“Touché, and yet it saddens me that the world has become such a cynical place.”
He hadn’t expected to almost like Teresa’s brother, but damned if he didn’t. “Makes stealing more difficult, does it?”
“There is that,” Gianni acknowledged as he carefully unwrapped the ancient dagger he’d stolen five years before. “This…is magnificent.” His gaze locked on the antiquity, he smiled as if watching a lover. “Intricate carvings, jewel-encrusted handle—but it’s the history behind this piece that sings to me.” He glanced at Rico. “And to you, I believe.”
“Yes,” Rico admitted, barely glancing at the once all important dagger. “It has been in my family for generations and we have all, at one time or another, felt the hum of history in that blade.”
Gianni nodded, still studying the dagger. “When I took this from you, all I saw was its beauty. The jewels, the gold.” He shrugged. “I am a mercenary man, trained to appreciate the finer things.”
“That belong to others.”
“As you say.” Gianni shrugged that off and continued while Rico listened, oddly fascinated. This should have been a short meeting. An exchange and then a fast goodbye. Instead, Teresa’s brother was acting as though they were old friends settling down for a visit.
“As I was saying,” Gianni mused, looking down at the dagger in his hand, “when I first took the dagger, all I saw was its worth. But I couldn’t bring myself to fence it. Couldn’t sell it. It became a part of my collection and also, it became a sort of talisman.”
“What do you mean?” Interested in spite of himself, Rico waited for an answer.
“As I held this dagger in my hands, for the first time in my life I felt the history of a piece.” He turned it, studying it thoughtfully. “And I began to see that I had not been taking things from people. I had been stealing away pieces of their lives.”
Surprised, Rico only stared at him. This was not the kind of thing he expected to hear from a professional thief.
“I, too, was shocked by this revelation,” Gianni admitted with a wry smile. “It is not the sort of feeling a thief most appreciates.”
“I don’t think your father and brother share your philosophy.”
“No.” Gianni laughed and shook his head. “Not yet, anyway. But everything changes, does it not?”
He’d said that to Teresa not so long ago, Rico realized. And now all he could think was that some things would never change. He would always love her. And because he did, he realized what he had to do.
He had to let her go.
Rico had always thought that cloying cliché, “if you love something, set it free,” was bull. He believed more in the “if you love something, hold on to it with both hands so you don’t lose it” way of thinking. But now he understood that cliché. It tore at him to realize the hard truth, but there was no other choice for him.
Teresa had once again given up her own life for the sake of her family. She had once again made a sacrifice. The last time, he hadn’t been a part of it. He had been left out of her choice altogether. Thinking back, he couldn’t say what he might have done had she come to him with the truth. Would he have seen past his own anger at her lies? She’d kept so much from him back then. But had he been any more honest? They had fallen in love so quickly and their marriage was so new they hadn’t had time to build the bridges of trust that would have seen them through bad times.
So. Would he have had her family arrested five years ago? He didn’t know. He only knew what he should do now.
“Your ultimatum,” Gianni said quietly, “had my family scrambling all over Europe to find me.”
Rico laughed shortly and brought his mind back to the conversation at hand. “Your father thinks you should answer your phone.”
Gianni grinned. “If I did that, he would call me more often.”
“I feel the same about my own family at times.” A shame they were meeting as enemies, since Rico had the feeling the two of them might have been friends.
“Well, then, we two have some business to conduct,” Gianni said, holding the dagger so that the overhead light caught the blade and glinted like diamonds. “Here is your property. And now I would like to see this evidence my father claims you hold.”
Rico nodded, walked to his desk and unlocked the top drawer. He took out a thick manila envelope and carried it to Gianni. Handing it over, he said, “That is everything I collected over five years.” As a compliment of sorts, he added, “There wasn’t much to be found.”
Gianni grinned. “The Corettis are not easy to catch.”
“I noticed,” Rico said and took the dagger when it was offered.
The heavy gold weight felt solid, right, in his hands. He was relieved to finally have it back and yet…it felt like a hollow victory. He had set his sights on the return of his property and hadn’t looked beyond that. Now he could see that retrieving his dagger could cost him the woman he loved.
Gianni opened the envelope and flipped through a few of the pages. He whistled low and long before looking up at Rico. “What you have here would have seen me and my family locked away for some time.” He tucked the pages back inside and slapped the envelope against his palm. “Tell me, would you really have done it? Seen Teresa’s family jailed?”
Setting the dagger down onto his desk, Rico pushed one hand through his hair and looked at the other man, standing quietly, watching him. It was past time for complete honesty, he thought. With himself as well as everyone else.
“Had you asked me that question two weeks ago,” he said, “the answer would have been yes. Absolutely. Now…”
Gianni’s eyes warmed as he smiled. “You do love her. My sister.”
“I do.”
“Which makes what I have to say next that much more uncomfortable. You have to release her from this bargain you and she struck.”
“I know.”
Gianni’s eyebrows lifted high on his forehead. “You surprise me. I’d thought I would have to…convince you to uphold your end of the bargain.”
“The bargain has nothing to do with this. Letting her go is the right thing to do,” Rico said, a sharp stab of pain accompanying those words.
The thought of losing her broke his heart. But if he kept her here, he would never really have her. If she left…there might be a chance for them later.