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Mike knew he was mentally replaying what had happened at the piazza and beating himself up, par for the course.
She said very precisely, “Listen to me, Nicholas, what happened was not your fault. It was the freaking Carabinieri’s no-show, this Major Russo’s doing, no doubt. I’m thinking, too, that Kitsune should have known the shooters were there, and warned us. If we spotted some of them, why didn’t she? You know what? I say let’s blame her. Yes, that makes me feel better.”
He raised his head, gave her a twisted grin. “Yes, all right, we’ll blame Kitsune. I can’t believe we aren’t all dead. If Lia doesn’t make it—”
She kept her voice matter of fact. “She will make it. She’s young, she’s strong, she’s in excellent shape, and they got her here and into surgery quickly. Lia will be fine.”
“Do you think they’ll take all the earrings out of her ears?”
She laughed, couldn’t help it. “I hope they leave in her belly button ring.” She hiccupped, and her breath hitched. “She lost a lot of blood, Nicholas. It was all over the marble floor on the balcony.”
And on your hands, too, from trying to stanch the flow of blood. He looked at her hands, now scrubbed clean of Lia’s blood. “All right, she’ll make it. We were lucky.”
They sat quietly for a moment, the shock of one of their own being shot, the possibility of Lia’s dying, it was too scary to talk about anymore.
She said, “It’s no big mystery. The Carabinieri knew we’d be there and they let the shooters go for us. They wanted all of us, particularly Kitsune.”
“This time she’s made herself some powerful enemies.”
“Do you think it will make her reconsider her career choice?”
“No.”
She said, “It isn’t supposed to be like this, Nicholas. As Covert Eyes, we’re supposed to be covert. That’s the whole idea. Whoever set this up knew we were coming, they were waiting for us to come. They didn’t care if tourists got hurt or killed. Too many shooters, too many.”
“Kitsune killed one who was about to take off my head. Then she helped me up onto the balcony and disappeared.”
Mike whistled. “So that’s why Louisa lost her. She doubled back.” She studied his impossibly handsome face. “Know what I think? She saved you because she likes that dent in your chin.”
Nicholas rolled his eyes. “She saved me because we’re all she’s got.”
“Do you think Adam will find anything useful? Like the identity of Kitsune’s client?”
“If Adam can’t, then no one on this earth can.”
“Oh yes there is. You.”
“Your faith in me is grossly overrated—”
She shushed him, pulled out her phone. “It’s time to break the news to New York.”
But before she could dial, the phone rang in her palm with the familiar 212 area code. Mike picked up, said, “Sir, I was just going to call you.”
Zachery said only. “Tell me it wasn’t you.”
“Sir?”
“Have you not seen a television? Or Twitter? ‘Breaking news: the Piazza San Marco overrun with a gun battle’? Seven believed dead, one transported to a local hospital. No tourists hurt.”
“Yes, sir, I’m afraid it was us. We were ambushed.”
“All right, I know you’ve all sorts of justification, but more important, is anyone of ours hurt?”
“Lia was shot, the bullet hit her just above her body armor. She’s in surgery right now. Nicholas and I are here at the hospital, waiting for Louisa.”
A long pause from Zachery, then, “Gray was monitoring you, then everything went dead. We had no way to contact you. I trust you kept young Adam safe?”
“Yes, he’s fine, working at the hotel.”
