“And what’s the first?”
Kiara’s face sobered and a haunted look entered her eyes that I’d never seen before. “This is something that you can’t tell Massimo or Alessio.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“When I was a young girl a man from my family sexually abused me, and I hid it from everyone out of fear and shame.”
Without hesitation, I hugged her. She exhaled and briefly hugged me back before she let me pull back again. She patted my cheek. “Thank you.”
I nodded, and slowly it dawned on me what this was about. “Like I told Dad and everyone else, I’m fine. Amo didn’t hurt me in any way. I would tell you and Dad if he had. I know I don’t have to be afraid when I’m in Vegas and I know I don’t have to be ashamed.”
“You wouldn’t keep it a secret to protect him from harm, right? I know you.”
“He wouldn’t be deserving of my protection if he’d done what happened to you.”
Kiara smiled proudly. “That’s good. Your dad will be proud.”
“He’d be prouder if I could defend myself like he always wanted.”
“You aren’t someone who resorts to violence, he’s come to terms with it, and you wouldn’t have had a chance against a man like Amo anyway.”
I nodded. “Have they found Momo yet?”
“No, they’re still looking.”
“I’ll get dressed and join them. And tell Dad, I’m fine. I don’t want war to happen because of me.”
“It won’t,” Kiara said.
Ten minutes later I was dressed and went down to the common room where I found Nino stitching up Nevio. He was talking to Alessio and Massimo while Nino pushed the needle into his flesh. Seeing them, I remembered Kiara asking me not to tell them. I wondered why she didn’t want them to know. They could handle a lot considering what they did at night.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Nevio asked with an arched brow as I headed toward the backyard. Maybe Momo huddled under one of the bushes. He was too careful to go near one of the two pools.
“I’m going to look for Momo.”
“Wait for me. I don’t want you to go alone.”
I sent my brother a disbelieving look. He has always been protective but this was taking it to a new level. “I’ll never find her if you’re by my side, you know that.”
“I’ll come with you,” Dad said as he stepped into the common room. He’d probably been upstairs to give Giulio a lecture. He pointed a warning finger at Nevio. “You’re getting stitched up. If you lose your arm because of an infection, you’ll be in major trouble.”
He strode over to me. Momo didn’t tolerate Dad much better than Nevio but I actually liked the idea of Dad joining me.
With his hand on my shoulder, we stepped out into the backyard. The evening air was brisk and so I wrapped my cardigan tighter around myself, remembering how Amo’s shirt had felt, how it had smelled.
“Where to?” Dad asked.
“He sometimes hides in the bushes at the fence.”
Dad and I walked in silence for a while. “Please don’t let war break out because I managed to get locked in a cell with Amo, okay?”
Dad’s fingers on my shoulders tightened briefly. “I can’t imagine war is avoidable in the long run.”
“So many would die, for nothing.”
Dad gave me a strange smile. “Not for nothing.”
I sighed. I didn’t want a war, for various reasons. “Would it make you happy if I tried to learn to fight?” Dad had tried to coerce me into taking fight lessons for as long as I could remember, but the thought of choosing violence had never sat right with me. For my family it was always the first choice, but for me it was the last resort.
Dad turned me so I was facing him. “For many years this was what I wanted but I can tell that you’ll never be a fighter, Greta, not in the physical sense. I don’t want you to fight to make me happy.”
The bushes to our right rustled and Dad stepped in front of me, his hand on his knife. I squinted into the half-light. There were lamps at the top of the fence but their light didn’t penetrate the ground. Still I could see a small white muzzle peeking out under the bush.
“Momo!” I rushed toward him and picked him up before he could dash away again. I removed a few twigs from his shaggy fur. He was a Maltese and when I’d found him, he’d been completely matted and emaciated, his ears infected. I cuddled him to my chest, something he’d only started allowing recently.