Page 135 of Deception

“I’ll go anywhere with you.”

“I think you’ll like where we’re heading.”

30

ISABELLA

Setting my bags down, I sit on the edge of the bed and sigh.

The lodge is just as we left it a few weeks ago. And returning so soon is such a strange feeling. To a place I expected to never see again. A place that feels like another lifetime.

Even in such a short time, I have so many happy memories here. Sometimes stressful, harrowing memories, but still happy.

Even more so now that this is to be our home for the foreseeable future.

According to Adriano, it’s the sole remaining asset that only we know about. A truly safe, safe house, off the books. Completely forgotten.

Not even Dom knows about it. Not that he should be looking for me now that his rival is dead and buried.

I hear the brothers out in the foyer, joking and cutting up.

They’ve enjoyed traveling together, however tiring the journey was. Alessandro especially, drinking, talking, just being themselves. It’s completing a missing piece in his life.

Although we are still on the run, technically.

Subterfuge was key the entire way here.

The past few days have been pure chaos.

And not just the battles, the kidnapping, the attempted and fake murder.

This trip was particularly winding, ensuring that no one could trace out movements. Boats, trains, planes, buses, and disguises I’m still washing out of my hair.

The funeral was first, and the hardest. Alessandro had to go on his own, sneaking aboard a ship while the rest of us flew, escorting the casket to his family’s homeland. Which left me with the brothers for several days.

Safe to say, we got to know each other a good bit.

They only hazed me a bit.

After the funeral, we took a roundabout train journey then a bus, meeting Alessandro on the far side of the Mediterranean and then hopscotching through Europe under the pretense that the brothers needed time to grieve.

It was a show, all of it meant to divert attention.

Let Dom settle in back in New York, and let the idea of Alessandro fade out a bit before they return to the States. Assuming they do.

They took steps to ensure they couldn’t be traced so they could come with us to the lodge.

But I get the impression it’s a visit, not a long-term stay like us.

Once they reemerge there will be no reason for anyone to come looking for me, or to think anything is amiss.

Laying back on the bed, I stare at the ceiling for a bit. A huff of laughter at the door interrupts my daydreams.

“What are you doing in here?” Alessandro asks, leaning on the doorframe, his shirt hanging open, showing off his impressive chest, a hint of his bandage poking out. Ciro’s already making up stories about how he took a fatal shot for the family and how the scar will go down in history.

“I was considering taking a nap. We’ve been going nonstop for days.”

“Agreed. But that’s not what I meant. What are you doing in the guest room?”

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