Vampire Most Wanted(81)
“Yes,” Marcus said solemnly. “She did give the order, though there was more to it than that. However, we didn’t find that out at the time. All we knew was that she’d ordered him killed. He needed protecting.”
“From his own mother,” Divine said with a shake of the head. It seemed her mother hadn’t been the only cold, heartless, crazed bitch out there. At least she wasn’t alone in that.
“So you protected and guarded him,” she murmured.
“Yes,” Marcus said solemnly.
“For how long?” she asked.
Marcus considered the question and then seemed to do some figuring in his head. “Everything was resolved about three years ago.”
“And what did you do after that?” she prompted. They were getting closer to the now. Had he started working for Lucian then?
“Well, Julius connected with his life mate at about that time and was a bit distracted so I stepped in and took on the job of running the family company until he got past that, which took a couple or three years.”
“And once he was back running the company full-time?” Divine prodded.
“Well, he didn’t really come back full-time. Marguerite—his life mate,” he explained with a fond smile that suggested he liked the woman—“she and her family live in Canada, so Julius spends a great deal of time traveling back and forth between Italy and Canada.”
“Italy,” Divine breathed, sitting back in her seat as her gaze swam over his face. She should have known by the name and his looks that he hailed from there. He even had a bit of an accent, although it seemed to have been watered down and distorted, probably by his living in a lot of different places. Divine doubted he’d spent his whole life in Italy. He seemed to have French inflections, German, Spanish, and even English sounds to his speech . . . as she did. That being the case, she supposed she would have classified his accent as simply being European in origin.
Realizing that he was peering at her in question, she shook her head. “Sorry. Go ahead. Julius travels between Italy and Canada so . . . ?” She tilted her head and suggested, “So you run the company when he’s not there and step down when he is?”
“I did,” Marcus said wryly. “But thanks to developments in technology even that isn’t necessary anymore. So long as he has a computer and cell phone handy, Julius can run the company from anywhere in the world. He can bank online, conference call meetings . . .” Marcus shrugged. “It took him a couple years to get a handle on the new technology, but now that he has, he doesn’t really need me anymore. And now that Christian has met his life mate . . .” He shrugged and admitted wryly, “I’m pretty much at loose ends.”
Divine considered him solemnly. He wasn’t going to admit to spying for Lucian and she supposed she couldn’t blame him for that. What kind of a spy would admit they were spying?
“Why stay here in North America?” she asked abruptly, wanting to know how he’d explain that away. “Why not return to Italy? Surely they could find a position for you in the family business?”
“I considered that,” Marcus admitted quietly. “And certainly they have many things for me to do there, but I found myself too restless to go back to the family company once Julius took over again. It just didn’t sound appealing.”
“So you just suddenly decided to fly to America and join the carnival?” she asked quietly.
Marcus hesitated, toying with his silverware and avoiding her eyes as he did. After a moment, though, he raised his head to offer her a crooked smile and said, “Actually I drove here and joined the carnival. I was in Canada until a couple days ago.”