.”

  “Maybe Ryan’ll know about the best places to eat?” I suggested.

  “Oh, Lord save us. I hope he doesn’t try an’ critique the chef.”

  I snorted a laugh. On our way out of the door, we hooked arms once more and went in search of something delicious to help wash away my worries and do something about Kennia’s hunger.

  I needed every distraction I could get.

  * * * *

  The guys met us at a bistro Ryan had picked. Their menu consisted of things purchased from local growers, whether it’d been wines from nearby vineyards, fruit from local orchards or fish caught just off the coast. Nothing they served was shipped more than one hundred miles to the restaurant.

  The food had been better than I’d expected, and to see Ryan and Chris outside the work environment gave me the chance to witness how adorable they were together. The two were the sort of couple that liked to tease one another with little biting comments and jokes, more than once sending the table into a fit of laughter as a result.

  All the tension, the uncertainty and fear of the day had faded during dinner, beaten into submission with each laugh that escaped me.

  “I don’t snore,” Ryan muttered into his wineglass.

  “Right,” Chris said with a smile. “Well, then, Kenny, you may want to check the engines. Sounds like someone’s tossed a bunch of boulders into them.”

  Kennia and I both giggled at the flash of red that spread across Ryan’s cheeks. He cast his boyfriend a glare, to which Chris replied with a wink and a blown kiss.

  I lifted my glass, ready to take a sip if not finish it off completely when something caught my attention. Out of the corner of my eye, a shadow moved. I’d thought it was nothing, just another patron moving through the outdoor area or a pigeon fluttering, but when I gave it my focus, my heart sank.

  Two men in black, one with a slick bald head and the other a mop of blond hair, were sitting a few tables over trying to blend in but failing. They were familiar enough for that to be impossible.

  “Hey.” Kennia placed her hand on mine, pulling me into the moment. “You okay?” she asked with worry on her face. “You’ve gone pale.”

  I said nothing but jutted my chin in their direction. She understood and shifted to look. It took her no time to spot the pair.

  “That them?” She looked at me again, the worry replaced with agitation. I nodded. “Right then.” She tossed her napkin onto the table. “We’re goin’.”

  “Everything okay?” Chris asked, his gaze dancing between us.

  “Yeah,” Kennia said unconvincingly. “Look… We’ll talk later. Let me know what this cost, and I’ll Cash App my half, yeah?”

  The guys nodded, though it was clear neither of them knew what to think of the moment.

  “C’mon.” Kennia grabbed my hand and hoisted me to my feet.

  We immediately set off for the hotel three blocks away, all the while checking behind us for the bodyguards.

  We wove through the alleys and walkways until emerging on the other side of the narrow bridge that led to the hotel. I couldn’t stop glancing over my shoulder, and while they kept their distance, the pair continued following. Kennia must have noticed, too, and she was not happy.

  Halfway across the bridge, she stopped dead in her tracks and spun, squaring herself on the two men who stood less than ten yards away.

  “Stop following us!” She bellowed the words, shouting so loud that it wouldn’t have surprised me if Chris and Ryan heard her. “We don’t know you! Stop stalking us! These guys are trying to kidnap us!”

  The bodyguards shifted, squirming on their feet and peering around, noting the people who were now very aware that they were there. I was too stunned to react.

  She proceeded to cause such a massive scene that Martin and his buddy were forced to slink back into the shadows, casting us both a glare when they had.

  “C’mon.” Kennia snatched my hand again and dragged me away. “We’re gettin’ you the hell outta here.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  We dashed into the hotel and to my room. I threw everything into my bag as quickly as I could, and after checking out, we were on our way to the ship.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  After a sleepless night, I sat in the sun eating a bowl of yogurt for breakfast, looking out onto the water. Being such a large vessel, The Silver Wind had to be backed into her slip so the only way to get aboard was via the sea deck. Unlike most ships, it allowed us a bit more of a view.

  There were still a shitload of boats in the way, though.

  My ‘shift’ would begin in about an hour, so in the meantime I chose to enjoy myself for as long as I could. It wasn’t much of a work schedule without people to look after, but touchups and the like were mandatory, and it would keep me busy. I appreciated it.

  I’d settled about as much as possible since the ordeal the day before, but I hadn’t spoken to Michele. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, and the conversation we needed to have was the sort that would benefit from a game plan. I wanted to have questions ready so nothing could slip through the cracks, and I wasn’t there yet.

  In the end, it didn’t matter.

  “You haven’t returned my calls.”

  Hearing his voice, especially so close, sent a chill down my spine. I didn’t turn around and instead chose to pick at the yogurt, eating very small bites so that I could extend the life of it.

  “Nope,” I replied.

