Stefano shook his head. “You don’t let her go, Vittorio. You find a way to make her happy so that she wants to stay with you no matter what. What we do isn’t easy to understand. For someone like Grace, a woman terrorized by a man who kills anyone who slights him, perceived or not, our way of life can be easily misunderstood.”
“I’m well aware,” Vittorio admitted. “Eloisa pushed my timetable up far too fast. Grace has just started physical therapy and I planned to slowly condition her to accept our way of life, not just blurt out explanations and force her to try to accept them.”
Vittorio knew it would be impossible to explain what his family did. He was born a shadow rider and trained from the time he was two. There was no other job or interest for him. It was considered a sacred duty and no rider, if he was capable, would ever walk away from it, no matter how difficult. The life was lonely, regimented, dangerous and formidable. Now that he’d had Grace in his life, even for a short few weeks, he wasn’t willing to go back to that stark, lonely existence.
Stefano pushed open the door and the two brothers stepped inside the huge room. “You might try explaining Eloisa. Grace seems a compassionate little thing. She might be distracted for a day or two.”
“At least we had a mother,” Vittorio groused. “If that’s what one would call Eloisa. Grace never had one. She had a crap childhood.” He detested that Grace had lived in terror. That she hadn’t had anyone to comfort her when she was young. That the only person who had ever stuck up for her was a serial killer who since had made her life a living hell.
“You’ll no doubt find a way to make up for it,” Stefano said.
“Did you talk to Teodosiu Giordano? I’m certain he’s the one loaning the money to Phillips.”
Stefano paused just inside the door of the conference room. “I did. Personally. He’s smooth, and he mixed lies with the truth. He admitted Phillips came to him and borrowed money on multiple occasions. He admitted he asked Grace out several times. He said he would again if given half a chance. He had no idea she was engaged to you, but for him that explained why she wouldn’t go out with him. Phillips had come to him with a harebrained scheme to allow Grace to pay his debt with sex. He explained that wasn’t what he wanted from her. I believed that much. I’m not so certain he wasn’t in on the kidnapping. On the other hand, he was cool under fire and seemed a little angry that anyone would do that to Grace. That came across as real. So, bottom line, he’s a question mark and someone we’ll keep an eye on.”
“Thanks, Stefano. I didn’t want to leave Grace, not now when she’s upset with me.”
Ricco sat at the table, Mariko by his side. The couple looked up when they walked in. “Everything all right?” Ricco asked Vittorio. “I saw your lady. She didn’t look happy.”
“Eloisa.”
“Of course. I should have known. Francesca will fix it,” Ricco said with absolute confidence.
Vittorio hoped his brothers were right. She’d told him, after the disastrous conversation with Eloisa, that she was all right now sleeping in her room alone, and she worried about him sitting up all night. He hadn’t protested, but he didn’t like her separating them. He knew she had it in her mind that she was going to get strong enough to leave. The word criteria was right there between them.
Stefano glanced at his watch. “Mariko, you will stay in the shadows. Anything goes wrong, you’re our ace in the hole. We’ll be asking them to leave their bodyguards outside of the room, so we’ll have to do the same. Sasha, Francesca and Grace are safe upstairs and I have four men on them. Giovanni is our most vulnerable, so you cover him, Mariko. He’s your first priority.”
She nodded solemnly. “Consider it done.”
“Speak of the devil,” Ricco said as Giovanni and Taviano sauntered in.
“Am I hearing my name being used in a bad way?” Giovanni asked.
“Always,” Stefano said and clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Sasha told Francesca the doctors are going to take the hardware out of your leg soon.”
Giovanni nodded. “I’ll have to go through therapy again before I can go back to work, but at least there’s an end to this. I held off scheduling the operation until we’re certain Grace is safe.”
Vittorio sent his brother a smile of thanks. For all the downsides to being a rider, there was his family. Always there. Always ready to help and watch out for one another. His family was one of the biggest gifts he had to offer Grace.