Fire Bound (Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart 5)

When Luigi had wanted to visit his family, he became conveniently ill and "retired" to his wing of the house where she was strictly forbidden to go. Casimir would have bet his last dollar that Arturo, Luigi's most trusted man, had stayed behind with Lissa while her uncle had snuck out. Arturo had made certain she didn't try to go visit her sick uncle in his wing.

"We need more information," he hedged.

Her gaze jumped to his face. She went very still. "Don't. I'm hanging on by a thread, Casimir. If my uncle helped orchestrate the hit on my parents and deliberately deceived me all these years, I don't have very much to hold on to."

He dragged her into his arms. "You have me. Put your thumb into the center of your palm and feel that. My heartbeat. Your calling card. I'm there. Inside you. I can't lie to you, malyshka. I can't turn on you. That mark means we're sharing something so deep there is no deception between us that would ever work. When your world is turning upside down, hang on to me."

"He's my family."

Casimir shook his head. "I'm your family. My brothers. All of them. Why do you think they contacted me in the first place? They love you, and they were worried for your safety. Your sisters on that farm love you. This man, if he has done the things we are beginning to suspect he's done, then he is not family."

She lifted her chin. "You tell me why he would train me to kill and point me to the Porcelli family if he doesn't want justice. Tell me what you really think."

"What I think and what I know are two different things." He didn't want to be the one to take away her entire world. He'd already given her far too much truth, and he couldn't bear the shattered look on her face. He wrapped his arm around her waist and gently coaxed her back toward the dark of the bedroom.

"Why don't you want to tell me?" she persisted, sounding accusatory.

He sighed. "I've felt more for you than I have for any human being since I was taken from my family. I didn't expect to have the kind of emotions for you I have so fast. Do you think I want to be the one to cause you hurt?" He jerked back the covers, his anger seeping to the surface in spite of his determination to stay in control.

The temperature in the room had gone up several degrees, telling him he was close to an explosion. He was extremely gentle with her as he handed her into the bed. She didn't lie down, but scooted to the front of the bed, sitting with her back to the headboard, holding a pillow in front of her so tightly her knuckles turned white. He could see the slash of color in the darkness.

"Don't you think I've been deceived long enough? It would hurt more to think you suspected something and didn't share it with me. I'm not so silly that I would lose my mind and confront my uncle."

Casimir slid in beside her, sitting close, his thigh against hers as he drew her beneath his shoulder. He kept his voice very low. Matter-of-fact. Gentle. "He raised you to be his weapon. If he married Angeline Porcelli and Angeline's father and the son are dead, accidents a few years apart, what other heirs are there to the throne? The Porcelli family is already merged with the Abbracciabene family. Luigi has all the power and money for himself. He's been patient and appeared to be a good friend and ally. The old guard is dead. Everyone who would have been loyal to the father and son. You killed them off, one by one. You'd be his only loose end, and it would be easy enough to get rid of you."

She was silent for a very long time, staring straight ahead into the darkness. She didn't cry. She simply sat still. It made sense. Casimir hated that it made sense. He was more than certain he had it right. If the Porcelli family had decided to murder the Abbracciabene family, they would have started with Luigi, multiple sclerosis or not. He was the biggest danger to them. No way would they have allowed him to live.

"I have always trusted the information Tio Luigi gives me. I don't have very many other resources. I found Belsky myself because I didn't want to involve Tio Luigi in my hunt for the Sorbacovs just in case I missed. That's why I took a chance on such a lowlife double-dealing weasel like Belsky. I was protecting Luigi." She tapped her fingers on her thigh, her body very still, as if she held herself that way to keep from flying apart.

Casimir couldn't imagine what she was feeling. Her only blood relative, the man she'd trusted all those years, had betrayed her parents and used her to get what he wanted. "Tell me what you want to do, Giacinta," he said. "Whatever that is, I'm with you."

She drew her legs up slowly until she could trace the horrendous scars crawling down her calf, shin and ankle where the dogs had ripped chunks of her flesh away. He covered her hand with his own, feeling her fingers brush lightly over the deep scars.

"We need information before we make a move. If you're right about him, he won't make his try for me until after I've dealt with Aldo. He'll give me Aldo's information and where best to hit him after I've taken out Cosmos. He'll give me a story about how it's now or never to get to him. Aldo would be the final hit."

"What about Arturo? He had to have known. He's been with your uncle for years. All the other guards talk about him like he's the biggest deal to ever hit Italy."

"He would have known," she agreed. "But he's totally loyal to Tio Luigi. He'd defend him with his life. If anything, because I trust him, he'd be the one to kill me, unless my uncle wanted to make certain I was really dead and planned to do it himself. Both of them would know he would only get one try at me."

For the first time he realized that she might just be sitting beside him very, very still, but beneath the surface, a volcano was shimmering. It was there in the room with them, the heat rising so that he actually felt little beads of sweat forming on his body. A shimmer of light danced along the floor leading toward the door. He circled her ankle with his hand, keeping his eyes on the flame.

"You can't set the house on fire."

"Of course I can."

He took a breath, willed her to breathe with him. "Not yet. We've got to make certain this isn't all conjecture. No matter what Luigi did, Cosmos and Aldo were involved, and they need to go down. I can question Cosmos before he meets with his accident. He'll talk."

She shook her head. "Not if he's loyal to Luigi and Aldo."

"Never forget who and what I am, malyshka," Casimir cautioned. "He'll talk."

She turned her head and looked at him, her eyes searching his. He didn't know what he expected. Weeping. Anger. Shock. Anything but the determination he saw there. She was more like he was than he had first realized. She prized loyalty, and if her uncle had done such a horrendous thing as to have entered into a conspiracy with the Porcelli family and order the hits on her family, she was more than determined to see him pay.

"We have to be certain," she said softly. "Angeline is a common enough name. We have to find out the name of Aldo's sister and then find out if it's the same woman my uncle is married to."

"I can do that. I have many sources. We'll find out the information fast." His hands went to the messy topknot in her hair. She didn't protest when he took it down and slowly slid his fingers through the thick weave of her braid until her hair spilled free. "I brought your brush in." He picked it up off the nightstand. "Sit in front of me."

"I can brush my hair." It was a halfhearted protest.

"I know you can, but I

want to do it. I wanted to do it from the first moment I saw you boarding the plane. You looked so proper, your hair all up on top of your head, twisted into that perfect style. I knew then I wanted to see you all messy, your hair spilling across my pillow and your lips swollen from my kisses. That want grew into a need, and now I've got you with me and I intend to indulge in every little fantasy, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant."

She turned her head to look at him, her eyes meeting his. He felt the impact all the way to his groin.

"I don't think any fantasy is insignificant." Her voice had dropped an octave or two, just enough that she sounded sultry.

Casimir wrapped his hand around her neck and leaned down to kiss her gently. Almost reverently. She didn't know it, but right there, in that moment, she was very fragile. Very vulnerable. Her world had shifted out from under her. The blow had to be terrible and, he knew, her mind would be racing, putting together all the little things from her childhood that hadn't added up. That she'd dismissed and refused to think about.

He settled her between his legs and began to draw the brush through the long silky strands, hoping the simple act of brushing her hair would help to soothe her. No betrayal came at a good time and certainly not one that had been going on since childhood.