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She looked back at me, her eyes welling with affection.
“I wanted to take you to Mexico,” Kai added, his color returning since we’d disembarked. “My place is much closer for next time.”
Mylee’s face flushed like she was realizing that there would be many more trips like this one, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the ancient structures of the beautiful city.
My villa was a gated palace, close to the city, but removed enough on the outskirts of Stupinigi that I was not concerned about looters or break-ins when I wasn’t there. The groundskeeper, Sergio, met the car at the iron barrier and let us in. He smiled warmly at Mylee, his broken English welcoming when we introduced her.
“Is everything in order, Sergio?” I asked, as he helped to unpack the car.
“Si, si, signore,” he agreed. “It’s all clean for you.”
I was less concerned about cleanliness than I was about security, but the trip had been so last minute that we had collectively decided to leave Jamie’s team behind. For a four-day vacation, we had a bit of protection at the site, and if the danger still existed, and the threat to Mylee hadn’t been a one-off, they would have to travel half a world away to get her. I felt confident about this.
Mylee stood outside the white stone house, shaking her head in admiration.
“It’s so beautiful, Linc,” she told me. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
“Thank you for everything you’ve done,” I countered. “You went above and beyond—again. Celestial Vista Chicago is almost a hundred percent sold now because of your genius.”
She shrugged. “It’s just upselling,” she replied nonchalantly. “Are you going to show me around this place or what?”
I held out my arm for her to take, and together, we made our way through the hand-carved front doors, into the marble foyer.
Twin staircases led to the second floor, and Mylee again froze in place, taking it all in. “It’s like a fairy tale! I can’t even believe this place is real.”
“Come and see the turret,” I offered, closing my hand against hers.
Kai and Paxton had disappeared toward the bedrooms on the main floor, leaving me to show off my favorite private house to Mylee.
“I can’t believe you don’t spend all your spare time here,” she sighed, trailing her free hand over the elegant wood banister. “I don’t know how you ever leave.”
“It’s lonely out here all alone, and you’ve seen how much Kai likes to fly,” I chuckled, eyeing her warmly. “Maybe I will spend more time out here now that I have someone to appreciate it with.”
She cast me a sidelong look, her eyes flooded with hope, and I nodded. “I’m serious. We can fly out here any time you like.”
Pausing by the double doors of the east wing, I unhooked my fingers from hers to open the area, and Mylee sputtered again as full windows flooded light toward us. Again, a view of the mountains appeared behind Turin.
“This way,” I urged, wanting to show her every part of the house.
“I’m trying to drink it all in,” she laughed, but she continued to walk with me, following me toward a small door that led up a narrow staircase to the tower.
“You’ll get the best view from up here,” I promised.
The spot wasn’t big enough for both of us to squeeze through, so I went first and ended up in the cupola, throwing open the small door to air out the dusty room.
It wasn’t as bad as I expected. Sergio must have allowed the cleaning team inside, but the musky smell of the mostly untouched room was impenetrable.
“Go look,” I urged Mylee, who grinned.
“I feel like I just stepped into a gothic novel,” she admitted. “This would be an amazing spot to sit and write.”
Ambling forward to the small Juliette balcony, I watched with pleasure as her shoulders relaxed. “Oh, Linc, this really is breathtaking,” she declared.
“Isn’t it?” I agreed. “It was one of the selling points for the property, the balcony.”
“I’m not kidding,” she said, dropping her hands onto the railing. “I could spend hours—”
Crack!
