Page 44 of His For The Keeping

“I guess,” Phantom said skeptically before giving her directions to the garden. Sighing with relief, she hurried away.

The garden was a mess. While Phantom hadn’t turned off the automatic sprinkler system, he hadn’t sent out a gardener either. Some plants had overgrown onto others, there was an abundance of weeds everywhere, and if it wasn’t cleaned up soon, they’d have to gut it and start over.

It was just the project she was looking for.

There was something calming and familiar with gardening. All week, Frankie’s mind had been torturing her. Nightmares of her family’s last moments had woken her from a deep slumber, and grief had filled her very being. It was all-consuming and exhausting carrying it around. She got to work on the garden, allowing her movements to overcome her thoughts.

The familiar muscle memory brought her back to an earlier time. She could see her nonna, the strands of silver in her raven black hair, her wrinkled hands with the age spots, age freckles she called them, working beside her, telling Frankie what to pull and what to leave, how to love the flowers into blooming.

Her soft, gentle voice shared stories as they worked. Frankie would get lost in the tales of old, not noticing when she pricked a finger on a thorn. When Dirk had asked for her sister’s hand in marriage, Nonna had ranted and raved like Frankie had never seen. Swaying to her memories, she thought back to that day in the garden.

“The audacity of that man!” Nonna paced back and forth. “The audacity!”

“What man?” Frankie asked since there were many options.

“Dirk Emanuele. If he is anything like his grandfather…”

“I’m not sure who you’re speaking of.” Frankie leaned in to smell a beautiful pink rose.

“He sent men last night to ask for your sister’s hand in marriage. He has the king’s blood.”

“Wouldn’t that make us like cousins or something?”

“Far removed. You would share the same great-grandfather times three, but not a great-grandmother, of course. The bloodline at this point would be very weak and legal, but that isn’t the point. They don’t want anyone to challenge them for the right to the Italian throne, so instead, they wish to merge our families. As if!”

“Nonna, there is no Italian throne.”

“Precisely what your father said, and there will never be an Italian throne. It is a futile exercise. They need to let go of the past. Indeed, I believe it is more about jealousy than power or the throne. There are family secrets they wish to ascertain and a map they want. Well, they can never have it. Never.”

“A map?”

Frankie stilled in the garden on Valhalla. The memory flooding back to her was important. She would need to share these details with the men. Taking a deep breath, she willed herself to remember.

The map.

The tiara was far more than a piece of jewelry—it was a map. When held correctly, it was a guide to where it was said the largest treasure known to man was hidden, a treasure that even surpassed the worth of their family. Supposedly, it had the world’s largest and purest diamond, bars of gold, and jewels that had belonged to the crown.

They didn’t just want to eliminate the Lombardo family. They wanted to find the tiara because it was a map.

“Frankie! There you are!” Phantom’s voice pulled her from her memories.

“Exactly where I told you I was going,” she smiled at him.

“About that… Apparently, Shane didn’t know you were walking the grounds alone.” He frowned at her.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Does it look like the plants are trying to attack me? I mean, they could have with the way they are intertwined and overrun with weeds. You need to hire a gardener.”

“Nice try at changing the subject, young lady. You know better than to be out by yourself.”

“Oh, stop! I don’t need anyone else’s macho, overprotective bullshit.” Phantom simply raised his eyebrows at her. “I can take care of myself.”

“I’m sure you can. Shane asked me to escort you back to the house.”

“I’m not ready to go inside yet. Besides, if Shane wanted me back so badly, why didn’t he just come get me himself?”

“He doesn’t know where the garden is, and he was talking to someone who has a lead on Emanuele.”

“There’s a lead on Emanuele?” That got her attention.

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