LITMIR.BIZ

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alone were not to be. Two seconds later she comprehended that the conversation being conducted beyond a bank of open shelving was not a happy one.

      Lorenzo and another male stood with their backs turned to her. They were unaware of her presence. They spoke in Italian in muted voices that seemed all the more intense for that fact. The young kitchen hand had a backpack dangling from his hand, and Lorenzo plunked two bottles of some kind of spirits down on a work surface before he turned back to the boy.

      From the stiffness of Lorenzo’s back, and the guilt Scarlett could see written all over the boy even from this distance, it was clear Lorenzo had caught the young man trying to steal the bottles. What was the teenager’s name? Scarlett ran her mental list from yesterday’s ‘meet the staff’ moments. Dante…

      Scarlett’s brows drew together. Was this where Rosa’s profits had gone? Taken by light fingers? She wanted to wade in, and yet something in Dante’s posture and expression, and the way Lorenzo was holding his emotions in, made her hesitate. And the boy was young. He couldn’t have worked here all that long. Certainly not long enough to sink Rosa financially through petty theft, even though this was a very serious thing to have happen.

      As Scarlett stood there Lorenzo’s low words carried to her.

      ‘This stunt—’ He gestured towards the bottles. ‘I can’t believe you’d do such a thing. You’re not a bad boy, Dante. Not everyone on this team is here by my choice but you’re someone I’ve really wanted to keep. You try hard; you’re keen to learn. You’ve always made your shifts without any problems at all. You’ll take direction and you have a natural flair in the kitchen. You have it in you to become a good chef one day.’

      ‘I’m sorry. I know this was stupid. Mamma has this new boyfriend—’ The boy cut his words off abruptly and for a moment looked trapped. ‘I knew taking the bottles was wrong and I’ve never done it before. I promise you.’ The words were passionate. ‘Please, don’t fire me.’

      ‘You’re the only child at home, if I remember rightly?’ Lorenzo said the words as though they meant nothing, yet Scarlett could see enough from the view of his profile to understand that he wanted to know more.

      ‘Yes. I’m an only child.’ The boy confirmed this.

      ‘You took Luca’s hidden spare key yesterday and came in to steal the wine this morning.’ Lorenzo made the statement flatly. ‘Weren’t you worried I might catch you? Everyone knows I start earlier than my shifts and often work later, too.’

      ‘I don’t know.’ Dante shrugged skinny shoulders and then seemed to almost wince as he stopped the movement. ‘I guess I didn’t think about that.’

      But Lorenzo was thinking about that.

      And Scarlett thought about that.

      Why would this boy, who seemed clever and capable and able to plan such a thing in the first place, plan it for this late in the morning?

      If a part of Dante had hoped to be caught, then Scarlett was inclined to believe he hadn’t done this before and hadn’t really wanted to do it now. Was his behaviour a cry for help?

      Even so, how to deal with such a thing? Should she step forward? Intervene? Before Scarlett could decide or announce her presence, Lorenzo spoke again.

      ‘Trouble in here is the last thing I need right now, Dante. The last thing any of us needs.’ He tugged his chef’s jacket into order. ‘Our new financial manager will want an accounting of every Euro that comes and goes in this kitchen. You couldn’t have picked a worse time to try to steal.’

      The boy looked stricken. ‘If you speak with her—’

      ‘She may be just as cold about this as her mother would be. Scarlett Gibson is Lisa Firenzi’s daughter. Don’t think for a moment that Scarlett isn’t equally capable of the same level of business-minded lack of emotion.’ He drew a breath. ‘I don’t know if I can protect you from where Scarlett might want to take this.’

      Until then the boy had still maintained a small amount of youthful expectation that the ‘real grown-up’—in this case, Lorenzo—would be able to fix this for him. That expectation faded to outright concern now.

      In tandem with Dante’s reaction, anger inside Scarlett began to bubble up. So she was the ogre of the piece now? The one who could single-handedly destroy this boy, who clearly simply needed someone to help him get back on a straight path?

      Scarlett would have Lorenzo know that she had…Never dealt with anything quite like this.

      Scarlett drew a deep breath, but it still didn’t help her to dispense with the tight ache in the middle of her chest that had come from Lorenzo saying she was cold.

      Could he really believe Scarlett could have no feelings for those around her?

      Scarlett’s hand crept up to touch her ribbon, to let her fingers absorb its soft feel.

      She wasn’t like that. Not really. Not deep down inside herself, and Lorenzo had known her well enough to know that. Scarlett hated that this man still had the power to cause her hurt. She’d healed from that. She’d moved on whether she now happened to be back in his actual realm of existence, or not.

      ‘You won’t get another warning.’ Lorenzo glared at the boy. ‘I won’t discuss this with Scarlett at this stage, but don’t break the rules here again. Do I make myself clear?’

      ‘Yes. We’re clear. I’m sorry.’

      ‘You’ve got a chance to straighten yourself out, Dante. Don’t mess it up, okay?’ Lorenzo reached out to lay his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

      They’d both turned as they spoke, so Scarlett clearly saw the flinch, quickly disguised as a shrug when Lorenzo’s hand landed on the boy’s shoulder.

      What—?

      ‘You’re bruised. What happened?’ Lorenzo’s brows drew down as his gaze examined Dante’s shoulder where his shirt had pulled open a little.

      And Lorenzo’s expression was really odd. His face had paled. He looked sick. He had an expression in his eyes that Scarlett had…seen before? Why did that expression look like concern…and some kind of shame?

      ‘I went mountain cycling. I fell off.’ The boy uttered the words in a rapid stream as he tugged his shirt back into place. ‘On the weekend. I fell into a bush.’

      The words were so clearly a lie. But…why?

      Lorenzo’s eyes narrowed before he hurriedly rearranged his face into a mask of agreement. ‘Injuries can happen in all sorts of ways.’

      Like Lorenzo getting bruised and scratched falling from his motorcycle. He hadn’t owned it long when Scarlett met him, and he’d told her while they were seeing each other that he’d taken several spills.

      But Dante—Dante was hiding some kind of physical damage that he didn’t want to tell the truth about, that hadn’t happened riding his bike in the mountains.

      Dante was unhappy at home suddenly. Unhappy enough that he’d resorted to stealing with the intention of drinking his unhappiness away?

      Was Lorenzo thinking what Scarlett was thinking? Was that why Lorenzo looked sick to his heart?

      ‘You’re growing up, Dante.’ Lorenzo said this with a careful air of mild interest. ‘Maybe you should think about moving out of home, spread your wings a little, eh?’ He forced a laugh. ‘You might meet a nice girl. You won’t want to have your mamma looking over your shoulder when you do that.’ He drew a breath. ‘In fact, I know of a woman who takes in boarders. If they’re willing to help her out around the place she’ll board them cheaply.’

      ‘I’d be interested, if I could afford it.’ The boy all but jumped on the suggestion. ‘If she didn’t want too much.’

      Lorenzo shrugged as though he’d already lost most of his interest

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