Kiara sat on the sofa with her two boys, looking at a picture book.
“Do you know when Savio and his brothers will be back?”
Kiara shook her head. “I think they wanted to head to a casino to speak to the manager after dropping Adamo off, so it could be a while. Why?”
“I promised my mother to pick up Carlotta, and I hoped Savio could drive me there.”
“I’m not a very good driver, or I’d offer to drive you. It gives me anxiety.”
“I have a license, but I don’t have much experience driving.” Not to mention that said license wasn’t exactly legal and my experience consisted of trying to drive twice while Diego screamed at me not to crash his car.
“Serafina is at ballet with Greta. You could take one of the cars and drive yourself.”
“Which of the cars are Savio’s?”
“The Bugatti and the Ferrari, and that one Audi.”
All of them were sports cars of course. I took the keys to the Bugatti because I found them first in the heap of car keys belonging to the Falcone car park.
Once inside the car, my stomach plummeted. I’d completely forgotten that most European cars were stick shift. After some cursing and fumbling, the Bugatti roared to life, making me jump. It took a few more tries before I figured out to get it to drive without killing the engine. The next problem arose in front of the gate. I’d parked too close so it couldn’t open. That was the moment I gave up on the whole thing. If I couldn’t even get the car off the premises, driving through Vegas sounded like an extraordinarily bad idea. Fumbling with the stick once more, I pressed down on the gas. A second too late, I realized the car wasn’t in reverse. I shoved my foot down on the brakes. Too late. With a leap, I crashed into the gates.
Heart beating wildly, I got out of the car wide-eyed to inspect the damage. The hood of the car was compressed, smoke rose up and some kind of liquid dripped down, probably cooling liquid. The gates weren’t in much better shape than the car. Savio was obsessed with his car. And Remo probably wouldn’t be too happy about me destroying his gates either. What a wonderful way to start off with my new family.
Kiara came running down the driveway, looking alarmed. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, but the car isn’t.”
“Who cares about a car?” She looked into my eyes. “How are your neck and head?”
They hurt a bit. It wasn’t anything serious, though. I’d fought long enough to know it was like a hit to the face. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I can keep this from Savio?” We’d just made progress, I really didn’t want to ruin it.
Kiara smiled understandingly. “The moment you touched the gates, an alarm was raised that pops up on their phones. They’re already on the way. Nino called me.”
My stomach tightening, I checked my phone which was on silent mode. Two missed calls from Savio. Crap.
Ten minutes later, a car pulled up. Savio, Remo and Nino got out.
Savio came to the gate, inspecting his car with drawn brows before he looked at me. I waited for the inevitable outburst. Men and their cars were a relationship that I’d never understand.
“With the car in that position, we can’t open the gates,” Nino said coming up behind Savio. “I’ll have to disable the electricity so we don’t get zapped when we climb over.”
“I thought now that Adamo can’t steal our cars to crash them, my Bugatti was safe. But you, Kitty, keep me on my toes.” Savio reached for the fence and began to climb over before he landed with a low thud on the other side. Shaking his head, he touched my neck. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I wanted to pick up Carlotta and no one was home to drive me, so I thought…”
“You thought it was a good day to crash a three-hundred thousand-dollar car.”
My heart thudded. “That expensive?”
Savio chuckled. “Don’t worry. I wanted a new car anyway.”
“Didn’t you only buy the damn thing six months ago?” Remo asked as he inspected the fence.
“You’re not mad?” I asked.
“No. But we’ll have to do something about your driving skills. I think I need to teach you more than I thought.”
My cheeks heated.
Remo gave him a dark look. “Since we know where your priorities lie, it would be good if your next car was an automatic.”
It took sixty minutes to drag the car away from the gates and open them despite their compressed state. After that, Savio drove me to my mother in Nino’s Tesla, because that one already had child seats in the back.
“I baked cannoli for you,” I said, feeling guilty for my mess up.
“Trying to make up for what you’ve done? Which makes me think you might have planned the whole thing.”
“I didn’t!” I gasped. “And you’re really not angry?”
“Life’s too short to get pissed off about every little thing.”
Crashing his Bugatti was a small thing? I touched his wrist with the speared watch. When I brushed the scars there, he tensed but didn’t pull back. “Thanks. Do you think Remo shares your mantra?”
“Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t care about material things or money. He’ll have the thing repaired and won’t mention it again unless he wants to rile you up… so probably at dinner tonight.”
We grabbed flowers on the way, which was Savio’s idea, and made me really want to kiss him.
Mom looked pale, with a red nose and hollow cheeks. Dad’s death had left its marks, and Carlotta’s care took a lot of energy as well, but she shared my stubborn streak and rarely accepted help from us.
Her face lit up when Savio handed her the flowers and she gave me a pleased smile. “A gentleman after all.”
For some reason, the comment made me blush, which Mom chose to ignore and
