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Twenty-Two
Damian droppedoff a few pizzas with the guards, then continued into the house. He’d gotten a large sausage and onion — Aria’s favorite — and two dozen wings, something she confessed to having a craving for more than once in the weeks since theshooting.
“Honey, I’m home,” he joked as he shut the door behindhim.
“In the kitchen, dear,” she sang back in a singsongyvoice.
He made his way down the hall, noticing that she’d already started a fire in the study, and stepped into the kitchen. She was standing at the island with a beer in herhand.
He bent to kiss her, then grinned. “Are we sick of usyet?”
“Psh.Never.”
He hoped she was telling the truth. Hoped she loved every second of their time together as much as he did. Hoped he would always be able to give her the kind of happiness and security she’d neverhad.
She unscrewed the beer and handed it to him. “That smells delicious,” she said, eyeing the pizza. “And do I smellwings?”
“That you do,” hesaid.
“Nice. I’ll getplates.”
They dished the food and sat at the table. Damian told her about his conversation with Cole and their idea for cross-referencing the faces of the people who showed up on the cameras around Gatti’s favoritehaunts.
She told him she’d been into the city to run some errands, and he made a point not to push for details. He knew how concerned she was about control, how much of it she’d sacrificed under Primo, who had monitored her everymove.
Damian had no desire to control her — only to protecther.
She mentioned the security detail, so he knew Enzo and Andre had accompanied her to the city. Both men were were ex-Secret Service who qualified as snipers when they’d been active duty Special Forces. Both were trained in multiple forms of martialarts.
She’d been safe. That was all he caredabout.
They went on to discuss a property Damian was considering purchasing on Kythnos not far from Locke’s. Aria had seemed surprised, and he made it clear that he intended to shore up assets and getaways to protect them in thefuture.
Greece had been good for her, in spite of what had happened to her in Athens, but he wanted to make sure she would be happy with a housethere.
Her grin had left no doubt it was a good place to begin building their inventory of hideaways. Someday he would have to talk to her about Capri and what to do with the house there, but it was still too soon. He would wait until Gatti was taken care of and they’d had a chance to catch theirbreath.
When they finished dinner, they moved into the study. Damian added a couple logs to the fire while Aria put the leftover food in the fridge. When he turned around, she was standing near the sofa holding a small box tied with a yellowribbon.
“What’s this?” heasked.
“It’s… it’s a present,” shesaid.
Was it his imagination that she lookednervous?
He walked toward her and cupped her face in hishands.
“You didn’t have to get me a present, mylove.”
“I know.” She laughed a little. “I didn’t mean to actually. It was kind of a… surprise for metoo.”
He looked more closely at her. “Are you allright?”
She nodded and thrust the box at him. “Just… please, openit.”
He took the box from her shaking hands and sat on the sofa while she stood over him, biting her thumbnail, nervous energy wafting off her inwaves.
What was goingon?
