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“His place?” Ryland asked.
“The land belongs to the vases,” she explained like it was all too obvious.
“Inanimate objects can’t own land.”
“The Vases of Destiny do. The Bonettis were tasked with being the guardians of the land, of the vases, a long time ago.”
“Guardians?” He rolled his eyes. “Are you wasting my time with a fairy tale story?”
“No. It’s the truth,” she sniffed, insulted. “The Bonettis have watched over the land and the vases to stop bad people from getting them.”
“Bad people like the lynxes?” Wilder guessed.
“Not just them. A lot of people want those vases. That La Forest man has been waiting foryearsto get a vase. Isadora only sold it to him because he threatened her.” She rolled her eyes. “For old clay! That is an actual fairy tale. Immortality?” She laughed. “They’re all insane.”
“Is that why Luigi wanted to sell everything? To save his sons and daughter from the same fate as him? Being harassed by the lynxes? By anyone who wanted the vases?”
“Yes,” she said. “He thought that if he gave them to the museum, the lynxes would have no choice but to give up.”
“He thought wrong. This is why he disappeared.”
She shrugged. “I just work for Isadora. I can tell you that she took the vase to save her family.”
“Save them from the lynxes.”
She nodded. “The family thought she betrayed them and kept them tied to the lynxes, but she knew better. She’s a brave woman, Isadora. She wanted the Bonettis to keep the vases in case another family would be hurt by the lynxes or by someone else. She always said the Bonettis know how to deal with this. Others? Not so much.”
“The land was sold off.”
“Not all of it. The lynxes were able to buy a lot of it, and now, they own big chunks of it. Salvatore Bonetti himself lives on rented lands.”
The brothers exchanged a look. “The lynxes own the land?”
The woman shrugged. “They’ve dug up what they own searching for the vases. They have had no luck, so they come here and scare her ….”
“She’s in there? Isadora?”
The woman winced. “Please don’t bother her. She’s a frail old woman, and she doesn’t want to get mixed up with all of this business anymore.”
“Tell me where I can find the lynxes,” Ryland demanded. “Ineedto speak with Isadora. This is a matter of life and death. Surely, she would understand. Please help us.”
The woman’s shoulders sagged, and she took a cigarette out from her back pocket and lit it. “I won’t stop you from going in there,” she said between clouds of smoke. “But if you stick around long enough, the lynxes will come here.” She inhaled deeply. “They always come here.”
Ryland felt the first glimmer of hope in his heart.
I’m going to find you, Caroline. And then, I am never letting you go again.
TWENTY-SEVEN
RYLAND
Ryland wouldn’t be told twice. He stepped around the woman and her smoldering cigarette and walked into the flower shop again. This time, he went straight to the back.
What he found there astounded him.
“You!” he cried when he saw the woman who sat at a small wooden table, sipping a coffee.
It was none other than Lina Fiore. The woman he and Caroline had met in New York.
