Page 70 of Disarming Caine

I nodded, slipping out of his grasp to retrieve the evidence. “The bullets are too damaged to analyze here and the formal forensics results are still pending, but the casings appear to be a match.”

“And this means what?” He pulled out two Petri dishes and placed them on the sheet of paper.

“Same gun. So possibly the same gunman.”

“You suspect the man the police arrested is behind both shootings?” He labeled the lids with a wax pencil to match the halves of the paper. In Naples, he’d tried to stop me from investigating the stolen fresco over and over. But tonight, there was no judgment, no complaint. He was simply helping without my needing to ask.

“I think—” I slid the labeled dishes onto a shelf, next to each other. “—the Scotts are out for revenge.”

He took my hand and held tight. “That seems like a leap.”

“The guy they arrested claims to have an alibi for Mason’s and the gun he had on him wasn’t the one used there. But if you think about that first shooting, both Rhonda andNumber Vee’s artist were involved in the Chagall investigation, so either of them could have been the target and it still makes sense. Of course, then there’s me, who they’d obviously come after.”

“Alright. What do we do now?” He cocked an eyebrow and flashed a smirk. “Hunker down here and never leave the bedroom?”

“Janelle says I’m overreacting.” It was a lie, but a small one. He may not be made of porcelain, but no need to worry him. “Says the FBI hasn’t had any tips of the Scotts being anywhere near here. She’s going to follow up with the forensics people on the bullets to see if I’m right about the match.”

“What about Christmas dinner?”

I yawned, resting my head on his shoulder. “Said she’d up the patrols around Cass’s neighborhood.”

“There’s a private security firm my family contracts with…”

“Private security?”

“Sì, for parties or when we have particularly high-value items at the office. I’ll have them watch the house while we’re there. Ensure everyone is safe.” He ran a hand up and down my back. “Now, let’s go to bed. I’m still tired.”

“Good idea. All of it.” I let him lead me to the bedroom and he snuggled in, keeping an arm around me. I rubbed the arm as his breathing slowed and his grip loosened.

But the blood was still there when I closed my eyes. The blood and the screams.

And Janelle’s response when I asked her to tell me I was overreacting—I won’t.

Chapter 24

Antonio

Thatnight,wesatat a long dining room table. Samantha and I faced Lucy and Miller, Kevin at one end, and Cassandra at the other. Next to Cassandra, both of her children, the adorable little Emma, and the young man, Logan.

Lucy had stood from her seat, wandering to where they had already hung my painting in the room. “Sixteenth century Baroque?”

I squeezed Samantha’s hand on her lap. The day she and Lucy had arrived to pick up my first repair ofNumber Vee, she identified a painting of that date and style. It had been such a turn-on, I’d thought of little other than how much I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and discuss art for hours on end.

Samantha laughed, and Lucy grinned at her. “Not even close, Luce! How do you remember that?”

Lucy tapped her forehead and sat in her chair at the dining room table. “It’s got a number in it.”

Miller sat sideways in his seat, inspecting it as well. “You seriously painted that, Ferraro?”

Samantha rubbed my ankle with her foot, which had been snaked around my leg all dinner. “He’s quite talented.”

He grunted in ascent, saying no more. I’d put on my best face the whole evening, focusing on each member of Samantha’s family as needed. I won her three-year-old niece over by drawing coloring pages for her; with her ten-year-old nephew, it was showing him how to juggle a football outside in the cold; and Kevin called me his best friend when he accepted the bottle of Macallan I gave him.

Cassandra and Nathan Miller would require the long game, much like Samantha had.

“Speaking of paintings!” Lucy pointed her dessert fork at Samantha. “I searched around for other photos on that real estate listing.”

Samantha made a quick cutting motion at her neck. Everyone’s attention turned to her.

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