Teresa laughed at the image and enjoyed the fact that just for now, they were smiling together. Taking a walk, enjoying the day, as if reality had taken the day off. It was almost as it had been five years ago. But, of course, it couldn’t last.
When Rico’s cell phone rang, she felt a quick flash of annoyance. Just when things were going so well. She stopped and waited as he glanced at the screen.
“It is the hotel,” he said, then answered it. “Yes?”
His gaze shot to hers and Teresa was disappointed to see his easy expression drain away to be replaced with the cold, cautious one she’d become so accustomed to.
“What is it?” Her voice was as resigned as she felt.
“A phone call,” he said. “From your father. The hotel is forwarding it to my cell.”
“My father?” She hadn’t heard from her father since the day he left. Mainly because Rico had commandeered her cell phone—no doubt so she couldn’t make escape plans. She took the phone from him and tried not to worry at what might have happened to make her father call. “Papa?”
“Bellissima, are you all right?” Nick’s voice was hurried, anxious. “I have not heard from you and when I try to call your cell, I get only your answering machine.”
“I, um, lost my phone,” she said, with a quick look at Rico, who only seemed amused. Yes, she’d lied again. But she couldn’t very well tell her father that Rico had commandeered her phone to ensure that she didn’t call her family to plot an escape.
“Good, good. I am glad you are all right. This King person, he is treating you well?”
“I’m fine, Papa. Rico has been very…” She paused and caught his eyes. One black eyebrow lifted, as if he was waiting to see exactly what she would tell her father about their time together. “…kind.”
He snorted.
Her father only muttered something in Italian that she thought it was better Rico hadn’t heard. Then he spoke again.
“When this is all over, cara, you will tell me all about how you could marry this man without telling your papa.”
“I will,” she promised, though she knew that conversation wouldn’t be a pleasant one. No man wanted to hear that his daughter had been so swept away by passion that marrying a man she hardly knew had seemed like the rational thing to do.
“But for now,” her father continued, “there is a small problema, mi cara.”
“Problem?” she repeated for Rico’s benefit, and his scowl deepened accordingly. “What’s wrong?”
Her father huffed out a breath. “We cannot find Gianni,” he admitted finally. “He, too, is not answering his phone—why do my children plague me with machines they do not bother to use?—and he has not been in touch with us. He is not here in Italy and no one has seen him in weeks.”
Her brother could be anywhere in the world. If he didn’t want to be found, no one would be able to locate him. But why wasn’t he answering his phone? It wasn’t like him to simply disappear without telling the family when he would be back.
There were only two weeks left in Rico’s ultimatum, and if Gianni didn’t return Rico’s dagger at the end of the month…the Coretti family would end up in jail. As to what Rico would do with her, she couldn’t even guess.