  I reasoned that I must have been too deep in thought to hear his shoes click against the deck because they were loud as hell as he walked around me. While I continued to scrape at my yogurt, I saw those expensive shoes appear in my line of sight.

  “Why?” he asked in a solemn voice.

  “Because I didn’t have anything to say.”

  “I wanted to make sure you were all right. I was worried.”

  “I’m pretty sure Martin told you I made it back without a problem.”

  “Martin told me you threatened him.”

  “I did,” I said freely. My yogurt supply dwindled. “Is that all you wanted to know?”

  Michele didn’t reply. He stepped closer and knelt. Even though I could see him just out of the corner of my eye, I refused to meet his gaze. He seemed just as unwilling to be ignored.

  He clasped my breakfast and took it, setting it aside so that I had nothing else to distract myself with. He tenderly touched my chin, guiding it up so that I had no choice but to look at him. Michele peered back at me, his brows creased with uneasiness.

  “I have been worried about you,” he said. “I needed to hear that you were okay.”

  “I wasn’t okay,” I replied a bit meaner than I’d intended. “I was shot at by a very big gun.”

  “I know.” He nodded. “And the situation is being dealt with, trust me. You won’t have to be afraid anymore.”

  I narrowed my eyes on him. “So, they were after me.”

  Michele’s expression fell and his face went blank. He clenched his jaw. Being so close, I could see him doing his best to cover the slip, but I didn’t intend to let him.

  “They were, weren’t they?” I asked. He didn’t reply. “Martin said there were threats.”

  He scowled. “Martin should have kept his mouth shut.”

  “Why? He’s the only one who’s being honest with me.”

  “Things are…complicated.”

  “Not really,” I snapped. “One thing leads to another. Someone was clearly pissed off so they—” It hit me like a fist to the face. “It’s Yasmin, isn’t it?” Michele dropped his gaze and that was all the answer I needed. “It was! That bitch tried to kill me.”

  I didn’t know why she was my first thought. The young woman had been gone for a couple of days, little more than a memory, yet I could think of no one else.

  It’d been the rage in her face when she’d caught Michele and me in the hall that brought her to mind, that pure, unadulterated rage. And his reaction to the statement had been enough for me to suspect that things were worse than I could’ve known.

  “The situation is being handled.”

  “Handled? The situation is being handled? Are you kidding me?”

  Michele stood and stepped away, turning his back on me in the process. He put his hands to his hips, his head dropped and I was certain he was deep in thought, but I didn’t care.

  There was no more letting things slip by, no more ignoring the obvious.

  I pushed myself to my feet.

  “Normal people don’t do that kind of shit. What is wrong with her?”

  “We don’t know for certain if she is involved or not,” he said. “It may have been something else entirely.”

  “That’s not better!”

  “I know!” he shot back, spinning on his heel to face me. I shrank away, surprised by the outburst from the normally stoic man. He took a steadying breath and, in a much calmer tone, he repeated, “I know.”

  “Wh-who are you?” I couldn’t wrap my head around anything. “I don’t know anything about you.”

  “I’ve never lied to you.”

  “Oh my God.” My shoulders slumped. “I hate that excuse. As if you would’ve said anything if I somehow thought to ask if you’re in the fucking mob.”

  A knot formed in my chest and a lump in my throat. It itched, signaling to me that if I didn’t walk away, I would begin to cry. But I couldn’t leave. I wasn’t that smart.

  “And I liked you so much.”

  He glanced up at me, confused by my declaration at first, but the words seemed to slowly seep in.

  “But no longer,” he said with a despondent tone.

  “Does it matter?” The itch became worse and my vision blurred.

  “Always,” he said.

  My heart sank.

  “No, no it doesn’t.”

  He stepped forward and I instantly met him reverse, determined to keep the same distance between us. He noticed and remained where he was, sliding his hands into his pockets.

  “People are trying to kill you—or kill me for knowing you. That’s not normal. You see that, right?” I didn’t expect an answer. “I… I can’t.” It became hard to speak around the lump. “I can’t do this.”

  Michele flinched. He dropped his head and stared at the deck. The urge to apologize came strong, but I had to fight it. I had nothing to be sorry for. It wasn’t my fault that I didn’t want to die.

  After a moment or two, Michele lifted his head once again, but he didn’t look at me right away. Instead, he stared somewhere in the distance.

  Before he did finally meet my gaze, Michele wiped his thumb across his eye. I didn’t understand why, at first.

  His eyes had become pink and glassy in those few minutes. It shocked me. I hadn’t thought him capable of crying or coming close to it. Logically, of course he could, but I’d never witnessed it, therefore it wasn’t real to my brain. But seeing it broke my heart. He seemed human, mortal, as though the Romanesque god he’d been since our meeting had melted away.

