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“Whatever it is, they can’t work it out?”
“Apparently not.”
I sighed. “So, when? Tomorrow morning?”
“No. Right now.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Just do it, alright?” he snapped.
He held out his hand. In his palm was Alessandra’s cell phone, which Dario had taken away when he first brought her to the estate.
After I took it, Niccolo turned and walked away, leaving me in stunned silence.
I stood there for a second, wondering what the hell I could do to protect her… then came up with the only solution I could think of.
I powered up her phone, which luckily didn’t have a password. Then I punched in my number and added my name.
My heart was heavy as I shut her phone down again and slipped it into my pocket.
I had grown quite fond of Alessandra over the last couple of weeks. Her initial sarcasm towards me – during our talk after I’d shot the snake – had obviously come from fear. Once she trusted me, she let me see the charming, sweet, kind soul that she actually was.
I began to understand why Dario had fallen so hard for her… which made it all the more wrenching when he ended things between them.
I didn’t understand; it was incomprehensible. I wanted to talk to him, to ask him why – but now wasn’t the time. I had a job to do, and it was to deliver Alessandra safely home.
Even though he’d broken up with her, Dario had entrusted me to keep her safe… which meant that, deep down, he still loved her.
I just hoped that after I got back, I could find out what was going on in his head – and maybe knock some sense into him.
Massimo, Roberto, Valentino, and Adriano waited with me in the foyer to say goodbye before she left.
Niccolo walked her down the stairs, her hand on his arm.
When she saw us, she froze – probably out of fear that we would shame her.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. We had all come to care for her deeply, in our own separate ways… and the fact that she was leaving was tearing us all apart.
She bravely started down the stairs and passed us one by one.
Massimo was first.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For saving my life.”
“I would do it a thousand times over.” He gave her a sad smile; it was the most torn up I’d seen Massimo since his father’s death. “I had hoped… that you would be around for a long, long time to come.”
Tears welled up in her eyes as she managed to smile. “So did I.”
Roberto was next. He said he would help her however he could, and she gratefully accepted his offer.
Valentino hugged her. Not in his typical lady-killer way, but like a little boy about to lose the sister he’d always wanted.
Alessandra made him promise not to break the heart of the servant girl he was hooking up with, and he promised to try not to.
But Adriano… Adriano was the one who surprised me.
He looked angry. That was nothing new; Adriano always looked angry.
