Page 58 of My Dark Ever After

Peaceful,she’d said wistfully while we waited for Ludo to bring the car around for us.

A quick change of plans, and Ludo was dropping us off at the local train station.

The look of delight on Guinevere’s face was more than enough to warrant the irritation of traveling by train. Which did not help theaforementioned problem of keeping my hands off her, even though our relationship seemed to have hit an impasse.

Fortunately, we were surrounded by people, including Martina, Carmine, and Renzo. Carm was trying to help Guinevere improve on tresette, a complicated Italian card game, with the other two while I took calls and responded to the dozens of emails I had not seen to yesterday because of the harvest celebrations.

One of the calls was to the deputy director of the DIA, Sansone Pucci.

“Signor Romano,” he answered. “What can I do for you? Ready to come in and confess all your sins?”

“Are you a priest now, Pucci? I have to say, you might be better suited for it. After all, I heard the Greco clan was given to you on a shiny platter and not thanks to your own sterling police work.”

The pause was ripe with fury.

“What do you want?” he repeated.

“Merely a favor,” I corrected mildly. “No, it is not illegal. I just want you to look into someone for me.”

It was annoying that our search had come to this, but I had to use every resource at my disposal.

“Have you heard of a mafioso who calls himself the Venetian?”

Sansone scoffed. “You gangsters and your monikers. No, I have not.”

“Keep an ear to the ground,” I suggested. “He has been ruffling feathers for some of my father’s old associates.”

There was a note of interest when he replied, “I will. Does this have anything to do with the Greco case?”

“It could,” I said, unwilling to spoon-feed him the intel. “Look into it and let me know if you find anything of note.”

I hung up without saying another word, but I knew I would hear from him after he conducted his own investigation. Now that Sansone could confirm I was a potential tap for inside information, he would not be able to resist getting my input.

“It seems dangerous to use the police,” Guinevere murmured as the train pulled to a stop at the Santa Maria Novella station in Firenze. “Why bother?”

“Raffa likes to live on the edge,” Carmine quipped as we stood to get off the train.

“Do you really want to hear about this?” I asked Guinevere. “Perhaps it is simpler if you stay removed, given where our ... friendship stands.”

She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and looked almost shyly up at me as she said, “I would like to know more about your ... business, if you trust me enough to tell me.”

“There is a reason to every aspect of my madness,” I told her after a deliberative pause.

There could be no harm in her knowing more about the outfit. She may not have wanted to be my Regina Inferna, but there was no path in Guinevere’s future where she would ever betray me or mine. This I was willing to bank my life on.

I let Renzo and Martina step in front of her, Carmine and me at her back.

“Most people believe I never recovered from my very public falling-out with my father. They believe I came back to Italy to set up shop after he died just to be close to my sisters and mother. Tonio and Leo run the Romano Group, and I do not even sit on the board of directors for the company. By all rights, I am completely removed from Aldo Romano’s ties to the Camorra.”

“Did people know he was a capo?” she asked softly.

“Not really, but those who did suspect something did not suspect the same of me.” I shrugged. “Hush now. Such conversations can wait until we are in the car.”

As soon as we were safely ensconced in the vehicle, Guinevere continued her questioning. “If you have nothing to do with the Romano Group, does that mean your investment firm is totally clean? If so, how can you conduct any of your ... shady business?”

The laughter that flowed out of me felt immeasurably good. I had missed Guinevere’s insatiable curiosity and quick mind almost more than I had missed the feel of her in my arms.

“My primary business, Lupo Nero Investments, is totally aboveboard. The only way it benefits my other business interests is that I manage the wealth of some of Firenze and, indeed, most of Northern Italy’s most prominent movers and shakers. The party I took you to at the Pitti Palace? Do you remember some of the people we spoke with? The mayor and his wife, an Italian prince from the house of Savoy, the head of a famous fashion house? All clients. It helps to have a reputation built in high society—they tend to protect their own. Andcerto, they are very connected and often extremely loose with their morals should I need something from them or they need something more than financial advice from me.”