“Because I would shock him?” She seemed rather pleased by the thought.
“Because he would steal you away from me.”
“No one could do that, Alex,” she said, crossing the distance between them and kissing him on the cheek. “But I will get dressed.”
She turned and walked back out of the room and he was left wondering what the hell had just happened here. What was happening in his life? Gabriella seemed to be happening. And far from being the harmless little bookworm she had seemed to be when he first met her at the door of the estate in Aceena, it appeared now that she was a rather intense bespectacled whirlwind.
Today all of the Lost Mistresses would be reunited again, would be with his grandfather. He had helped make his grandfather’s last wish come true. He would focus on that. What happened beyond today? Well, what happened beyond today would be what was necessary. Gabriella returning home was necessary. Gabriella getting as far away from him as possible before he did even more damage was necessary.
Damage was all he would do. It was all he was capable of. She would only need to ask Nate to know that was true. Would only need to ask every other woman who had ever passed through his life. Every one of his siblings he had been distant with, emotionally unavailable to.
The idea of Gabriella returning home should fill him with nothing more than a sense of completion. He could get back to his real life. Get back to the running of his company, could forget treasure hunts for lost paintings and art lessons and owlish eyes.
Instead, he felt as though his chest was full of lead.
But he had spent the past thirty-six years ignoring his feelings. He saw no reason to start engaging with them now.
*
He didn’t often make his way to the Di Sione family estate. As far as he was concerned it held nothing but ghosts from his past. Too many memories of what it was like to be a lonely little boy who just lost his parents. An angry, fearful eleven-year-old who had hidden the existence of a half brother to protect a man who didn’t deserve protecting.
He shook off the thought as he walked through the grand entry, determined to shed every last one of his memories and feelings like mud on his boots with each step he took.
He could hear Gabriella following behind him, her footsteps timid on the marble as she did so. He was carrying the painting, making his way into the family sitting room, scarcely feeling prepared to face not only his grandfather, but his assorted siblings.
When he walked in, every eye in the room landed on him, the painting he was carrying and the woman who was trailin
g behind him. He couldn’t remember the last time they’d all stood in one room.
Hell, Dario and Dante were standing beside each other. The identical Di Siones finally speaking again after years of discord.
Everyone gathered here in this room, united in this mission for Giovanni. This would have been impossible before. Before the quest Alex had been so quick to mock.
Nate, who he had always had the most challenging relationship with, was here, too, with his pregnant lover. And when Alex looked at him…he didn’t feel the weight of his failure, of his guilt. Not anymore.
Now he wondered. Wondered if it had ever truly been about these artifacts, or if they had been searching for a different kind of treasure all along.
“What’s the matter with all of you?” he asked, his tone sardonic. “Have you never seen a painting before? Or a woman?”
Giovanni stayed seated, his dark eyes trained on Gabriella. And Alex knew that his grandfather was seeing the same spark of resemblance in Gabby as Lucia had seen in him.
“It has been a very long time since I have seen such a painting,” his grandfather said slowly. “Or,” he continued, looking at Gabby, “such a woman.”
Gabriella looked up at him, her eyes searching. All of this was confirming what they both already suspected, but Alex was eager to hear the story from his grandfather’s own lips. “There is not only a woman in this painting,” Alex said. “The mistresses are here, as well.” He turned, standing the painting up on the mantel.
His siblings were no longer looking at him, but at the painting.
“I sense there is a story here, Nonno,” Alex said, his voice hushed. “And I can’t imagine you sent all of us on a worldwide scavenger hunt only to keep the truth hidden from us forever.”
Giovanni rubbed his chin, his expression thoughtful. “You are right there, Alessandro. I had no intention of keeping you in the dark forever. Nearly a century is long enough for a man like me, to live, to hold on to his secrets.”
“Well, I expect you to live a few more years,” Alex said, knowing that such a thing was highly unlikely, but hoping to speak it into existence, anyway.
“From your lips to God’s ears,” Giovanni said. “But in the event the Man upstairs is busy, too busy to hear such a pronouncement, I suppose I should speak my piece now. You may have begun to suspect that Giovanni Di Sione is not my given name. I was born Bartolo Agosti.”
“The letters BALDO on the jewelry…” Dario said.
Giovanni smiled.