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“And why didn’t you go?”
He pointed to his neck again. “He can kill Romy. I like my head where it is. So, what did you do, sorellina?”
She felt sick. “I lied to him.”
He clicked with his tongue in the roof of his mouth and shook his head. “Bad. If there is one thing Ezio hates more than any other it’s lying.”
“I know that now.”
He took her hand and kissed the backs of her fingers. His blue eyes so like his brother’s twinkled. “Not to worry. You can be mine.”
She tugged out of his grasp. “You were just calling me little sister, and now you’re trying to get with me?”
“You are still my sorellina.” He winked. “For now. If my brother is foolish enough to give you up, we can be lovers.”
As if I’d take another Sartori. Not in this lifetime.
She pushed her chair back and stood. “I’m not very hungry. I think I’m going to take care of a few things in my room.”
Before anyone could question her, Shakarri fled. She hurried upstairs and searched her room for her suitcase. Ezio had taken her on a short trip for their honeymoon because he was so busy. It wasn’t directly after they were married but not too long later. He had arranged for new luggage to fill with her new wardrobe. She wouldn’t take all the clothes, but she would make use of the two biggest bags.
Someone knocked on the door, and she froze. “Who is it?”
“Mamma Sha, let’s play,” Cat called through the door.
Shakarri groaned. “Just a minute, sweetie.”
She shoved the suitcases out of sight and hurried to the door, blocking Cat from entering her room when the little girl tried to squeeze by. Shakarri bent and scooped Cat into her arms while she knelt in the doorway.
“I’m sorry, baby, but I have something important to take care of. It’s going to take a little time.”
Cat held up three fingers. “This many?”
Shakarri laughed and gently pinched each of the little fingers. “No, not that many. Longer. I can’t say how long.”
Maybe forever.
“I want you to be a good girl. Why don’t you go in your room and play for a little while. You know what? When I get everything settled, I’ll buy you a present and send it to you. Would you like that?”
Cat’s eyes grew teary, breaking Shakarri’s heart. “Why can’t you give it to me like this?” She demonstrated with her hands out, palms up, and Shakarri chuckled through her tears. She swiped them away quickly before Cat could notice.
“We’ll see,” she said. Cat accepted that. Shakarri stood and walked Cat back to her room. Feeling sad about walking out on Cat, she stayed with her for a bit, and they played with dolls together. Afterward, Shakarri did their nails, and when Cat yawned nice and big and her little eyes began to droop, Shakarri nodded to Paxe. Three-year-olds still needed naps, which was a good thing for Shakarri. She could slip away.
As she finished packing, her heart hurt. In a way, she was abandoning Cat just as it must seem her mother had. If Shakarri had a little girl, she would die before she let anyone take her. That’s why she was doing this, because she couldn’t risk having a child with Ezio. Not on the basis their relationship stood. She didn’t know how she could have gone for it in the first place. Desperate situations drove people to make foolish decisions, and she couldn’t deny it was what she had done.
At the last minute, she decided one bag was all she could sneak out of the house. If she tried to go up and down the s
teps from her room to her car more than once, the odds went up of being discovered. Better to go for it once and get out of there.
Feeling like a spy, she hugged the wall with a big clunky suitcase in one hand and clutching her purse on her shoulder with the other. She listened hard to see if anyone was nearby.
She crept down the back stairs since it was safer. Clara would be distracted with preparing lunch, and the maid and Goro would probably be somewhere else in the mansion straitening up. Her mother-in-law napped the same as Cat did, and Cason often left the house soon after breakfast. That left the bodyguard. She had no idea where he was since he didn’t cling as closely when she was at home.
Shakarri reached her car out of breath with her heart hammering from nerves. She stuffed the suitcase in and dove behind the steering wheel. The garage door couldn’t open fast enough. She gripped the steering wheel, eyes wide as she watched the door to the house out her side mirror.
She threw the car into drive to be ready. The door to the house opened, and panic set in. She slammed her foot down on the gas and shot out along the drive. Before she reached the main road, her cell phone on the opposite seat was already ringing. Her bodyguard’s name flashed on the screen.
“Sorry, buddy, but I’m gone.” She mashed harder on the gas and almost put the car on two wheels turning the corner. Soon she was on the open road, but she took a route she hoped no one would think to follow her by.
