Lib Novel Page 38
“Nino needs to talk with you, Mrs. Pisano. He said it’s urgent.”
I sit up. What would the don’s head of security need with me?
“I’ll be downstairs in fifteen minutes,” I say and drag myself out of bed.
After a quick shower and putting on a new layer of makeup, I leave my room and head downstairs. The fever had broken while I slept, so I feel slightly better. It doesn’t show on my face, however, so I made sure I put enough war paint on to hide that fact. When I enter Rocco’s office, Nino is standing by the desk. Alessandro is a few steps behind him, his back leaning on the wall.
“There has been a shooting, Ravenna,” Nino says.
“A shooting?” I don’t understand why he is telling me this. Nobody ever tells me anything about the “business.”
“Someone tried to kill Rocco. It was a sniper, but he got away before we managed to locate him,” Nino continues. “Rocco is at a private hospital. Doctors are trying to save his hand.”
“His hand?”
“Yes.” Nino nods. “The shooter missed. The bullet hit Rocco in his right hand.”
My heart rate skyrockets, a wave of emotions surges through me but I’m too overwhelmed to make sense of any specific one. I move my eyes from Nino to the shadow looming at his back. There are no words that could describe the look in Alessandro’s eyes as they pierce mine. Bottomless, dark-blue depths regard me with unblinking determination. So full of rage and spite, but also satisfaction. He tilts his head to the side and moves his gaze to my neck where the bruises are hidden under several layers of concealer. Then, back up until our eyes meet again.
And I know.
The sniper didn’t miss.
“Ravenna,” Nino asks. “Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?”
I make myself look away from Alessandro and shake my head. “I’m fine, Nino.”
“There won’t be any visits allowed today, but Zanetti can take you to see Rocco in the morning,” he says and looks over his shoulder at Alessandro. “Go pack. I want you back here in three hours.”
“Pack?” I ask.
“Zanetti will stay in the mansion with you until Rocco gets released.”
I definitely should have sat down. Fairly certain my heart is about to punch its way out of my chest. “All right,” I manage to say. “Anything else?”
“That’s all. I’ll let you know when Rocco is out of surgery. Don’t worry, these doctors know what they’re doing, and it’s not the first time they’ve treated Cosa Nostra men.”
I follow Nino with my eyes as he leaves the office. When he’s out of sight, I take a deep breath and face Alessandro who is still silently leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. He straightens and heads toward me. Each step he takes feels like a zap within my chest. He stops in front of me, his huge body towering over my frame, and I tilt my head up to meet his gaze.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” I whisper, staring into his eyes.
Alessandro doesn’t reply. He just regards me for a couple of moments, then lifts his hand and lightly brushes my cheek with the back of it. It’s a very light touch, but it still feels like I’ve been hit by lightning. Without moving his fingers from my face, he bends until his mouth is just next to my ear.
“If your husband still has his hand when he comes home,” he says in a deep, controlled voice, and a shudder ripples down my spine, “I’ll correct it immediately.”
His touch disappears, and I close my eyes for a second, mourning the loss of his warmth. When I open them again, he’s gone.
Chapter 13
I push the blueprint of the Pisano mansion which Felix provided inside my dresser, and reach for my jacket and the shoulder holster on the chair. I had set my alarm for five in the morning so I could have enough time to check out the east wing before the housekeeper and the maids start their shifts at eight.
When I arrived with my bags last night, the housekeeper proposed I take one of the guest rooms in the west wing. I’ve already explored that part of the house in detail over the last couple of weeks, so I declined. Instead, I moved into a small room in the east wing, one that was probably meant to be a storage space but got outfitted for household staff at some point. It has only one narrow, horizontal window, high up on the wall. From the outside, no one can actually see inside, especially because the AC unit and other utility meters are in the way. It’s also close to the kitchen and laundry room which I haven’t had the opportunity to recon so far.
I step out and head down the hallway toward the laundry room, passing the kitchen and a few more empty staff bedrooms along the way. The blueprint showed that there is an unfinished sublevel space below the main floor of the house, but the schematic didn’t have the entrance to it marked. I find the basement door on the far end of the laundry room, behind one of the shelves holding cleaning supplies. It’s locked.
I take out my phone and check the camera feed from the entrance gate. The security guards are in the middle of their shift—acting rather lax, actually—and no cars are in view. Putting the phone away, I take out my set of lock picks. The basement door has only a standard lock, and it takes less than twenty seconds to unlock it. When I descend the steps, I look around the vast space. It’s only one room with a furnace and the water tank off in the corner, duct piping and electrical wires running along the exposed beams. There is nothing else except thick support pillars.
I take my time inspecting the heating unit and the pipes, then check the walls until I find an electrical panel. With that done, I move to the support pillars, making calculations in my head. The house might be smaller than I originally expected but overloading the circuits won’t be enough. The pillars will have to go, too. I do another round to make sure I haven’t missed anything, then return to the laundry room.