Chapter 27

SPOV

Ranger had dropped me off in the parking lot for me to meet up with Tomas before going inside Scintillante. I knew that Ranger was close by and that he was listening through the mic that I had with me, but I was still nervous as I waited in the parking lot for Tomas to arrive. Thinking about it I wasn't too sure why I was nervous. Was it because Ranger wasn't going into the building with me or was it because I had no idea how anyone would react to me? I knew that was stupid to think because as far as anyone knew I'd been home visiting my father unless of course Allegro or Lucio were in with Dario. I still needed to know why Allegro had left me on my own in that jet with her brother, what she thought was going to happen. Maybe Tomas and I would detect if anyone was lying, but Marta was pretty confident that they didn't know what Dario had been doing.

I heard the car before I saw it and my heart fell when I turned and saw the red Miata come to a stop. I'd agreed with Ranger that there was no point in trying to pretend that I didn't know what had happened. News of Dario's arrest was everywhere with what he'd been accused of. I watched as Allegro got out of the car, seeing from her face that she looked drawn and pale. When she looked up and eventually saw me, I could see the tears running down her face. I was surprised when she just walked up to me and held me tight, as though she needed someone to just hold her.

"I'm so sorry Allegro"

As though that was enough to convey my understanding.

"I don't how to feel. Annoyed at him I suppose. How could he do that? How could he treat women like that? Mama is so upset"

I had tears in my eyes as Allegro spoke, to me she seemed too genuine to have known what Dario was doing. I gently turned her and started to walk toward the building feeling as though I was walking into the unknown. We ignored the two women sat talking behind the reception desk but as we went up the stairs, I was aware of them watching us. For the first time I became aware of the fallout that would be aimed at Allegro and how people might look at her and see her association to her brother. Hell, that would be worse than anything I'd ever had to contend with from the rumors in the Burg.

Once upstairs Allegro seemed more composed and pulled away from me as we walked into the open plan office area. No one seemed to be working instead they were sat in groups or looking at computer screens. Everyone stopped what they were doing when they noticed Allegro, as though waiting for something to happen. All eyes were on her as she stood there so I stepped to the side to give her some space.

"I know what's happened is a shock to everyone and I'm sorry that you were put through having the police talk to you. My brother has nothing to do with this company but unfortunately there are rumors, and no one wants to be seen associating with anything to do with my brother and that includes me and this company"

I was looking around at the faces of the people now stood around Allegro and as they started to understand what she was saying. This could very well finish Allegro and Lucio and everything that they'd worked so hard to build up and that worry was reflected in those faces. As questions started, aimed at Allegro, she held her hand up to silence them.

"I'm sorry. Each of you will receive the severance pay due to you and maybe in the future, when people have forgotten, I'll be able to restart a company"

Okay, that had a lot of groaning and swearing coming from around me, who could blame them, they'd just lost a job that was well paid and would need to look for new employment. I wasn't sure how easy that would be. That probably applied to me as well. I wasn't sure what I would do now other than to go home and back to the existence that I'd had in Trenton, something that had my heart falling. The only thought that stopped me from breaking down into tears, like some of those around me, was that I had Ranger beside me.

As people gathered around Allegro, I knew that I needed to move away. The emotions in the room were at fever pitch and I felt like I was intruding so I stepped back and headed for the door at the back of the room, surprised when it was open. I stopped to look at the large glass cabinet against the wall, the photos and products displayed showing the Ania range. I was busy looking at the photo of me wearing that necklace and comparing it to an actual necklace set against a deep red velvet background, remembering the conversation that I'd had with Ranger. Would I even know the difference between a real diamond and a fake? I doubted it.

"What happens now?"

I turned expecting someone to be stood behind me but as I looked there was no one there. The doors through to the other rooms were open so it was probably someone talking in one of those and they hadn't realized that anyone would be able to hear them.

"It doesn't affect what we're doing. Allegro is determined to continue with our enterprise"

That seemed a strange thing to say when Allegro had basically just told everyone that Scintillante wasn't trading anymore. I recognized the voice as Tomas but had no idea who the other man was, I was pretty sure that it wasn't Lucio, because to me the accent sounded American.

"Let her know that I have the pieces that she wanted, is she still working from that warehouse?"

