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12
Aria pulledthe sweater Jenna had given her tighter around her shoulders as she and Damian stepped off the terrace steps. They started across the field in silence and Aria took advantage of the opportunity to drink in the beauty of the estate for the hundredth timethatday.
It was truly extraordinary, the house like some kind of old Italian villa, the Tuscan sun turning everything gold at all hours of the day, the waving grass stretching to the barn in one direction, the forest stretching in every other, the scented air. The sun had almost disappeared behind the hills in the distance. The sky was a wash oflavender.
No wonder Jenna looked so happy. She was loved beyond measure by Farrell Black, sheltered by the compound used as a luxurious and homey refuge from the work he did to pay foritall.
Aria tried to imagine it. Was it possible to ever feel truly protected after everything that had happened? Not just the kidnapping in Athens but the fire that had taken parents from her and Primo when Aria had been a teenager? The years that followed when Primo’s mental illness was like a gasoline-soaked fuse waiting for amatch?
“I should warn you that there are men in the woods,”Damiansaid.
Aria slowed herfootsteps. “Men?”
“Farrell’s men,” Damian said. He laughed a little. “The whole place is locked down tighter thanFt.Knox.”
He took her hand and she peered into the trees, trying tospotthem.
“Why are they in the woods?” she asked. “Seems kind ofharsh.”
“Not really,” Damian said. “They’re private guards, most of them ex-military of one sort or another, all well compensated, I’m sure. I didn’t ask, but I’m assuming their location in the woods has something to do withJenna.”
“Jenna wants them in the woods?” Now Aria was reallyconfused.
“Probably not explicitly, but they do have a daughter. I imagine Farrell wouldn’t want to frighten her or her mother by having a bunch of gun-toting guards stomping around thehouse.”
They turned at the tree line and began to follow it around the property. Aria thought she spotted movement in the shadows of the branches but she couldn’tbesure.
If what Damian said was true, Farrell Black had gone to extraordinary measures to protect Jenna. To make sure she and Lilyfeltsafe.
Then again, Damian had done the sameforher.
She thought about her rescue in Athens. She didn't know much about the Greeks, but she knew from her brother that they were dangerous. That they didn’t operate by the same rules as some of the other organizations operating inNewYork.
And there was no doubt in her mind that’s who had kidnapped her in Capri — with Malcolm’s help. She just hadn’t figured out what they'd hopedtogain.
“I need to know about my brother,”shesaid.
Damian’s hand stiffened around hers. “What do you wanttoknow?”
“Is he alive? Ishe…okay?”
“He’s alive,” Damian said. “I’m not qualified to answer the secondquestion.”
“What do you know about him?” she asked. “About what’s going onwithhim?”
He didn’t look at her as he spoke. “He’s in New York as far as I know. He and Malcolm are partnering with the Greeks to hold my organizationatbay.”
Which didn’t mean Primo had been involved in her kidnapping. He hadn’t. She knew he hadn’t both because he wouldn’t do that to her and because she hadn’t seen or heard a word from him when she’d been in Athens while Malcolm had made his presenceknown.
“Do you know if he’s been trying to find me?” sheasked.
It took him a moment to answer. “I don’t.” He stopped walking and turned to her. Reaching into his pocket, he held out a phone. She wondered if it was her imagination that he was reluctant to give it to her. “It’s new. I had to get rid of your old one. It was beingtracked.”
“Tracked?”
Damian nodded. “It’s how they found us inCapri.”
“I had location tracking turned off,”shesaid.
