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Yeah, something was eating at her. Something that I couldn’t place.
When I’d last seen her this morning in bed, she’d been half-dazed, but the only thing in her eyes had been contentment and satisfaction. She hadn’t seemed distraught.
Her eyes moved to where Gabriel sat two seats down, and they lit up slightly. “Hi. You must be Dante’s brother.”
Gabriel extended his hand to her, leaning across the table. “You can call me Gabriel. And you are…”
“Sienna,” she said with a smug smile. “Though I’m sure you already know that.”
Gabriel gave her a knowing grin before leaning back in his seat. “I like going through pleasantries all the same.”
She nodded and gestured to the house around us. “Your home is stunning.”
“A lot less uptight than Dante’s, I’m sure. I like keeping work and home life separate more than most in this career. I hope the guards on the exterior didn’t bother you.”
She shook her head. “Not at all.”
An older woman in an apron turned the corner and gave a courteous head nod to each of us. “May I use Bria for some help finishing up dinner?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” Bria shouted, jumping from her seat and rushing toward the kitchen.
Gabriel grabbed her arm lightly and pulled her to a halt. “Do you remember the deal we made last time you were here?”
Bria nodded excitedly. “I can only help if I use my listening ears and be polite.”
“Very good,” Gabriel said, releasing her arm and giving her a slight shove toward the kitchen.
Bria glanced at Sienna. “Do you want to come?”
Sienna only shook her head.
“Okay, Mommy. I’ll bring you something to eat when I’m done.”
The words took a moment to register in my mind, and as Bria rushed away, I turned to look at Sienna. She stared after my niece, blinking once. Then twice. Then, in the span of a second, devastation crumpled her face. It came and went in less than a few seconds, and I wondered if I’d hallucinated it.
I didn’t think I had.
Bria had called her “Mommy,” and nobody knew what to say.
23
Sienna
I didn’t have the time to consider all the ways I could discreetly go through Sicily without being seen or caught. Hell, I knew nothing about the city or country, including the language. But Valentino must have had connections—enough that a note was left for me beneath the door of the bedroom that next morning.
The note had specific instructions about how and when to kill Dante.
I had no idea how he’d gotten someone in the house, but with Gabriel’s lack of guards, it wouldn’t have been as difficult as infiltrating Dante’s home. I wondered if Gabriel’s insistence on keeping guards out of his home would become his ultimate demise.
I allowed one of those same guards to escort me through a small shopping district, making a show of stopping at an occasionalstand. I even purchased a perfume that smelledwonderful,even if it was substantially overpriced. It didn’t matter, though. Not when I used Dante’s money—money that he insisted I spend however I wanted.
Once the guard began slackening his attention on me, I popped into a small vendor’s tent, looked around, and then ducked out of a small back crevice and rushed in the opposite direction.
I couldn’t do this with a guard, and I certainly couldn’t explain why one of Gabriel’s guards had been killed on my watch.
I strolled through the streets discreetly, passing by a mini drug mart on the way to the meeting location that Valentino had chosen.
I couldn’t help but slow my pace as I bit my lip.
