“Loved? You can’t mean what you’re saying. What if I’m right and they let Robynne go?”
“You still betrayed us. I am done with you.”
“You should keep a better handle on your whores.” A stubble-faced reporter interjected.
The man had the misfortune of being close enough to Ambrogio to receive a deadly right hook to his jaw. Thanks to the dense crowd behind him, he sank to the ground instead of flying backwards. Statement made, Ambrogio walked away as the horde made room for his departure.
Adele never felt more alone than she did right then. She hoped sacrificing her relationship with Ambrogio would bring her best friend back safe and sound, if not a little bit angry. She made the somber walk back to the fourth floor, choosing to take the stairs instead of the elevator with the jubilant editor. She waited in the breakroom for a few hours until Cosimo himself came to retrieve her.
“Ambrogio’s appearance was brilliant, although unexpected. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.” Cosimo said, the elation dripped from his pours. He couldn’t sit still; his soul was on fire.
“I’m glad someone is happy about all this.” Adele said.
“If it means anything to you, I think you did the right thing.” Cosimo said.
Their moment of mutual understanding was fleeting. As soon as a runner dropped off a copy of La Nazione’s special afternoon edition, he transformed back into the newspaper’s put upon leader. As he checked the article, “bravo’s” filled the air. When he was done scrutinizing the finished edition, he passed it over to Adele.
Immediately, the color drained from her face when she read the tile: “Spurned Lover Reveals All About the Argentero’s: A Tale of Murder, Kidnapping & the Renaissance.” Although the headline was in front of her in black and white, she could hardly believe what she was reading. It was a four page spread complete with pictures and descriptions of all the cast of characters involved. Under her and Robynne’s photos the caption read:
“Two American Tourists Came to Florence Looking for Some Italian Sausage, but Received the Whole Pot Instead.”
This article is completely sensationalized. I thought you ran a real newspaper. Where is your journalistic integrity?” Adele crumbled the rag up into a ball and threw it in the trash.
“Journalistic integrity doesn’t sell papers. The byline is the hook used to reel the stinky little fishes in. Once we have them, then we can tell the story. Capisce? It’s nothing personal.”
“I understand more than you know.” She was about to leave when he grabbed her sleeve.
“In boca al lupo,” he said.
“Crepi il lupo.” Adele replied.
She wanted to punch Cosimo in the face, instead, she accepted his good luck declaration.
“Adele, your accent is not bad. I just wanted to practice my English.” Cosimo said escorted her to the elevators.
“Thanks for giving me a complex about my accent.”
“Don’t be a drama queen. Arriverderci, Adele.” He said, letting go of the elevator door.
She held her tears at bay. After a few deep breaths, she was ready to face the world again. Unfortunately, the world had been camped out in front of the building, waiting to pounce on some freshly killed, scandalized meat. None too surprised that Cosimo failed to mention the reporters outside, Adele retreated into the building.
“How am I going to get through all these people?” Adele said to a man passing by with an enormous cart full of shredded papers.
He shrugged his shoulders and kept walking. She was about to head back up stairs when a guard with a familiar face approached.
Chapter 37
“You? Are you armed with any more inappropriate jokes?”
He blushed. “A few guards were sent to escort you back to your hotel.”
“Ambrogio still cares. Can you take me to La Borgata instead.” She smiled happily at the weary guard.
“No, I have strict orders. I should warn you not to go there on your own. You will not make it past the guard shack.”
“Just take me back to the hotel then,” she said,defeated.
At the hotel, she drew the curtains shut and hid under the duvet cover. Only moving occasionally when she needed to rotate out a tear-soaked pillow for a dry one. To cheer herself up, Adele turned on the television. She favored gameshows like the Price is Right and soap operas to the childish antics of Tom & Jerry and the like.
The lead news story featured on every channel, Adele’s revelations were the biggest story to hit Florence, as well as, the rest of Italy since the country’s economy collapsed. With no comfort to be had, Adele buckled under the weight of her trying day and slept.
