Page 92 of Little Dove

His lips are set into a thin line. “He’ll explain it when we get to his office,” he tells us simply. “Right now, we need to get as many things out of here as possible.” He looks at Papa. “If you can get a clear picture of that mural, we’re going to need it.”

“What’s it showing?” Pietro asked, peering at the mural closely.

“Routes,” Dante answers. “The ones she used to betray Nico and peddle her and her lover’s secret business.” He scoops up the papers and journals on the desk. Sofia is already pulling out the drawers and taking other things out of them to hand to him.

I glance at Alessio and we both know exactly what’s being implied, but until Nico shares it, we’re going to have to keep speculating. I focus back on Amara, turning her back around and cupping her face in my hand. Her eyes are bright and worried. “I didn’t mean to piss him off,” she whispers.

“He’s not upset with you,colombina,” I soothe. “Nico is a prick on a good day, and this surprised him.”

“He made it sound like he blamed me for finding it. Or that he doesn’t trust that I found it. I didn’t mean to upset him,” she worries.

“Amara,” Papa says calmly, his tone gentle. Amara turns to look up at him. “Don’t fear,cara mia. You have done nothing wrong, but when a man who is used to controlling everything realizes that he might have missed something major, they can lash out even when they don’t mean to. You have nothing to worry about where Nico is concerned.” Then he gives her a wide smile. “You are a smart girl,cara mia, and I am excited to have you in the family. Perhaps my grandchildren will inherit your brains instead of my son’s, yes?”

I flip him off, making him laugh. Amara blushes but gives him a small smile. “With that brain, I say she should come and work with me,” Urso suggests with a grin. “I need someone else with actual brains around.”

“Fuck off,” I growl at him. “She’s not working with your ugly ass day in and day out. Her brains would leak out if subjected to you that long.” Urso flips me off this time, then gets back to gathering things.

“I request that you check over our home when we return,cara mia,” Pietro adds with a warm smile. “See if there are any hidden places that we don’t know about.”

Amara’s blush deepens. “I’m not really all that good at this kind of thing,” she tells him shyly. “I just like puzzles, but often it’s not anything. I got lucky this time.”

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” Massimo corrects, giving her a stern look. “I never once noticed the wall, and neither did anyone else when they were working to clean the room and build the salon. You may have just turned the tide for us in a few ways, little sister, so no, this is no small thing.”

I give him a grateful look and Amara smiles a little more. Alright, we’re making progress, but I’ll be speaking to Nico to let him know that he made a mistake in frightening her. I’ve killed men for less, and while I won’t kill him, I have no problem in making sure he understands that he will never do that again.

The next half hour is all of us, including the women, grabbing everything we can, moving it out of the room and to Nico’s office. He’s nowhere to be found, so I have to assume he’s off with Gia somewhere. Probably for the best. Maybe she can mellow his ass out.

When we finally have the room emptied, I stay back with Massimo, Dante, Sofia, Papa, Pietro, and Amara to close the space. “Can you show me where the lever is that you found, Amara?” Dante asks. She takes him over to show him, and he shakes his head in disbelief. “I still don’t know how it’s never been found. Even if the lever is hidden, someone must have tried to grab that shelf and take it off at some point.”

“It had a fire extinguisher just sitting there, so maybe they just figured that’s what it was for,” she suggests. “Keeps it up and out of the way.”

“Yes, but if they grabbed the wood, surely they would have felt the hole.”

Amara shrugs. “Maybe, but from the sounds of things, no one was ever in here other than to put things in storage before they made it into the salon. So maybe no one really ever thought of it.”

“My wonder is how no one spotted Nico’s mother coming down here,” Pietro remarks. “This space was used, and it was used often if all that information we found is to be believed.”

“His mother was a drunk and pill popper, so she stumbled around the house a lot,” Dante explains. “If she came down this way, no one would look twice. They would think she was trying to find a place to pass out, or that she was going to sleep with one of the soldiers. If they found her in here, they’d have just called Nico or his father and had them come to get her and put her to bed.”

“The information that I saw in there was not the work of a drug addict or a drunk,” Papa says with a firm shake of his head.

“She certainly had her lucid moments,” Dante agrees. “But over time they were fewer and farther between. Trust me, she was all of those things, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was also doing that routine to throw people off her trail.”

“Makes me wonder if there are any other rooms like this hidden around here,” Papa says, glancing around quickly.

“Nico will probably have us search the whole place,” Dante nods. “But not until this business with the other families is sorted. He won’t want to risk the men finding out about these and spilling secrets.” Then he looks at Amara. “We might need your help with that.”

Amara jerks in surprise. “Ah, I’m not really that good at this stuff,” she protests weakly. “And this place is so big it would take me months, even years.”

“Then you can teach us what to look for that you noticed,” Dante answers simply. Amara doesn’t look convinced but gives a slow nod.

I have no intention of allowing her to stay here to do this, but I leave that unsaid for now. Nico and Dante can figure this shit out on their own without my woman.

“Well, I say we get to Nico’s office and see what he can tell us,” Pietro suggests briskly. “You and Sofia as well,” he adds, looking at Amara and my sister.

Amara takes my hand and squeezes it tight. I can feel her nerves. I lean down to press a kiss to the top of her head. As everyone files out, I keep Amara at the back with me. “Are you okay,colombina?” I ask her softly. “This is a lot, but I’m so proud of you.”

“It’s…this whole thing is a lot, Lazaro,” she whispers back, looking up at me with wide eyes. “Since I got here, it’s been one giant emotional rollercoaster after another.”

---