Chapter 26 Katarina #2
“Well, if my wife can do anything brilliantly, it’s tell other people what to do. She’ll sort it out, don’t you worry your wee heads about it. Katarina, was it? I’m Bran.”
“Hi.” I waved my fingers toward the phone before realizing how dumb that was.
“Hi. And my better half, the one who’s scurrying around bare-arsed right now getting her computer all fired up is Giada.”
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. There was something incredibly comforting about these people’s dynamics, their confidence. They were clearly family in some way or another. The jealousy hit me hard for a moment.
“Right, I’m here,” Giada said. “Nice to meet you, Kat. I can call you Kat, right?”
“Sure,” I said, having the feeling that any disagreement would be ignored.
“Where’s Massimo?” Giada asked, brisk. “Sorry, Father Lucciano.”
I stared at the phone. “What?” I slowly asked.
Lucy’s face reflected my shock. We hadn’t mentioned Massimo on the phone yet.
Giada sighed, sounding impatient. “I know, wow, surprise, I already know some of what’s going on! Worlds colliding and all that. Let’s marvel at the wonders of fate later . . . Where is Massimo?”
“I don’t know,” I managed. “There was a fire at the institute—”
The sound of tapping came over the phone. “So I see. A big one. That place is trashed. Good.”
“Massimo went back inside to look for a little girl who lived there,” I told Giada. “That was the last time I saw him.”
“Mass went on a rescue mission?” Giada chuckled. “You can take the boy out of the Col Moschin, but he’s still a damn bleeding-heart hero under all that psychosis.”
She tapped away a little longer.
“What are you doing?” Lucy asked.
“Checking hospital records for anyone who died last night.” Giada’s voice was dispassionate, while I felt like the bottom just fell out of my world.
“Nothing for his name, and they should be able to ID his body from his dog tags.”
“He doesn’t have them.” I pulled them from my borrowed dress. “I have them.”
There was a low whistle in the background from Bran. “Oh, he likes her, likes her.”
Giada ignored her husband. “Okay, well, there doesn’t seem to have been any admissions for severe burns, so . . . he’s probably okay and out there looking for you right now.”
Thank God.
I dropped my head into my hands and stared at the carpet. My heart raced. I couldn’t take it. The dog tags swung against my dress, gleaming dully.
Lucy rubbed my back. “What should we do?”
“I can’t find Massimo if he doesn’t want to be found. The man’s a ghost. L’Ombra,” Giada said.
L’Ombra? The Shadow.
“The best thing you can do is wait until he finds you, which he will. In fact, if he gave you the dog tags, he probably already knows where you are.”
“What do you mean?” I wondered.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll try and get in touch with him, but the man changes phones like socks.”
“She also needs to get to her mother,” Lucy said. “That’s where she needs to get to in the city, but she’s scared that the men searching for her will be waiting.”
Giada was quiet for a long moment and then swore under her breath.
“Wait for Massimo. Don’t go anywhere until he makes contact.
Mass will sort it all. Lucy, don’t miss your exam.
Katarina, stay in the hotel, and I’ll send another bodyguard to help out.
Worst-case scenario, if Mass doesn’t get in touch soon, I’ll send you a passport, and you come here to New York. We’ll take it from there.”
“New York? I can’t go to America without my mom,” I told her quickly.
She paused. “Right. If Massimo finds you, you won’t need to. He’ll take over, okay? Just wait until he comes for you.”
I nodded. She and Lucy exchanged a few short goodbyes and hung up.
“She’s . . . a character,” I said lamely.
Lucy laughed. “She’s a stone-cold bitch, and I love her.”
“She sounds great. I can’t understand how she already knows about Massimo and Hallow Hall, though,” I mused.
Lucy shrugged. “If Giada knows someone, it means she’s probably helped them with something at some point.
She said Massimo was in the Col Moschin, the Italian Special Forces.
Maybe she knows him through her older brother, Elio.
Elio was a colonel or something, I think. He’s my brother-in-law’s best friend.”
I nodded. “I see. And do they all work in this . . . unconventional business you mentioned?”
Lucy’s eyes slid from mine, and a stab of nerves went through me. Was she lying to me?
She nodded. “Yes, they’re all involved. My sister, too.
All of us, I guess. It’s a family business.
” She trailed off and then glanced at the clock.
It was morning already. The sun was far from being seen, but the snow had stopped.
“I need to get to the assessment kitchen early to prep. I wouldn’t go if it wasn’t an exam. ”
“Don’t be silly! Don’t miss your day to sit around here and do nothing but hide out with me. I’ll be fine. Your help is already so, so much.”
She nodded. “Nina won’t let me leave on my own, but Giada said she’d get someone down here to watch the door.”
I nodded reassuringly. “Like I said, it’s already so much to have a place to hide. Thank you.”
“Stop thanking me every two seconds!” Lucy smiled and stood, stretching this way and that.
I felt bad that she was going to be so tired for her exam, but there was a determined energy about her that told me she was going to be just fine.
“Now, I need to look human and get out of here. You need to go back to bed and sleep more,” Lucy said, stern.
I laughed at her tone. “Yes, Mom.”