Page 225 of Lorenzo

“You have?”

“Yes. I’m very efficient.”

“It seems I underestimated you.”

I bump my shoulder lightly against his arm. “Don't do it again.”

“I shan’t.”

We watch Mocha for a moment as he trots farther along the path, pauses near the water, then turns to check where we are before returning to whatever smell has captured his attention.

“However…” I start, “the plan was to make you watch Alessio go to prison and eventually lose him. And, well, Alessio is free.”

“Yes.”

“That is worrisome.”

“Hence the heightened security,” he says.

“You think he'll come after me?” I shove my hands into my coat pockets.

“I think he knows someone interfered, and if he doesn't yet know that it was you, he will soon.” There is no humor in his voice now.

“Well, we know he's aware of me anyway. The break-ins answered that question,” I comment.

I look toward the lake.

The break-ins seemed infuriating when I was standing in the middle of my destroyed office. They still are, but hearing Marcello’s name and understanding the reason behind all of this changes a few things.

Someone did not simply want my notes.

Someone wanted to know how much I had discovered about a man who believed Lorenzo took his son.

I exhale slowly. “You could have told me.”

“I intended to.”

I turn my head toward him.

“Eventually,” he adds.

“Mhmm,” I say skeptically. I do not have enough energy to restart the argument we already had in my office. “I would have preferred to know I was walking around with a target on my back.”

“I did not know that you were.”

“You suspected enough to assign security.”

“Yes.”

“Close enough.”

Lorenzo stops walking.

I make it another step before realizing he has, then turn back.

His expression is serious and makes me forget the cold for a moment.

“I suspected Marcello might react once he realized someone was tracing Rachel’s money,” he says. “I did not know he had already identified you, and I did not know whether he understood there was anything between us beyond the investigation.”