Page 51 of Royally Roma

“We’re finished here. I’ll be in touch later. Just do your job this time.” Niccolo glared at him. “Or I’ll replace you the moment we get back to Lazaretto. You work for me, not my grandfather. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Piero said.

That’s more like it.

“And, sir, I’m sorry.” His gaze flitted to the security team. “They made me do it this way. You can have this, if it helps.” He pulled a bill from his wallet and slid it across the table.

Twenty euros. Not even close to what Niccolo needed.

“Thank you.” He slipped the twenty euro note into his pocket. “I’ll text you an address later. Get the cash as soon as the banks open in the morning, and we’ll proceed from there.”

What was he doing? How was he going to tell Julia he still didn’t have her money? Better yet, how was he going to walk away without being detained by the palace bodyguards?

Any sane person would give up and end this fool’s holiday right here and now. Then again, he’d turned his back on sanity about twenty-four hours ago, hadn’t he?

“I’ll be in touch.” Niccolo gave Piero a final nod, then turned and walked right past the two security officers, toward the table where Julia sat waiting for him.

“Well?” she said, casually sipping her glass of champagne. With her delicate features and bow-shaped lips, she looked like a Botticelli painting come to life.

A phrase began to repeat itself over and over in Niccolo’s head.

All roads lead to Rome.

All roads lead to Rome.

All roads lead to Rome.

He was losing his mind. Is this what Nero had felt when he was on the verge of becoming completely unhinged?

You will regret this. You know you will.

He didn’t bother sitting down. “There’s been a change in plans.”

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

Achange of plans. Why wasn’t she surprised?

Julia knew it. On some level, she’d known it all along. She just hadn’t wanted to believe it.

Nico didn’t have her money.

After all the promises, after all the flirty little exchanges, after all thekissing, he still wasn’t going to pay her, was he?

She’d never so willfully misjudged someone in her entire life. This was every bit as bad as her humiliating history with Elio. Worse, actually. Because she should have known better. She wasn’t that naïve American girl who’d just stepped off the plane at the Fiumicino Airport. She didn’t want to run away from anything anymore. For once in her life she wanted to run toward something. A real future—one that she made for herself. She knew now that her father was no anomaly. Men lied. All the time.

So this time she had no one to blame but herself.

She’d really wanted to believe him, though. So much so that she’d been ready to sleep with him.

When he’d turned her down, she’d even thought it meant he was honorable somehow. Trustworthy. But now she supposed it simply meant that he didn’t want her the same way she wanted him.

She swallowed.

Shall I tell you about the things I imagine, Julia?

He’d said those words to her. He’d said those things and more. He wanted her. She’d been wrong about so many things, but not all of them. Not about that.