Ta-da! I know that it has been a very long time since I updated this. I am extremely sorry. I definitely want to get back into it, so here we go. Just a little chapter to get everyone back in the swing of things!
"So, what are we going to do?" Ambra asked Ezio as she went and sat back down on the bed. The excitement combined with the amount of activity she had done and her pregnancy had left her a little lightheaded.
"You know that I have to send you home," Ezio stated. He leaned against the door and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You'll tell your husband that Adamo hit you. Perhaps this will cause a rift between the two men, one that I can exploit."
"How?" Ambra inquired.
"I liked you better when you just followed orders," Ezio told her, a small smirk on his face.
"Blindly following orders isn't going to work for me, anymore," Ambra stated. "You have to know that I, too, now have some feelings about this situation. My husband murdered my father. God knows what else he has done. My conscience won't allow me to just sit back and do as I'm told anymore. Not even if the orders are coming from you." While she had been alone, Ambra resolved that it was finally time to start taking control over her life. For as long as she could remember, she was not accountable for anything that happened to her, and she didn't like it.
Better late than never, she supposed.
"Be that as it may," Ezio began, "I would rather not discuss this with you and put ideas into your head. I do not doubt your ability to help me, dolcezza, but I do doubt your ability to realize the danger in certain situations. I would really rather that you just let me do all the thinking." Ambra raised her eyebrows and Ezio belatedly realized what that sounded like, but he didn't make any attempt to amend his statement. He didn't trust Ambra not to push too hard, and if she did that, she would not only jeopardize Ezio, but herself as well.
And his child.
Ezio pushed that though from his head immediately. It was bad enough that he was so concerned for her already. The thought of the danger she could potentially put his unborn child into was perhaps a little too much to bear.
"No," Ambra answered simply.
"No?" Ezio asked.
"No," Ambra repeated. "I will not just allow you to order me around. I will not just walk blindly into whatever you tell me to. I won't do it, Ezio!" Ezio couldn't help but smile at her, his smirk splitting his face crookedly as he pushed off of the door and sauntered over the bed.
"You have picked a very inconvenient time to start wanting to take a more active role in this," Ezio told her as he pressed his forehead against hers.
"If you think that I give a damn about convenience," Ambra began, "you have another think coming, Ezio Auditore." She raised her hand and stroked the side of his face, the stubble of his beard rasping beneath her fingers. Ezio closed his eyes and reveled momentarily in the sensation. "I've been in this from the start, it seems. There's no turning back, now. Eventually my husband will find out about us, and at that point, I'd like to be able to safely eliminate him."
"You want him dead?" Ezio asked, surprised.
"I do," Ambra answered. "I can't bear it anymore. When I think of what he's done …"
"So you believe me, now?" Ezio interrupted. Ambra sighed and nodded. "Finally you start to show some sense." Ezio stood up straight and kicked off his boots. He took off his cloak, as well, hanging it on the hook behind the door.
"What are you doing?" Ambra asked.
"I intend to bed you," Ezio responded bluntly as he pulled off his shirt with his back still towards her. When he turned around, Ambra was standing directly behind him. He jumped a little, laughing as he did so. "Don't sneak up on me like that."
"Turn around," Ambra ordered. Ezio thought of asking why, but thought better of it. He turned around, closing his eyes in rapture as her fingers started running along the skin of his back, tracing the scars that he knew existed but never saw. "It looks like you've had a few close calls."
"More than a few, cara," Ezio answered breathlessly.
"I feel like I'm heading right down that path with you," she murmured, her hands now pressed flat against his skin, no longer moving, just touching him. This statement brought a multitude of horrifying images to Ezio's mind. They were all images of her lying in pools of blood as red as her hair. Leaning his forehead against the cool wood of the door, he sighed. "Non ho paura."
"You may not be scared," Ezio began as he finally turned around, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her into him. "But I don't think I have ever been more so." He walked her back towards the bed, lowering her onto it gently when they finally got there. He stood over her as she lay her head against the pillow. "It's not just me that I have to worry about anymore. There's one other person I need to take care of."
"Two other people," she reminded him as she placed her hands over her belly.
"Don't remind me," Ezio muttered as he lowered himself onto the bed, supporting all of his weight on one arm while he used his other hand to push up the material of the shift that Teodora had obviously lent to her. He had never seen her in anything like the translucent satin garment, but he quite liked it. "The situation is fragile enough as it is."
"It's not that fragile," Ambra told him.
"If you are involved, it is fragile," Ezio told her. "If this is to work, I'm can't be with you at all hours of the day. You're going to need some alone time with your husband. And if I am not with you, I cannot protect you. When I am not with you, all I will be thinking about is what mischief you're getting yourself into. You seem to just stumble into it."
"Like you said, it's the hair."
"Then wear a cap," Ezio suggested seriously as his hand finally reached the inside of her thigh. Ambra's eyes closed as chills ran up and down her spine. "You have to help me, Ambra. You have to be smart."
