Page 18 of Unravel Me

Relief hits me immediately, followed by uncertainty. I doubt this man is my True Mate, although… you never really know. Fated mates can be any age or subgender.

"And you're sure no one else lives with him?"

"Sweetheart, I'm not especially close to Renato. He's… a peculiar sort. He's of the forest folk, while I'm just a regular person."

I gape and the omega suddenly bursts into a strange laugh, and I have no idea what it's supposed to mean.

"I stay in town, you know. I'm just a man, and he… well, you know. He’s more. A powerful guy. People around here take him very seriously."

I fall silent for a moment because the way he puts it is downright bizarre. If the omega is ‘just a man’, so what exactly does that make Renato?

I keep pressing.

"So he lives there completely alone?"

The man sighs with mild impatience.

"No, no. Let me think." He scratches his chin. "Hmm… Old Silvio is probably still alive, Renato’s dad. If he had died, the whole town would be talking about it. He must be somewhere around eighty by now."

Davos closes his eyes as if searching his memory, but I have a feeling he doesn’t have to strain it too much. These kinds of gossip are probably too juicy to forget.

"Renato had three brothers. One of them, Tomasso, was a troublemaker and a gambler who treated his much younger husband, Gianni, terribly. Renato took Gianni in and gave him a place to stay because Tomasso became horribly abusive whenever he was drunk."

I stand there shifting from one foot to the other, suspended between decisions. This information is of no use to me, but I wait patiently, hoping maybe something more will come out of Davos’s mouth.

"Well, I also heard Renato's oldest brother lives with him. Emilio. He was widowed young, and Renato took him in too."

"Sounds like a good guy, Renato."

Davos giggles. "Well, I would say he’s… benevolent if he wants to be. But he's also dangerous if you cross him."

Then he becomes pensive and adds,

"Renato had one more brother, the youngest, Aldo, the most beautiful one of all of them, but he left years ago and never came back. He married into the Mafia, and things ended badly for him, as they usually do in such cases."

I don't comment. I could tell him quite a bit about that myself.

"I heard a rumor that he had four sons, but they don’t come to Rainbow Springs."

Obviously, the more Davos talks, the less useful the information becomes. But he finally seems to notice my attention drifting, as I start looking around the small square, wondering what to do next.

"Go on, have a piece of candy, child." He holds the bag out toward me, but I decline, still standing there awkwardly.

Davos seems determined to be helpful. I can see him searching his memory, making a genuine effort to recall something.

"Other than them, Renato may have a few servants around the estate. And of course there are employees. He runs a large company, after all. But they don't live there; they just come by whenever there's work to be done."

It doesn't sound encouraging. An older beta and a few middle-aged omegas living together… that hardly sounds like a promising lead.

Oh, well.

I don't think I should give up, though. I should still head into that sea of green, right to the center of the spot Storm pointed out. If there's nothing there, I'll simply turn around. I can figure this out in a single day.

"Thank you. You've really helped clear things up for me."

I say it just to brighten his mood, but the truth is quite the opposite. Too much useless information is swirling around in my head. The Italian names are starting to blur together, and I'm overwhelmed by all the possibilities.

Should I visit the Santoro estate first? Or just rush into the wilderness? Try something else entirely? Every option seems to pull me in a different direction, leaving me more confused than ever.