Page 44 of Her UnBearable Protector

Valerio’s eyes narrowed on him. “I would ask you the same question. Natale’s gone.”

Again, panic rose up and cut off the air to his lungs. “What do you know?”

“I was coming to check on you, you should be on your way to the venue by now, and the doorman recognized me and asked me to wish Miss Durante the best on her show. He said he saw her leave twenty minutes ago. He called out to her, but she was on her phone and didn’t hear him.”

Her phone.

The words pushed through the panic that shivered up from the soles of his feet. Thinking of Natale, he felt even more, as if he could sense her like seismic frisson vibrating through his body. She was alone, mere hours away from her fashion show, and she was in danger. He knew something was very wrong.

And when he raised his eyes to look at Valerio, he knew his brother felt it too. A rush for the bedroom found his cell phone tangled in the sheets. He ignored the curious look from his brother and activated the phone, selected the app, and waited for a few frustrating beats of his heart and then a flare of light popped up on the screen a strong pulse of red. Tossing the phone into Valerio’s suddenly outstretched hand, Salvatore grabbed his slacks from the floor with one hand and shoved a leg in. “Is she moving?”

Valerio watched the screen while Salvatore managed to pull his pants on, swearing as he picked up his shirt, twisting free of the comforter on the floor.

“Well?”

“She’s stopped now.”

Salvatore grabbed his holster off the bedside chair and glared at his brother. “Where is she?”

He heard Valerio’s in-drawn breath before a sigh of relief. “The Durante Workroom.” Lifting a smile, his younger brother’s shoulders relaxed into an easy line. “So, she’s alright.”

Looking at his watch, Salvatore mulled over Natale’s precise schedule that he’d memorized. “She should be at the tent. If she would leave here to go anywhere, she would go to the tent.”

He made short work of his shirt buttons as he pondered the reason for her odd side trip. It was Valerio that offered up a possible answer. “Something she left behind for the show?”

Salvatore knew the suggestion was wrong. “Not Natale. She has everything under control, if someone forgot something-”

The answer was suddenly at the forefront of his mind, the one person who would get Natale to abandon her tight schedule and go off track on a day as important as her show. The one person who’d pushed her buttons enough to get her to leave his side on a fool’s errand.

Every nerve ending in his body went hot and then cold as he fought down the sudden rush of his bear. “We need to go,” Salvatore ran for the door with Valerio close behind him, “we’re already so far behind.”

* * *

Drawers, storeroom, cupboards, all of them, checked and rechecked. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The door to the workshop opened, the sound echoed in the silence of the room and Natale stood, leaning toward the entryway. She didn’t even have to see who it was. Those heels were unmistakable. “Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you asked me to come get the jewelry.”

“I did.”

Confusion pinched between Natale’s brows and she dusted off the knees of her palazzo pants with a little wince of pain. “You should be at the tent.” Crossing the room, she picked her purse up from the worktable. “We’ll just have to do without the jewelry,” she sighed, “there’s no sign of the box here.”

The next words stopped her in her tracks. “Of course you can’t find them. The jewelry is at the tent, along with the rest of your insipid collection, waiting to destroy our family’s reputation.”

Natale felt like she hit a wall. She was tired and confused, tears prickling behind her eyelids. “Caprice, please. This isn’t the time-”

As Natale moved past her cousin, a hand latched onto her forearm, manicured nails digging in deep enough to stop her in her tracks.

When she met Caprice’s eyes in the dimly lit room she flinched away from the open malice she saw in her gaze.

“When will it be the time, Natale?” Caprice’s pearly white teeth were revealed as her pearly-pink lips pulled back in a snarl. “When do I get to have my turn? If you destroy this company with this ridiculous scheme of yours, I’ll never get my chance!”

Natale tried to pull her arm out of Caprice’s grasp, but all she got in exchange for her movement was the sudden pinch of pain on her arm from the manicured nails that weren’t going to let her go.

“This line is going to be a success. I know it.”

“This line,” Caprice mocked, “is ridiculous. What serious fashion house puts out a bunch of clothes for big fat-“

“Beautiful women.” Natale felt a pain stab through her heart. “Do you really believe that?”

---