Awakened suddenly, Adele screamed, frantically swatting away a hand in the process of clamping her mouth shut. Whoever it was proved too strong. She lay in bed terrified and muted. As light flooded the room, her assailant revealed himself to be none other than the guard from the lobby.
“Calm down. I have news about Robynne, but you must stop screaming.” When Adele nodded, he removed his hand from her mouth.
She had almost wet the bed with relief at seeing one of Ambrogio’s guards instead of an assassin sent to exact revenge on her. “You could have just knocked. Was it really necessary to barge in here and scare me half to death?”
“We did knock,” he said.
Still dressed, Adele launched herself out of the bed. “Never mind, what do you know about Robynne?”
“Robynne has been found. They’ve taken her to the hospital.”
“Is she alright?”
The guard pulled Adele along like a child. “I don’t know. We must hurry.”
“Can I at least get my purse?” Adele quickly grabbed for one of Robynne’s massive handbags, placing Cesare’s journal inside.
In the hospital, the long corridor seemed to stretch on for miles. With every step, Adele grew more tense. Her shoulders were at attention and she chewed at the inside of her cheek. She knew Robynne was alright. She refused to entertain any other thoughts to the contrary.
To her benefit, Adele didn’t have to worry over any silly administrative issues like checking in at the nursing station. Doctors and nurses alike removed themselves from the hurricane formed as they walked by.
“Eccola,” One guard said, stopping in front of room 241.
It was as though Adele had been shot out a rocket. She had heard the guards words, but unable to stop, her feet propelled her forward; however, a bone-crunching hug was enough to do the job her feet couldn’t. The hug felt familiar, the squeezing a comfort. Adele knew who was on the other side of the hug.
“You look like hell.” Robynne pulled out of Adele’s arms and eyed her up and down.
“I’m so happy your alright.” Adele hugged her again.
“You must have really missed me.” Robynne said.
“I thought something terrible happened to you,” she said.
“Not as terrible as what happened to your fashion sense. An Hermes bag with Khakis? Really? And, you could have ran a comb through your hair.”
“The kidnapping hasn’t curbed your sarcasm, I see.”
Robynne smiled and hugged her friend once again. “I wasn’t being sarcastic. You’re violating so many fashion rules right now.”
They entered Robynne’s hospital room, a precaution due to her recent predicament.
“Were you hurt? Where were you? Did you see the kidnappers? Are you really okay? How did you escape?”
“Okay, you need to take a breather.” Robynne handed Adele some water off her half-eaten dinner tray.
“I would like to know the answers to those questions myself.” Giacoppo said as he entered the room.
“She can answer questions later. It’s 2 a.m. Let her have some rest,” Adele said.
“I give the orders around here, Ms. Jaspers. If she’s lucid enough to enjoy your company, then she can answer a few questions,” Giacoppo said.
“I don’t know anything. They covered my eyes the ent
ire time. Although, wherever they were keeping me smelled like old paint,” Robynne said.
The investigator made himself comfortable in a chair next to the door. “Were you violated?”
“Not sexually. Someone slapped me once.” Robynne and Adele held hands on the corner of the bed.
“Only once? What were you doing when you were slapped?”
Robynne’s face took on the gray undertones of a rapidly approaching storm. “They tied me up. Before I could slip all the way out of the binds, someone backhanded me. I don’t respond well to hitting, call it a casualty of surviving an abusive marriage.”
Adele hugged Robynne so tightly, it was hard to decipher where she ended and where Robynne began. “I’m so sorry. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have had to go through any of this.”
“Please let her finish, so I can go home to my family before sunrise.” Giacoppo said.
“The force of blow knocked me over.” Robynne said.
“Where you standing or sitting?” Giacoppo didn’t look up from his notepad.
“I was sitting. I landed on something hard. Unfortunately for him, I used it to hit the asshole in the face when he tried to re-tie me,” Robynne said.
