A Shot of Red (18 page)

Mia slid the business card across the table so he could read it.

Katia Glasser

“The Dragon Lady of Pilatus”

Importer of Specialty Jewelry

Gio’s pulse took off double time.

Mia looked at him knowingly with a stern do-not-react glint in her eyes. Katia Glasser was the Dragon Lady who sold bracelets?

“This is Erika down at Taube,” the hostess said, then paused. “Not too busy right now, but there’s a customer here who wants to buy a couple of your bracelets. She already has one kinda like mine, but with white beads.” Another pause, longer this time. “Tomorrow, I think.” She nodded. “Let me ask her.” She covered the phone and said to Mia, “How about 3:30 tomorrow afternoon—up on the mountain?”

Mia gave her the thumbs-up.

“That’s cool,” Erika said into her phone. “Oh, yeah. Let me ask her that, too.” She covered her phone with her hand. “What’s your name?”

“Mia Sloane,” Mia said with a sharp glance at Gio.

Erika repeated Mia’s name, then after a few seconds of silence said, “I’ll tell her. And you can pay me my commission next time you’re here.” She chuckled. “See you then.” She clicked off the call. “It’s all set,” she said to Mia, seeming proud to have helped.

“Thanks so much,” Mia said.

“Just go to the top of Mount Pilatus to the Hotel Pilatus-Kulm. Katia lives there.”

Gio couldn’t keep the surprised look off his face.

“I know,” Erika said. “Amazing, huh? Just ask for her at the front desk.”

Mia reached in her purse, fumbled around some, came out with a folded ten-franc note and held it out for the hostess.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said.

“Please.” Mia took her hand and pressed the money into her palm.

Erika relented and put the franc note in her pocket. “I’ll start saving to buy myself another bracelet, then.” She gestured at their plates. “Now eat while it’s still hot.” She looked over her shoulder and smiled as she left the room.

As soon as Erika was out of earshot, Gio leveled his gaze on Mia. “Wanna tell me about that bracelet?”

Chapter Twenty-One

No, Mia didn’t want to tell Gio about the bracelet.

“You could’ve found out about it for yourself if you hadn’t freaked out halfway through reading what was left of Brent’s letter,” she said and took another bite of the decadent puff pastry. Gio’s reaction to what had just happened with Erika confirmed he’d only gotten about halfway through, which Mia had already suspected.

“Easy, Mia.” His tone told her he didn’t want to have that discussion right now.

At this point, he was all about the bracelet, and he was waiting for answers.

Mia unclasped the bracelet, took it off, and nestled it in her hand, silver winking in the light, beads velvety smooth against her palm. She gave it to Gio, the size of his hand making it look even more delicate.

“It was in the safe-deposit box with the revolver and Brent’s letter. He mentioned it in there, but not everything he wrote about it was on the piece of the letter I got. Just
bracelet
and
you to have it
. I didn’t know if it was related to what happened to him, or if he wanted to give me something to remember him by—just in case—considering he was in danger.”

Gio’s expression tightened and he narrowed his gaze on the bracelet. “How did you connect the bracelet to Katia Glasser?”

“This afternoon I went to the art museum where she’s a docent. The man at the admissions desk said she was a Picasso specialist, and that she gave tours in English, but she wasn’t there today. He told me she lived up on Mount Pilatus so she kept a limited schedule.” Mia pulled her phone out of her purse. “But I took a self-guided tour anyway, and I came across this on a display about the docents.” She tapped her way to Katia’s picture and handed the phone to Gio. “Meet the Dragon Lady.”

He looked at her picture and drew his head back. “That’s not anywhere near what I expected.”

“Me either.”

“How did you know she was the Dragon Lady?” He handed the phone to her and she put it back in her purse.

“I didn’t. But the charm on her necklace caught my eye. If you blow up the picture, you can see it. I did a little research and found out it’s the Chinese symbol for dragon. When Erika called her the Dragon Lady, it was kind of surprising—and weird that Katia calls herself that, too—but it made sense.”

“It kind of threw me off back there when you seemed so fascinated by dragons,” he said.

“Believe it or not, I used to be totally into dragons and fairies and all sorts of mythological creatures.”

“You seem a little no-nonsense for that.”

“I have to be no-nonsense for business. Imagine if I went off on tangents about sorcerers and nymphs.”

He gave her a wry smile. “Any idea about the story Erika mentioned? The one where a dragon killed someone that Katia says she’s related to?”

Mia dug back in her memory. “I think there’s one about a governor who killed one of the dragons that lived on Mount Pilatus. Supposedly he speared it in the mouth.”

Gio’s eyes widened. He was either interested in the tale, amazed she actually knew it, or both.

Mia turned on the drama, repeating the story as her dad had told it to her. “He wrapped a spear with thorned twigs and thrust it into the dragon’s open mouth, finishing the beast off with a sword. In the struggle, drops of poisonous dragon’s blood spurted onto his hand. