There was a knock at the door, and I walked over to open it. I hesitated for a moment, saying a silent prayer that it was Tara. It wasn’t.
“Hey, Penelope.”
She stepped forward and opened her arms. “Let me hug you.”
“Sure,” I mumbled. A hug would feel pretty damn good right now, even if it wasn’t from the right woman.
“Thank you for all you’ve done for Tara.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what it is you think I did.”
“You saved her life.”
“The credit for that goes to the entire K19 team.”
“Not from the kidnapping. You saved her before that.”
“She saved herself.”
“She’s mad at you right now, but she’ll get over it.”
“I’m really glad you all came. She needs you.” I took a step back to close the door.
“She needs you too,” she said right before it latched.
After locking the door, I went to the bed and stretched out on my back, hoping I could get some sleep. I’d drifted off when I heard another knock.
“Yeah?” I called out, wishing I could tell whoever it was to fuck off and leave me alone.
“Need you to come downstairs, Halo. Doc wants everybody in on this,” said Mercer.
“Be right there.”
I went into the bathroom and splashed my face with cold water. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, my eyes met Tara’s. Too fast, she looked away.
I walked toward the kitchen and stood with my back against the wall so I could see her, but for Tara to see me, she’d have to turn around.
Ava and Aine sat on either side of her. Penelope and Quinn were sitting on the floor, at Tara’s feet. Each of her friends either had a hand on her or part of their body resting against hers. As much as I wished I was the one sitting beside her, that she was surrounded by so much love, warmed my ice-cold heart.
“We’ll be here until Richard Emsworth is cleared for travel. I’m hoping that will be later today or tomorrow.”
As he spoke, Doc glanced at Tara several times. I looked around the room and realized that neither Gunner nor Tackle was here.
“As far as Brando Ripa is concerned, since he’s an American citizen, we’ve been able to make arrangements to extradite him back to the States.”
“Where is he now?” I asked.
“Somewhere safe.”
“The sooner we’re all out of Italy, the better,” said Razor.
Doc leveled
his gaze at him and looked over at Tara again. “We have no intention of informing the owners of the Valentini estate of the events that took place here yesterday. AISE is on board with that.”
“Copy that,” I muttered.
“That’s all for now.” When he stopped talking, Doc walked in my direction. I followed him out to the terrazza.