The Shadow (The Florentine 2)

“I’m sorry.” The words were barely above a whisper.

“What’s that?”

“I’m sorry.” Her mother coughed. “I—I heard about David. It made the news. I—I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for that.” Raven’s tone was harsh. “Why weren’t you sorry when he touched Cara?”

There was silence for a moment.

“What happened with Cara was a misunderstanding. But of course I’m sorry about how he treated you. I’d like to see you.”

“A misunderstanding?” Raven counted to five in order to control her anger. “It’s pretty difficult to misunderstand an adult male with a little girl who’s naked from the waist down.”

The sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line whistled through the air.

“I don’t need this shit, Mom. Forget I called.”

“Don’t hang up!” Her mother sounded frantic. “Please. Just give me a minute. We haven’t spoken in years. I’ve missed you.”

Raven tapped her thumb and her middle finger together, trying very hard not to yell.

Her mother continued. “You don’t have to call me. I can call you. Just give me a chance, when you’re ready.”

“I make no promises.”

Her mother sighed. “Okay. At least we’re talking now.”

“I have to go.” Raven’s eyes met William’s. He was gazing over at her, looking protective but confused.

“Okay. Good-bye, Raven. I love you.”

“Good-bye.” Raven ended the call and curled into a ball on top of her chair.

William plucked the phone out of her hand and put it aside. He lifted her and sat in her chair, pulling her onto his lap. When he’d wrapped her in his arms as tightly as possible, he spoke. “I take it that was your mother.”

Raven resisted the urge to say something flippant. “Yes.”

“Human beings are the strangest creatures. I can never anticipate what they’ll do next.”

“Does she expect me to talk to her? When she still won’t admit what happened?”

“If she does, she’s mad.”

“Why did she say she was sorry if she denies the truth?”

“She’s a human and a woman. Such mysteries are beyond me.”

Raven gave him a half smile. “You sell yourself short.”

“I doubt it. Is it possible your sister is in Rome?”

“Yes, unless she fabricated the itinerary and lied to my mother. I can’t see her doing that.”

William hummed. Raven leaned against him. “I can’t deal with my mother right now. I spent years in therapy trying to get her out of my head.”

“I can send a message to her, if you wish.” William’s tone had an edge to it.

Raven shifted so she could see his eyes.

“What? Like a parcel of dead fish?”

William’s gray eyes twinkled. “Since viewing the film you showed me, I’ve been wanting to send a Sicilian message. Although in this case, it would be a Tuscan message, which means we’d need to send pieces of a wild boar.”

“Please, no.” She rubbed her eyes. “It was a mistake showing you The Godfather. Promise me—no dead boars on their way to my mother’s house in Miami.”

“As you wish.” He pressed his lips together.

“What should I do about my sister?”

“Nothing. She contacted you; you answered. Let’s wait and see what she does next. It will give us an indication of the Curia’s next move.”

“I don’t like the idea of waiting. It makes me nervous.”

“I’m afraid our decision to stay in Florence requires us to wait. But I wanted to mention something.”

“What?”

“If anything happens to me, or if for some reason you decide you want to leave the city, go to Via San Zanobi, number thirty-three, and ask for Sarah.”

“Who’s Sarah?”

“My mother.” He gave her a tight smile. “Don’t worry. It isn’t my mother you’ll be seeing; it’s simply a password. Go there and they will see that you get out of the city safely.”

“Who are ‘they’?”

“They’ve been well paid,” he evaded. “Only go to them in the direst of circumstances.”

“William, I told you I don’t want to leave.”

“We have no idea what will happen. This is my peace of mind that you will be safe.”

“Okay. I don’t promise to use it, but I’ll remember it. Thirty-three Via San Zanobi.”

“Good.” William’s body relaxed. “With that matter taken care of, we should probably make arrangements to retrieve your things from your apartment and bring them here.”

“Yes.” She hugged him close.

“We’ll celebrate tonight, once you’re comfortably ensconced here in your new home.”

“I like the sound of that, even though the circumstances are not ideal.”

“Welcome home,” he whispered, covering her mouth with his.

Chapter Forty-three

By the time the sun set, Raven had successfully packed her worldly goods in boxes and was sitting at her desk in her bedroom.

William had offered his assistance and he’d also offered the assistance of Lucia and Ambrogio, but Raven didn’t want other people handling her things.

It was strange to think that after knowing William for so short a time she would be living with him. Given the uncertainty of their lives, she was throwing caution to the wind. She didn’t want to be separated from William for a single evening, so it made sense to share his home as well as his bed. As he pointed out, the villa was one of the safest places in the city.

Raven surveyed the blank walls and the part of her old cane that was still embedded in one of them. She had no idea how she would explain it to the landlord. No doubt she’d have to borrow money from William to pay for the damages. He’d been the one to throw the cane so hard it had lodged inextricably in the wall.

She’d taken down and carefully packed all her artwork and her sketches. She was looking forward to painting in William’s garden. She was looking forward to having him pose for her. The thought made her skin flush.

Her phone chimed with an incoming text.

The text was from Cara.

At the train station in Florence. What’s your address?

Raven was so surprised, she nearly dropped the phone. She quickly typed the address and added, Is Father Kavanaugh with you?

Within seconds, she received the reply, No, he didn’t want us to leave. Fuck that. We snuck out.

Raven snorted and placed her cell phone in the back pocket of her jeans. She was relieved her sister had decided to come to her, but she was also nervous. She didn’t know how their conversation would go. And she didn’t know how she was going to account for the now-strained relationship between herself and Father Kavanaugh.

She wondered how long it was going to take for him to realize that Cara and Dan had left. She wondered if he’d send the Curia after them. She was about to telephone Ambrogio in order to let William know of Cara’s plans, when a knock sounded at the door.

She grabbed her cane and limped through the kitchen. William was being overly formal. She unlocked the door and opened it, swinging it wide.

But it wasn’t William who stood in the hall.

The man standing before her looked young, barely twenty. And he had long, curly brown hair that swept his shoulders. His eyes, which were also brown, were narrowed and peering. He was dressed in Renaissance clothes.

He smiled and bowed. “Signorina,” he said, addressing her. “The Prince has sent me to retrieve you.”

“Oh. Where is he?” Raven looked past him into the hallway.

“He is waiting at Palazzo Riccardi.”

Raven’s brow furrowed. She’d never been inside Palazzo Riccardi with William. And it wasn’t like him to send someone in his stead, unless he was busy.

“Where’s Luka?”

The man hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second. “He is

downstairs.”

She looked at the man carefully. He was obviously a vampyre, with pale, perfect skin and an almost ethereal perfection of face and form. She didn’t recognize him as one of William’s servants, but his voice, and his old-fashioned Italian, was familiar. She must have heard it somewhere before. She wondered why she couldn’t identify him by his face.

“I can’t come right now. My sister and her boyfriend are on their way here.”

“The Prince wants you to come now.” The vampyre’s tone changed. “Pets obey their masters.”

Raven lifted her eyebrows, while resisting the urge to correct him.

“I’ll call Ambrogio and explain.” She pivoted toward the kitchen table.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”