  “Would you like me to leave?” Even his voice had become thick with emotion.

  I couldn’t speak. The words were lodged in my throat, but he seemed to know, anyway.

  Nodding softly, he said, “Sei l’amore della mia vita e lo sarai sempre.”

  “I don’t…”

  He nodded once more. “I know.”

  After taking a deep breath, he approached me, unwilling to translate what he’d said. Frozen in place, I did nothing when he tenderly grasped my jaw. Michele placed a soft kiss on my forehead. A torrent of emotion poured into me from it.

  Shortly after, he let go and walked briskly away.

  The tears fell, gliding down my overheated cheeks. I wanted to cry. I wanted to sob and break down. I wanted to do many things, but I’d gone numb. The best I could manage was to silently weep.

  My phone’s ringtone startled me. The once-dulcet tune sounded so angry all of a sudden.

  Digging into my pocket, I spotted my sister’s name flashing across the screen. I answered it.

  “Hey, Sage. This isn’t a good time. Can I call you back later?”

  My question was met with a silence that lasted long enough that I had to check whether or not the call was connected.

  “Sage?”

  “Yeah, uh,” she muttered. Her voice was thicker than mine. Something was wrong.

  “What happened?”

  My mother flashed in my mind, Rose and even Sage herself. Did Mom have a heart attack? Was Rose in an accident? The possibilities were endless.

  “It’s John. He had a stroke yesterday. He’s not doing very good.”

  A pit formed in my gut so dense that it threatened to take me to the ocean floor.

  I slowly regained my seat, staring into nothingness while I tried to absorb the statement.

  “Okay,” I mumbled. Propping my elbow on my knee, I buried my lips in my hand. “So, what’s going to happen now? What’d the doctors say?”

  Sage let out a long, heavy sigh. I couldn’t tell if she was fighting tears, probably not, but it seemed the stress of the situation pulled at her.

  “They don’t think he has very long.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “Look, um… Uncle Al said you were working again. Where are you?”

  “Italy.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “Well, um… Damn.” She seemed to be muttering more to herself than me for a moment or two. “You think there’s any way you could get some time off? Mom wants us to see him before, y’know…”

  “He dies?”

  My callousness surprised me, but I didn’t bother reining it in.

  “Basically.”

  “Uh…” I tore through the internal checklist of shit going on in my life, wiggling things around to get them straight where needed. “Probably. My ticket’s still open-ended, so I should be able to get the date changed to something sooner. I’m not a full-time employee and there aren’t any more charters, so that should help.” I paused. “Are we really going to go through with this?”

  Another long silence filled my ear, no doubt Sage struggling with the same things that I couldn’t shake.

  “I mean, Mom thinks it’ll be a good idea and Rose? Well, Rose still wants everyone to get along.”

  I rolled my eyes and kept my derisive comments to myself.

  “Look,” she said. “I know he’s an asshole, okay? I mean, Jesus Christ, the guy is a certified piece of shit, no matter whose list of criteria you’re going off of, but he’s still our grandpa.”

  I scoffed, chewing on my cheek. “The local sheriff has to be glad.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, now he doesn’t have to roll out to the old man’s house every week for God-knows-what.”

  Sage let out a breathy laugh that held no happiness whatsoever.

  With a heavy sigh, I let my shoulders drop and take with them every hint of tension that’d once remained.

  “I’ll see what I can do, okay?” I said. “It might take a couple of days to find a flight, but I can probably make it.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “I don’t want to do this either, but I’m glad you’re coming.”

  I smiled a little.

  Sage and I spoke for a moment longer with the promise of future updates when there were some to give.

  When I hung up, I set my phone aside and buried my face in my hands, running my fingers through my hair and doing my best to keep from pulling it all out.

  When it rains, it pours.

  No shit.

  Chapter Thirty

  Well, damn.

  A red-eye flight had been available on short notice, allowing me to fly out of Italy at two in the morning and arrive in Phoenix around noon. There were a few stops along the way and the fucking flight would last eighteen-plus hours, but I’d found one less than three weeks away.

  As I’d hoped, it was easier for me to get out of my contract than most. The agency simply needed proof of what was happening, which wasn’t difficult to provide, and the crew took my word, for the most part.

  There were a few who gave me the side-eye, though. Those tended to be the other crew I hadn’t grown very close with since my hiring, and they no doubt thought I was getting special treatment, but I didn’t much care.

  “When was the last time you even spoke to the man?” Kennia asked while I double-checked my luggage.

  “I don’t know. Since I was fourteen?”

  “Christ. More than half yer life then, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. A strange sentiment, given the man lived less than five miles from the house I grew up in, but the relationship between his side of the family and mine was contentious at the best of times.