"No. It's too well known now. She's going to set up somewhere else"

That had shivers running down my back, and not good ones either, though why I wasn't too sure. I was very sure that Tomas wouldn't appreciate that I'd overheard what he was saying and any trust that I'd had for him went out of the window. I looked around the room that I was in for somewhere to hide, okay I could have gone back through to main room where everyone was, but this was me. I needed to know what the hell they were talking about. The only place that I could see that would afford me with somewhere to hide was behind the open door. Fortunately, the door opened into the room and there was a stack of boxes next to it. As I made my way to the door the conversation was still going on.

"Dario is a sick perverted bastard"

"I know. I never had any inkling of what he was up to. I hope he rots in jail"

I was now behind the door and felt confident that no one would see me, as long as someone didn't come in and start moving the boxes. From what I'd heard it seemed that neither man had known what Dario was doing, which to be honest, I was relieved with.

"Can he do us any damage?"

"No. He has no idea what Allegro is doing. Stupid bastard took one of the replicas with him on his last trip. Though seeing as his properties have all been searched that's probably a good thing"

"What about the woman he took?"

I tensed as I realized that he was talking about me but even though I'd been responsible for Dario's demise I didn't know anything else, well, not until now.

"She doesn't suspect anything. She was too focused on stopping Dario. Hopefully she has nothing to stay here for, so she'll go home and take her entourage with her"

Which had me realizing that they knew that the Merry Men had been here with me, then again Tomas wasn't stupid. As the talking continued, I realized that their voices were getting quieter and when I heard a door close was sure that they had left by another exit. Peering over the top of the boxes I couldn't see anyone around so quietly moved from my hiding place and went over to the door with the intention of rejoining Allegro. Instead, I changed my mind and went into the rest room with the intention of running through what I'd heard in my head. I leant against the sink as I did that trying to work out if I'd totally misinterpreted what I'd heard. I mean why would it be unusual for Allegro to have a backup plan for what she would do now? Probably not but from the snippet of conversation that I'd overheard but it sounded as though whatever she was doing had been on the go for a while.

Was I overthinking things, looking for something that wasn't there? But then why had they mentioned me and whether I suspected something? Suspected what? Having washed my hands, I went over to the towel to dry them and looked out of the window. I quickly stepped back when I saw Tomas at the back of the building stood next to another man. No, I hadn't seen him before, I was pretty sure of that. The man was as tall as Tomas but younger with dirty blonde hair and a day's growth on his face. He was wearing sunglasses and at first, I thought he might have been Bria's boyfriend, the man that Ram had recognized. I was pretty sure that he wasn't but before I could continue looking him moving his head had me suddenly ducking down below the level of the window.

Backing away from the window I made for the second door that led into the main upstairs area. The rest room that I was in could be accessed from both areas of the building but when the door closed into the private rooms it automatically locked stopping anyone from accessing the private rooms from here, unless of course you knew the code, which I didn't. Opening the door, I kept to the wall and looked around. There were fewer people here now with some still talking to Allegro while others looked to be pulling personal belongings from desks.

I had no idea what I should do now. Tomas hadn't met me in the parking lot as promised because obviously he needed to talk to that man so would he turn up now? I saw as Allegro saw me and hoped that she wasn't aware of me leaving the room earlier then watched as she said something briefly to one of her employees before she walked over to me.

"I was looking for you"

Damn it, she had noticed that I'd disappeared.

"Just in the powder room. What happens now, I know that you had orders and exhibitions?"

"Orders that have been paid are being honored but everything else has been cancelled. I'm sorry Stefania. What will you do now?"

I walked with Allegro as she went over to the water dispenser and accepted the paper cup filled with water.

"Go home I suppose. It's not your fault Allegro. To be honest I always saw me being here as some sort of dream, an illusion that seemed too good to be true"

I watched as Allegro took a drink from her cup before I pushed her further.

"What will you do Allegro?"

"I'm good at making and designing jewelry so I'll probably fall back onto that. No one will want to touch me now. Maybe I'll move down to Rome where no one knows me"

I wasn't sure how that idea would pan out for her but if what I'd heard was right then she already had something else that she was doing. Her voice didn't portray a woman who overly worried.

"What about Lucio, I haven't seen him?"

Allegro's attention moved away from me and following where she was looking I spied Tomas coming up the stairs and walking toward us. Allegro was suddenly back to looking at me as she answered my question.

