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I should do the same for her.
“There has been an unusual amount of motorcycle gang activity in the area,” I say slowly. I won’t tell her that I suspect Marco of the act, because that will be interpreted as a cheap shot.
“Motorcycle gang?”
I shrug. Luna has reached the sculpture garden, and with a delighted shriek, she sprints up to one of the statues. “Loook!” she trills.
I see Caterina start, but I hold out a hand. “The statue is not even five feet off the ground.”
“She could fall…”
“We have doctors in Italy. The ground is grass. She will be okay.”
“But if she breaks the statue…”
“I will buy another.”
Caterina sighs. “You’re insufferable.”
“And you wanted to know more about the motorcycle gang.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Fair. Fine. Tell me about the bikers.”
“I’m afraid there is not too much to share,” I say idly as Luna clambers all over the marble sculpture of a horse and rider. “Motorcycle gangs are guns for hire.”
“Cheap ones, too,” she murmurs.
I arch an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”
“I’m a woman, Elio. I’m not an idiot.”
“Did Marco share things with you?”
She doesn’t answer.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Never mind. What you and Marco discuss is not my business. But the fact that you know that motorcycle gangs are, in fact, quite inexpensive leads me to believe you know they are often unreliable.”
“Money only buys so much loyalty, until someone else can buy more.”
“Did your brothers teach you that as well?”
She turns to look at me and sighs once more. “No, Elio. That one I know all on my own.”
With that, Caterina walks forward to where Luna is gesturing wildly for her to come look at something.
I watch the pair of them. Caterina glows around Luna, certainly. But I realize as I look that her look is not the only reason I can’t keep my eyes off of her.
The Caterina I knew was a beautiful girl. Pretty, sweet. The perfect fiancé.
This Caterina is a woman. Strong. Smart.
Powerful.
And I realize in my heart that where she once was the perfect fiancé, now she is something else entirely.
The perfect wife.
Except that she will never be mine.
