Page 82 of Forging Caine

“You have her mistaken, signore. She’s—”

“Caused me more trouble than I care to think of.” He removed the towel and threw it toward his staff man, who scrambled to catch it. “As have you.”

If I’d learned anything from my Zio Giovanni, it was that calm preceded the worst of things. When he would speak plainly about a betrayal, that meant he was calculating. A strike out of anger was vicious, but one borne out of controlled rage was horror-inducing.

Fiori had gone to great lengths to work with us and bring us aboard his ship. If he’d been planning to eliminate us, there had been plenty of opportunities—a carefully planted drink at The Train Station could have been poison, Jason could have done anything last night while we slept, or the injection they’d given Samantha could have been fatal.

If I was certain of nothing else, it was that Fiori wanted us alive. “What’s it to be, then? Out to sea and throw us over?”

“No.” He descended the stairs and held out an arm to encourage me to walk with him, while Jason remained close behind.

Around the far side of the stairs was an outdoor dining area and bar, with sliding glass walls which were half-open to the cool evening air. The white and black painting my Zio Andrea had repaired was hanging on the wall by the bar, rather than in the lounge where it had hung the first time I visited.

“Your uncle does good work,” he said. “Andrea, that is.”

Another staff member joined us, placing a tray with antipasti on the bar. “Can I make you anything?”

I shook my head.

Fiori waved the man away and picked up a small bowl of olives, strolling to a long white couch decorated with blue and white throw pillows. “I was being honest at the yacht club, Antonio. I have some projects I want your help with, and that’s all.”

If that was all, his bodyguards wouldn’t have attacked us and they wouldn’t have had an injection ready. “So why the first two paintings?”

He popped an olive into his mouth, chewing a moment. Still controlling the conversation. “The first one was a test for you. I wanted to know what you’d do.”

“You wanted to know if we’d turn you in?”

“And you didn’t. At least not for that painting.” He smiled, placing the bowl on a low table in front of him, with a lipped edge to hold things while at sea. “But what bothered me was when I made a simple request for a second painting, what did I see? Two FBI agents entering Samantha’s place of work, just after she arrived. They left before she did, but what could that mean?”

Had he been following her? Or both of us? How long had he known about her past? “I’m afraid you’ve lost me.”

“I was clear with you that I was going to destroy the forgery. You didn’t even know what the second one was, and yet your fiancée is meeting with the FBI? What did she think I was going to have? Why would she suspect anything?”

I folded my arms, feeling at once in control and out of it. “You play the innocent, but then you threaten our families?”

“And if I hadn’t, you would have the FBI onboard my ship already, wouldn’t you? Even though I’ve done nothing illegal.”

“We were afraid it was related to Giovanni.”

“That son of a…” His act dropped and the genuine man shone through for a moment. “I want my painting back.”

Did he mean the one with the yellow flowers Samantha rescued in January? “It belongs to you?”

He stood, raising a finger at me. “I’ve been chasing that painting down for five years. Your uncle promised to get it for me, and when he finally had a lead, he got out of the business and refused to tell me where it was. It doesn’t work that way. He gave me his word that it was mine.”

Zio Giovanni had decided to leave that business two years ago. Could he have been working on getting that painting for so long? “How does all of this have anything to do with you forcing Samantha and me to work for you?”

“Everything.” His eyes sparkled with excitement. “The Concertalso belongs to me.”

“I still believe it was a forgery.”

“Not that one.” A grin spread across his face. “I don’t know where the real one is, but it’s mine. And you are going to help me get it.”

I was what?

Chapter 27

Samantha

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