"Lucio is with Niccolò. They have a property up in the mountains, so he'll probably stay there. He's devastated and also extremely pissed off, like me, but he's said that he wants us to liquidate the business and take his share. I have no idea what he'll do"

I didn't respond to that information probably because I could understand how Lucio felt. If he was to ever succeed again as a designer he'd need to make sure that no one would associate him with Allegro's brother. I felt that the time was right to ask Allegro about that flight with Dario. She seemed less emotional than she had been, in fact to me she seemed quite composed as though she had everything under control.

"Allegro, that day that I flew from the airport, why didn't you come with us?"

I have to say that the frown that crossed her face surprised me as though it was a stupid thing to be asking.

"Originally, we were going to be flying down to Rome on a commercial flight but Dario offered to take us because he had a meeting in Rome, that was why we went a day early. It was just a question of you showing the client the products and Dario assured me that he could manage the meeting, so I decided with all of the orders coming in that I'd stay here"

I suppose what she was saying sounded legit, it could have happened how she had told me and it seemed that Dario had gone to the planned meeting but without me.

"I was mortified when Dario told me that your father had taken a turn for the worse"

His idea of tying up loose ends was to tell everyone that I'd had to fly home immediately, no doubt from Rome. It seemed very convenient to me.

"Mr Venturo loved everything and made an impressive order from us"

I knew that Dario had that necklace when we went to see Yaser. I had just assumed that the other cabinet would have been taken with us but I never saw it outside of the plane.

"Talking of money, I have your cards in my office, I'll go get them"

That surprised me because I'd totally forgotten about them being stolen and almost sighed when I realized that all of my Stephanie Plum credentials had also been stolen as well. Replacing those was a job that I wasn't looking forward to when I got home, but at least I still had a passport. Which reminded me.

"Steph, sorry that I was late getting here. I got caught up in traffic"

Tomas had joined me just as Allegro left and walked through to the private offices. To be honest I had to work hard to smile back at him knowing that he was lying to me.

"That's okay. Allegro turned up just after I did so I came up with her. What will you do now Tomas?"

That hadn't been a question that Tomas expected from me, strange that he had to stop and think through his answer.

"Well, I suppose look for another security job, though Allegro is keeping me on until all of the properties are empty"

To me he didn't seem upset with the idea that he would be unemployed, and I knew I for one wouldn't employ him when he was associated with knowing a man who had been trafficking women and he hadn't suspected something. Was I being hard on Tomas, yeah, I was because to me there was definitely more going on that he was letting on? Had he been too busy looking in another direction? When Allegro returned, she handed me my cards which had me remembering the other things that were still at her apartment. That though meant that I had to try and explain that I was staying somewhere else.

"If I'm going to be heading home, I'll need to collect my clothes and belongings from your apartment Allegro"

A quick nod from her and she was suddenly talking in Italian to Tomas, which to be honest both confused me and annoyed me. At least Ranger would be able to understand what they were saying.

"I'll take you now. There's not much that I can do here now anyway"

I wasn't expecting that to happen but there was no way that I could think of an excuse to delay it from happening. The room now was pretty much empty of people and the girls had gone from the reception area. I knew that I had to try and act normally but for some reason that wasn't coming to me naturally. As we made our way over to her car I noted that Tomas hadn't left with us so assumed that he would secure the building.

"How's Gaia?"

I asked trying to get some sort of conversation going.

"Not good. She doted on Dario. I think she's still in the land of denial, that maybe there was a mistake. She's spoken to Chiara. That girl is a mess and has moved back to her parent's. Mama reckons that she's already filing for divorce and has told Mama or anyone else not to try and talk to her"

By now Allegro was starting the car so talking was difficult as she revved up the engine and drove out of the lot. From the expression on Allegro's face she didn't look as though she wanted to talk so I refrained and sat to watch where we were going. Looking across at Allegro it was almost as though she had aged overnight, her hair was flat to her head, and she had little makeup on showing the dark areas under her eyes. I wasn't sure if that was worry for her mother, herself or if she'd not been sleeping well, probably a combination of everything. As we approached the building to where her apartment was, I was surprised when she turned off the road and waited for a gate to open.

"I don't want to use the main entrance because I need to avoid the reporters that are camped out there"

Maybe I raised my eyebrows because I had never thought of that happening and to be honest was pleased with her tactic of avoiding them because I certainly didn't want to be confronted by the press either. I'd never really thought about her having an underground space before because she usually just parked the car in a resident parking slot in front of the building. The darkness engulfed me as we drove down the ramp and into the subterranean parking area. It was badly lit and the ceiling above us seemed so low making me shudder as the cool air hit me. There were already cars parked down here but there was not a sign of anyone as Allegro continued to drive between the parked cars. I spied the sign that I assumed was the pedestrian exit making a mental note of where it was for when we came to head back upstairs and also recognized an elevator next to it which hopefully would take us up to Allegro's floor. As the car came to a stop between a van and an expensive looking sports car, I opened my door to get out, intending to wait for Allegro before walking over to the elevator. What had me jumping and turning in surprise was the side door of the van opening.