“You must have made him angry, no?”
“I heard bones snapping when I connected with his face. There was screaming.” Robynne drank a big gulp of water.
“Did you hear your kidnappers talking?”
“In Italian, I don’t know what they were saying, but there was a woman there.” Robynne looked everywhere but Giacoppo.
“How do you know she was a woman? Weren’t you blindfolded?” He crossed legs.
“I have a sense of smell, and I can hear. Her heels tap against the floor when she walked. Her cheap perfume made me sneeze.”
“So we’ve come to the most important question, how did you escape?”
“I didn’t. They let me go. They put a napkin over my nose. The next thing I knew, I was here.”
“Are you leaving anything out?” He put his pen in his pocket.
“No,” Robynne said.
A middle-age nurse checked on Robynne, advising him to go, much to Adele’s relief.
Giacoppo nodded his head in acknowledgment. “I will leave you two to your little reunion, but before I do, the journal, Ms. Jaspers.”
Busted, Adele bit her lip in hopes the pain would conjure up an escape route, a magic journal-hiding genie or an anvil. The journal, a noose around Adele’s stealing neck, sat way down in the depths of Robynne’s purse.
“Today, Adele.”
She wavered a few seconds more before deciding to hand it over when Robynne let out a gut-wrenching scream. She screamed again, this time the decibels reached just below ear-shattering. Hospital staff flooded the room, a diversion Adele used to rip some pages out of the diary. Calm and collected, she handed it over to him.
“I haven’t decided on whether to charge you for stealing evidence yet; however, it’s not looking good for you right now. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to stay in Florence. I’m talking to you too.” He pointed at Robynne before he was ushered out of the room.
Adele waited a few minutes before she spoke. “So, I went to the room where you were kept. There was blood everywhere. You really got him good.”
“I tried to land another blow when I heard a voice. It was distinct and coated with arrogance. Even though I thought the voice sounded familiar, I wasn’t sure until he said he should have brought a bib.”
Lost, Adele stared at Robynne waiting for the punchline.
“Don’t you remember? The strange dinner at La Borgata. Ambrogio asked if you needed a bib? That bastard kidnapped me. I don’t know why, frankly, I don’t care. Ambrogio will pay. The police won’t give me justice. No man is ever going to take advantage of me or anyone I love again.”
“It wasn’t Ambrogio. He has a brother named Luca. Their—” Adele’s voiced trailed off, the realization took her breath away.
“The asshole at the dinner table wasn’t Ambrogio? Thank God, I thought you’d gone crazy on me,” Robynne said.
“Are you sure?”
“I never forget an asshole.” Robynne pulled a band-aid off her arm.
“How could he be involved in all of this? It doesn’t make any sense.” Adele pulled out the pages from Cesare’s diary.
“I don’t know why he did it, but I am certain it was him–his brother. This is so confusing. Maybe the answers are in the pages you ripped out,” Robynne said.
“Nice save, by the way.” Adele scanned the pages for clues. Nothing pointed to Luca until the second to last page.
June 12th Out of sheer curiosity, I followed a member of the Fleur-de-lys today. I wanted to see who was behind the power, the ones who would give me Ambrogio after all these years, my saviors. The man in black seemed to go unnoticed, fading in and out the dense crowds of people more concerned with snapping a photo with the bronze pig in the center of Mercato Nuovo. He discarded his robe, and and I saw him. Luca Argentero was a Fleur-de-lys member. I was astounded, so much so, I gawked openly, but I soon came to a realization. There is no Fleur-de-lys. I knew in my heart I had been played for a fool. I felt ashamed for him and for myself. Legend has it whoever rubs the nose of the pig will return to Florence one day. I know it was silly, but I rubbed its nose. Maybe I will return to the person I once was one day.
“Shit, I have to tell Ambrogio, but he won’t take my calls, much less see me.” Adele said.
“Why won’t he see you?”
Adele fought to hold back tears. “It’s a long story, but basically I betrayed him. Ambrogio hates me.”