"You'll find that I am a very clever girl." Her eyes were still closed, so she couldn't see Ezio's face getting closer to hers.
"Too clever," Ezio murmured, his lips grazing hers as he spoke. "Just promise me that you'll be careful."
"I'll be careful," she told him as she finally opened her eyes and stared straight at him. The intensity of her gaze was almost enough to make him look away, but he held it, and then lowered his lips onto hers, his skin igniting where they met.
"You'll have to be careful, too," Ambra murmured as she broke off the kiss. "After all, there is a baby in here."
Hours later, Rosa walked into La Rosa della virtù. She couldn't be sure if Ezio was still there, but she figured that it was as good a place as any to start.
"Rosa!" Teodora greeted her when she saw the girl. "What brings you here? Wait. Silly question. You are looking for Ezio."
"Sì," she answered. "Is he here?"
"Yes, but I doubt that he will want to be disturbed, if you know what I mean," Teodora responded. "He arrived rather frazzled. I'm not surprised that he needed so much time to show how … relieved he was." Rosa grimaced. She was used to blunt speech, seeing as she spent so much time around men, but she didn't like hearing about where Ezio was sticking his appendages.
"He will want to hear what I have to say," Rosa told Teodora as she brushed past her. "Which room is he in?" Teodora sighed. Rosa was very much like Ezio, and when she had a goal in mind, anyone who stood in their way would most likely end up flat on the floor.
"Up the stairs to the right … All the way at the end of the hallway," she sighed. There was no point in not telling her. It wasn't like Ezio was a paying customer. The door would most likely be locked when she got there, anyway.
Though Teodora was right to believe this, locked doors had never been real obstacles to Rosa. However, before she started picking the lock, she decided that she would just try knocking on the door.
"Go away," came a gruff voice from within. She immediately recognized it as Ezio's. Sighing, Rosa pulled her lock picking tools from her back pocket. Kneeling in front of the lock, she deftly inserted the tools and fiddled with the inner workings of the mechanism. It couldn't have been more than half a minute before the lock clicked and the door started to swing open.
She heard the activity stop, and then some shuffling. She knew that Ezio would be gathering his weapons, so from here she would need to proceed carefully.
"It's me," she called from the other side of the door. "I need to talk to you, Ezio."
"Rosa …" Ezio sighed. "You realize that I almost killed you just now, yes?"
"I realize that you were ready to try and kill me," Rosa answered, still on the other side of the door teasingly. She and Ezio both knew that if he had in mind to kill her, it would not be a difficult task for him. "That is why I identified myself."
"Come in," Ezio ordered. Rosa pushed the door all the way open and saw Ezio standing in the middle of the room. He had his pants on, and was in the process of putting on his boots, but his shirt was hanging on Ambra's thin frame, preserving her modesty as she lay in the bed, the duvet covering her legs.
"Ciao, Rosa," Ambra greeted. Even half-naked, tousled from lovemaking, she still had an air of arrogance about her. Somehow, she still managed to look down her nose at Rosa from her lower vantage point. Rosa would have liked nothing more than to plunge her knife into her throat, but there were more important things to worry about at the moment. She chose to ignore Ambra.
"What was so important that it couldn't wait?" Ezio asked as he sat at the foot of the bed, placing one hand on the bump in the covers that was probably Ambra's leg.
"I followed the messenger that you couldn't be bothered with," Rosa responded, "and I think that you might be interested in what I found."
"You think?" Ezio inquired, raising on eyebrow. "You had better be a little surer than that."
"All right, I know that you will be happy to hear what I found," Rosa corrected, afterwards making a covert glance towards Ambra. She wanted to talk about this alone with Ezio, but he wasn't having it.
"Anything you say to me, you can say in front of her," Ezio assured Rosa.
Sighing, Rosa closed the door behind her and leaned against it. "Well, as I said, I followed the man," she began as she slid to the floor and sat with her knees gathered into her chest. "For a while I considered the wisdom of intercepting him, but decided against it. He stayed on very public streets. If I had approached him, I would have caused a scene. Not to mention I would have had to kill him afterwards."
"I'm aware of procedure, Rosa," Ezio said, sounding bored. "Please get to the point." Rosa stuck her tongue out at him as she adjusted her position on the floor. She was going to make him wait as long as possible. As though bored, Ambra flopped down onto her pillow, red hair spilling over the edge of the bed and nearly touching the floor as she did so. Momentarily, Rosa was distracted by all of the colors that formed the striking hue that was Ambra's trademark. It was so luxurious compared to Rosa's chopped black hair.
Ezio followed Rosa's gaze and sighed. He, too, was quite fascinated by her hair, but that was because just seconds before his hands had been tangled within it. He could still feel it sliding around his fingers
"Speak, Rosa," Ezio ordered. Snapping back to attention, she shook herself from her reverie and continued with her narrative.
"Anyway," she went on, "I followed the man to a palazzo near the docks. Ezio perked to attention at this. These docks were continuing to become of more and more interest to him. "Perhaps a ten minute walk from the warehouse that Signor De Luca rented."