Movement from the inside of the van had me suddenly wanting to move but even as I made my way along the side of the car another figure appeared, one who even in the darkness I recognized as Tomas. I was trapped with Tomas in front of me and someone behind me so decided to try and bluff my way out of what seemed like a precarious situation.

"Tomas, I didn't realize that you were coming here as well"

I also reckoned that by saying that Ranger would be aware that Tomas was down in the garage with me. I felt hands around the top of my arms that were trying to pull me back toward the van.

"Is this really necessary?"

Had all of us looking at Allegro who was stood by the driver's door.

"Yes. I saw her upstairs after we left so I'm damn sure that she overheard"

Came from behind me, from the American.

"I didn't hear anything, I was in the rest room. What the hell is going on, why are you holding me like this?"

As the American started to pull me backwards I let lose, wriggling and trying to turn so that I could get a kick at him. I never saw it coming but I felt the zap on my neck, a spasm bolting through me and the sight of Tomas holding a stun gun in his hand before I felt my legs give way under me and blackness took over.

I had no idea where I was when my brain began to function again. I could remember exactly what had happened down in that garage. I was just hoping that Ranger wasn't far behind me because I knew that he would have followed me in Allegro's red Miata. I tested my arms and legs expecting that I was tied up, relieved when they moved freely so decided to open my eyes. I suppose that I was so used to being stunned that it didn't have any after effects on me now and my eyes quickly acclimated to the dimness around me. To one side of me was a white painted wall so I looked the other way expecting someone to be sat watching me. There wasn't, which surprised me so I looked around the edges of the white walls where they met the ceiling for any cameras. Deciding no one was watching me I slowly sat up and took stock of where I was. I was sat on a narrow metal framed bed with a pillow at one end and a blanket folded neatly at the other.

My jeans and T-shirt looked intact, which I was grateful for, but that didn't stop me from hugging my arms around me to ward off the shaking that was threatening to consume me. The fear crawling through me was reminiscent of how I'd felt at Yaser's palace and panic started to crawl through me at the idea that maybe Dario hadn't been working on his own, that others were involved. The door was wooden and looked old and there was a small table sat in the corner with a single wooden chair next to it. The light was coming through a section above the door, that looked to have wire meshing over it, maybe it led out into a hallway. In one corner there was a drape that crossed over the corner and had me wanting to know what was behind it. When I placed my feet onto the concrete floor it felt cold which had me realizing that the keeled sandals that I'd been wearing were gone. I quickly place my hand inside my bra and groaned when I couldn't find the mic that Ranger had taped there just this morning.

A look behind the drape revealed a toilet and sink with just one tap but at least when I turned it, cool, clean water ran out. Returning to the bed I just sat down trying to decide what to do next. The chair would make a good weapon for when someone came in and maybe that was going to be the only way at escaping. I knew that I needed to get control of how I was feeling, being in a state of panic was unproductive. That was when I noticed a shadow pass across the room from outside so was quickly picking up the chair, holding it above my head, ready to let loose on anyone who came through the door.

The door didn't open though and instead I became aware of breathing outside the door, my sense of hearing heightened.

"Stephanie, I'm sorry. I never meant for it to come to this, but we have no other option"

The voice of the American man came through the door, softly as though he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying. Did he have a conscience, could I use that to my advantage.

"Yes, you do, just let me out. I won't tell anyone, I promise. Please"

What did he mean when he said they had no other option, were they going to kill me?

"Too many threads for you to follow Stephanie. Maybe if Manoso hadn't shown up or you hadn't looked out of that window then we could have disappeared, and you'd have gone home none the wiser. But he is here, and you did look and there's no taking those things back now"

I knew that I was frowning because I had no idea what he meant. How was Ranger being here or me seeing Tomas with this American something that they felt threatened with. I had no idea who the American man was, and Ranger didn't suspect Tomas or Allegro of anything and he hadn't seen the American man, had he?

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Oh, but you would. Be a good girl and just behave. There's no way for you to get out of here and Manoso will never find you"