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"Can I take care of that?" I motion slowly toward her mouth. "It looks painful. I don't want it to get infected."

Sabina doesn't take her eyes off me and after a few seconds, she nods. "Okay."

"Excellent." Rising slowly, I keep my movements slow so as not to alarm her. I need her to trust me and to do that, I have to make sure nothing I do scares her. Starting with tending to some of her wounds. Valentina's medical kit is tucked in her bag, so I unpack it quickly in the bedroom and return to the main room where we put Sabina.

She hasn't moved an inch. Like a spooked deer, she watches me closely as I approach her and then sit next to her on the cot. The old springs squeak and yell with my added weight and I laugh softly.

"I don't think this old cot has seen two people in at least a couple of decades." It doesn't take long to open the kit and rummage through the contents to find what I'm looking for. As I set about smothering a cotton swab in antiseptic, I try to get more answers.

"Sabina… can you tell me why you were with my grandfather?"

Her wide eyes snap onto me and she shakes her head.

"Can you tell me what happened back at your restaurant?"

Pain flickers in her eyes and she glances down to my leg, then back up and shakes her head.

So, she doesn't want to talk. Or she's that scared of me that she doesn't trust me with anything she might say. Maybe if I talk instead, I can change her mind.

"It's alright if you don't want to say, but I am trying to help you." I face her and lift my hands slowly. "May I…?"

Sabina glances between my hands. "Okay."

Very gently, I cup her chin with one hand and as I apply soft dabs of the antiseptic to the cut on her lip, I launch into my own story. "I did kidnap you last night from Mario's estate and I'm very sorry if it scared you. With everything you've been through, I imagine it was pretty terrifying, and I want you to know that I didn't do it to be cruel. Ideally, I was hoping to just sweep you out of there, but that guard was a surprise. He is dead. My friend, Valentina, killed him. She's out right now getting us some lunch."

The cotton swab quickly turns bloody, so I set it aside and set up another.

"Mario threw me out yesterday when I started asking questions about you. We're basically estranged. I haven't seen him since I was a teenager because he's always lived here while my parents were in America up until their deaths. He didn't even come back for the funeral. But despite all of that, I knew he was a man with connections. Back in the States, with the help of my friends, I learned that you'd been brought here, so I reached out to him. There was no one else I could think of who could help me find you faster than him."

Sabina blinks slowly and as I talk, some of the tension in her seems to be easing. She's no longer wound tight like a trapped rabbit.

"Of course, he lied to my face when I gave him some details about you. He actually acted like he was going to help me, so when I saw you there, I was completely stunned. And then after, when I started demanding things from him, he threw me out. Violently."

Sabina's eyes dart around my face to the faint bruises shadowing my skin. "Is that how you got hurt?"

I nod. "I would have fought back but I was struck with this… realization that something was going on. And I wanted to make sure I survived so I could come back and get you." The second cotton swab cleans up the last of the dried blood around her lip and I set it aside, then pick up a small tube of gel and apply the slightest amount to the tip of my thumb. "That's when my friend and I decided we were just going to come in and get you out."

"Why?" she asks suddenly. "Why would you do that?"

Very slowly, I swipe the gel across her lip to seal the small wound. The air around us grows warm and her tongue darts out against her lower lip as if she's fighting the urge to lick.

"Because I saw you got taken. And I got shot for it. There was no way I could live with myself if I didn't do everything I could to rescue you, regardless of why all of that happened. Because even when I was on the ground, bleeding to death, you still tried to help me." My smile softens as I lower my hands. "I knew that no matter what, the woman who tried to save my life deserved my best effort to do the same for her."

Sabina's brows twitch together for a moment and she glances away. When she looks back at me, there's a hint of the warmth I'm so used to seeing burning away there. "Wow. I can't… believe that."

"It's the truth, but I understand if you don't believe me. I know how this looks and I can't tell you how sorry I am." I want to say more, to soothe her further with reassurances, but without knowing the whole story, there's a huge chance I'll make things worse.

To my surprise, Sabina ends up leaning slightly against me and her eyes dart back and forth between mine before they drop to her hands which are twisting together. "This is so weird."

"I know."

"I mean… in all the time we've known each other, I don't think we've ever spoken outside the restaurant. And now you're here. And we're in Italy." She lifts her gaze to mine. "I can't believe you're here."

"Of course I'm here."

"It's so…" Her lips twist briefly to the side and she sighs softly. "Everything would have been so different if I'd just had the courage to ask you to cancel your date and spend the night with me instead."

My heart stutters slightly in my chest and warmth rushes up my throat. Does she mean that? It's so out of the blue that it has to be the truth, and a curl of amusement warms my chest.