"There seems to be a lot more activity at the docks of Venezia than everyone knows about," Ezio murmured. "Go on."
"I couldn't find an open way in quick enough to watch the messenger hand over the letter or to give any kind of oral message to whoever lives there, but I did manage to get in and hear him talking to someone after the messenger left." Rosa nonchalantly inspected her fingernails as she paused for effect. Ezio sighed.
"Well?"
"I couldn't really gather the particulars," she drawled, "I was far away and focused on not being caught. But I did hear him say something about how it is too soon. Someone of importance is going to be arriving in Venezia within the next month or so, and the Templars here are not ready to receive him. Not all parts of whatever they're planning have fallen into place."
Both Ezio and Rosa looked at Ambra expectantly. She had been staring at the ceiling, so at first she didn't realize this, but the pause in conversation caused her to look up and see that they were waiting for something from her.
"What?" she asked.
"Do you know what she's talking about?" Ezio asked.
"If I did, don't you think I would have said something by now?" Ambra inquired.
"She really is entirely useless isn't she?" Rosa inquired. Ezio shot daggers at her with his eyes, but Ambra didn't seem very upset about it.
"I'm sure that I could easily find out, though," Ambra added. "I mean, if I had been in the house, I wouldn't have left without a name, but that is because I wouldn't have had to sneak around. All I would really have to do is ask Francesco who lives there."
"Without arousing suspicion?" Ezio inquired.
"I'm a very talented story-teller," Ambra assured Ezio. "I could come up with something, especially today. God only knows where I have been, as far as he is concerned."
"But that's an easily checkable fact," Rosa reminded her. "You need to be more subtle, if that is at all possible." Ambra narrowed her eyes at Rosa. Obviously this woman did not like her. The only reason Ambra could think of for her to be so openly disdainful was Ezio.
He was obviously a good reason, after all. As Ambra looked at the plain woman, dressed as a man, she concluded that there was no competition. If Rosa hadn't managed to snag Ezio after all of these years, she definitely wasn't going to accomplish it now with Ambra around, and she would make sure of that.
"I'll figure something out," Ambra assured her as she brought a slender foot out from beneath the bedclothes and ran it up Ezio's thigh. "Was that all, Rosa?" Ambra tilted her head and fixed a meaningful green gaze on the intruder. However, Rosa made no move to get up or even change positions.
"No, actually, it wasn't," she responded. "Once our mystery man left his office, I attempted to get in to see what I could dig up. The lock was easy to pick, but once I got inside, there was nothing I could find. The desk was strange. It had no drawers, and there was nothing in the room that I could see that could possibly hold anything. There must have been a hidden safe or vault somewhere, but I didn't want to risk the time looking for it."
"Il punto, Rosa," Ezio urged as he looked at Ambra's bare ankle. He knew that soon he was going to have to return her to her husband, and he wanted to make the most of the time he had left. Of course he was interested in whatever Rosa would have to tell him, but he knew that she was dragging it out on purpose.
"Anyway," Rosa continued. "There were no drawers to open, nowhere to search, but this was right on top of his desk in the middle." At this, she pulled a folded envelope out of one of her pockets and showed the back of it to Ezio. Even from his spot across the room, he could see what she was trying to show her. He practically jumped from the bed, crossing the room in two long strides and ripping the envelope from her hand.
The envelope itself was empty, but that didn't matter. Doubtless the contents had already been read and destroyed, but the seal of Rodrigo Borgia still clung to the back of the envelope.
"Lo spagnolo …" he whispered as he stared at the seal. "Do you think…?"
"That he is the one that they're expecting?" Rosa finished the question for him. "Yes, I do." Ezio turned to Ambra, who was now sitting up straight in the bed. He was going to have to use her, now. He needed to know everything. And he needed to know it fast.
Ambra immediately recognized that look of desperation in Ezio's eyes and she rose from the bed despite the fact that she wasn't wearing anything beneath his shirt. "What can I do?" she asked him. At this point, Ezio wasn't even sure about exactly what she could do for him; he just knew that Ambra could be his most valuable asset in this fight against the Templars. It frustrated him that he didn't know exactly what to do with her. But one thing was for sure; she was the queen on his chessboard. She could move freely wherever she liked, it was just up to him to move her correctly. He couldn't be too rash, but he couldn't be conservative, either.
He put his hand beneath her chin and lifted her face up towards him. The bruise standing out against her smooth skin was enough to make his skin crawl, and he knew that if she helped him, the violence would most likely get much worse. Could he really put her at risk?
He didn't have to think about this for too long. Borgia's envelope was practically burning the skin on his hand. Once more, he would have a chance at the man who was ultimately responsible for everything bad that had happened to him. There was a niggling voice in the back of his head that told him to let it go, that this pursuit would lead him down a road that he did not want to follow. Finally he had found someone who could be important to him, and he was going to put her right into harm's way.
But he couldn't help it.