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I sat next to Nico in his sleek, black car.
I had no idea where we were going. After he came back from dealing with the burning body—something I never thought I’d hear myself say—he grabbed my hand and led me up the stairs and out the front door of the club.
I expected him to send me on my way, but he drove past my hotel. I glanced at my watch. It was midnight already.
He hadn’t said a word since revving the car’s engine to life and pulling away from the club, and I was rather grateful for it. My mind was running a thousand miles a minute.
I’d gotten myself involved with a guy who wasn’t fazed by burning corpses. A guy who had no idea who I really was or that I’d intended to use his family in some pathetic attempt to feel better about myself. A guy who I was sure had put people in a grave for far less.
He pulled into the parking lot of a pizza shop on the outskirts of town. The area didn’t look safe. But then again, I was with Nico Costa. What were the chances anyone was going to be stupid enough to try to mug the guy?
“Hungry?” he asked as he shifted the car into park.
“I could eat,” I said with a shrug.
I wasfamished.I could’ve eaten him whole if I had a bottle of ketchup in my purse.
He came around and opened my door. I realized I kind of liked that. Vito had raised me to be an independent woman who could open her own car door, but somehow, Nico didn’t make me feel like any less of one for it.
Inside the pizza shop, a lone man stood behind the counter tossing a large circle of dough. He had a graying head of hair and permanent crinkles around his dark eyes, but the way he moved so agilely spoke of youth and vitality. He dropped the dough down on the counter in a perfect circle the moment we walked in.
“Ciao, Nico,” the man said with a smile that lit his whole face, his arms outstretched wide in welcome. “It is so good to see you,amico.” He came out from behind the counter, wiping his hands on a dishcloth as he went, and shook Nico’s hand enthusiastically.
“It’s good to see you too, Antonio,” Nico replied with a smile in return, his eyes glimmered with something akin to warmth.
I supposed it shouldn’t have surprised me to see Nico so at ease after witnessing his easy rapport with Tommaso the other evening, but it still shocked me. He was like a walking contradiction to everything the tabloids said about him. I could never ignore the ever-present shadow in his eyes that said what I heard hadn’t been wrong.
“This is Raven, Antonio. Raven Ferrari,” Nico introduced me. “And this, Raven, is Antonio, who I guarantee you is the best pizza maker in the country.”
Antonio’s smile grew wider, and he shook my hand vigorously. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,SignorinaFerrari. Any acquaintance of Nico’s is always welcome here.”
Antonio’s smile was infectious. “Thank you, Antonio, and please, call me Raven.”
“What can I get for you two this evening?” Antonio asked while his gaze swung from Nico to me and then back again.
Nico looked at me, but I just shrugged. I was hungry enough to eat the pizza oven. Whatever he chose had to be more edible than that.
“Just a pepperoni pizza, Antonio,” Nico ordered for the both of us.
When Nico reached for his wallet, Antonio shook his head.
“Your money’s no good here, Nico. You know that. You see, Raven, Nico saved—”
“Grazie, Antonio,” Nico cut in and then led me away from the counter to the empty table for two in the corner.
“What was that about? What was Antonio going to say?” I asked.
Nico pressed his lips together, looking none too pleased. “It’s no big deal, Raven. Antonio’s daughter wasn’t well. She had a heart condition that required surgery. Antonio didn’t have that kind of money, and his insurance wouldn’t cover it,” he said with a shrug.
“You paid for the girl’s surgery,” I said, filling in the obvious blank with awe.
Having spent three years studying to become a nurse, I was aware that any heart surgery an insurance company wouldn’t cover generally meant the cost was well into six figures.
He nodded succinctly, clearly uncomfortable, but it took me a moment to decipher the uneasy set of his shoulders and the way his eyes weren’t quite meeting mine. He was embarrassed.
“You’re not what I expected,” I said.
“Don’t fool yourself, Raven. I’m exactly the man you expected. A bit of charity here and there doesn’t change that. Ask me what I did to the insurance adjuster who rejected Antonio’s claim.”
