Lucy rubbed my back. “What should we do?”
“I can’t find Massimo if he doesn’t want to be found. The man’s a ghost. L’Ombra,” Giada said.
L’Ombra?The Shadow.
“The best thing you can do is wait until he finds you, which he will. In fact, if he gave you the dog tags, he probably already knows where you are.”
“What do you mean?” I wondered.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll try and get in touch with him, but the man changes phones like socks.”
“She also needs to get to her mother,” Lucy said. “That’s where she needs to get to in the city, but she’s scared that the men searching for her will be waiting.”
Giada was quiet for a long moment and then swore under her breath. “Wait for Massimo. Don’t go anywhere until he makescontact. Mass will sort it all. Lucy, don’t miss your exam. Katarina, stay in the hotel, and I’ll send another bodyguard to help out. Worst-case scenario, if Mass doesn’t get in touch soon, I’ll send you a passport, and you come here to New York. We’ll take it from there.”
“New York? I can’t go to America without my mom,” I told her quickly.
She paused. “Right. If Massimo finds you, you won’t need to. He’ll take over, okay? Just wait until he comes for you.”
I nodded. She and Lucy exchanged a few short goodbyes and hung up.
“She’s . . . a character,” I said lamely.
Lucy laughed. “She’s a stone-cold bitch, and I love her.”
“She sounds great. I can’t understand how she already knows about Massimo and Hallow Hall, though,” I mused.
Lucy shrugged. “If Giada knows someone, it means she’s probably helped them with something at some point. She said Massimo was in the Col Moschin, the Italian Special Forces. Maybe she knows him through her older brother, Elio. Elio was a colonel or something, I think. He’s my brother-in-law’s best friend.”
I nodded. “I see. And do they all work in this... unconventional business you mentioned?”
Lucy’s eyes slid from mine, and a stab of nerves went through me. Was she lying to me?
She nodded. “Yes, they’re all involved. My sister, too. All of us, I guess. It’s a family business.” She trailed off and then glanced at the clock. It was morning already. The sun was far from being seen, but the snow had stopped. “I need to get to the assessment kitchen early to prep. I wouldn’t go if it wasn’t an exam.”
“Don’t be silly! Don’t miss your day to sit around here and do nothing but hide out with me. I’ll be fine. Your help is already so, so much.”
She nodded. “Nina won’t let me leave on my own, but Giada said she’d get someone down here to watch the door.”
I nodded reassuringly. “Like I said, it’s already so much to have a place to hide. Thank you.”
“Stop thanking me every two seconds!” Lucy smiled and stood, stretching this way and that.
I felt bad that she was going to be so tired for her exam, but there was a determined energy about her that told me she was going to be just fine.
“Now, I need to look human and get out of here. You need to go back to bed and sleep more,” Lucy said, stern.
I laughed at her tone. “Yes, Mom.”
27
MASSIMO
“Sir, you can’t just leave, you’ve been hurt,” the nurse said for the tenth time as she hovered at my side.
I fought the urge to bite her head off and relaxed back onto the bed.Fucking hell.
“How long will it take?” I asked instead.