Chapter 38
“What’s this about me hating you? I could never hate you, Cara.” Ambrogio never looked better. His suit was as crisp as a newly minted one hundred dollar bill.
“You could have fooled me. I saw how you looked at me during the press conference.”
“Press conference? What the hell? Can you two stop acting like I’m not in the room.”
Ambrogio walked over to Robynne, embracing her. “Robynne, I am so glad you are alright. I would have never forgiven myself if something had happened to you. I wish we could have met under better circumstances.”
“So, you’ve forgiven me?” Adele asked.
“There is nothing to forgive. You did what you thought was right at the time,” Ambrogio said.
“Yes, but—” Adele said.
“Let’s forget our petty misunderstandings. Robynne is back. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine, and I must make this up to her.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I know it now.”
“What do you mean?” A quizzical looked passed over Ambrogio’s features.
“What I am going to tell you will come as a shock,” Adele said.
“It will have to wait. You and Robynne are in mortal danger. I have arranged for us to leave Italy tonight.” Ambrogio said.
“But Falconi said we couldn’t leave Italy,” Robynne interrupted.
Ambrogio grabbed Robynne’s hand to reassure her. “He knows we are leaving.”
“I have to tell you something,” Adele said.
“You can tell me on the plane. We found another bomb in one of our cars. Luckily no one was hurt due to its faulty mechanisms. I don’t want what happened to Cesare to happen to you or your friend. I cannot protect you here. So, I beg you, for your safety, come with me.”
“I can’t go anywhere in a hospital gown.” Robynne said.
After leaving the room momentarily, Ambrogio returned carrying a bag. “I retrieved your belongs from the hotel.”
Arm in arm, Adele and Robynne, sans hospital gown, followed Ambrogio into the hallway where they were surrounded by his guards.
“You came prepared,” Robynne said.
“There are paparazzi lined up by the front entrance. A car is waiting behind the hospital.”
Adele intwined her hands with Ambrogio’s.
“Spare me, you two are making me s
ick to my stomach,” Robynne said.
Two black limousines idled in the alley. The early morning sky, a living fresco, painted with rich purples and reds as dark as blood, greeted them as they boarded the vehicles.
“I have to tell you this now. According to Cesare’s journal, there is no Fleur-de-lys. The mastermind behind the bombs, the riddles, Robynne’s kidnapping and Felicita’s rapidly declining mental health was Luca.” Adele hands him the torn journal pages from Cesare’s diary.
Robynne, the three guards and Adele waited for his response. He remained emotionless as he scanned the pages.
Ambrogio sighed, crumbled up the pages, rolled down the window and tossed them in the street. “This is unfortunate.”
‘I’m sorry.” Adele reached for Ambrogio.
“I mean this is unfortunate for you and your friend.” He removed Adele’s hand from his knee.
“I was hoping to keep up this act until we boarded the plane, but once again, you ruined everything.
“What the hell is going on?” Robynne asked.
“I should have let Maurizio beat you to death. You’ve been a pain in my ass since the first moment I met you.” he said.
“You should have what?” Robynne was quickly restrained by one of the three guards sitting in the limo.
“When you broke Maurizio’s nose, he was going to kill you. I saved you, a fact I’ve regretted ever since.”
“Luca?” Adele said.
Don’t look so shocked Adele. I am an actor who has studied at Julliard. I must admit, I was a little nervous playing my brother again, but I made sure to employ all of his little quirks and pretty little words in my arsenal.”
“Did you hurt Ambrogio?”
“What does it matter if I did or not, he’s done with you anyway.” he said.
It was Adele’s turn to be restrained. “If you’ve hurt him, I will rip that smug smile right off your lips.”
“Such bravado, too bad you can’t back it up.” With his last sentence, the car stopped on the tarmac, a few feet away from the Argentero’s private jet.
“We’re not getting on the plane.” Robynne yelled.
Dirty Secrets Page 18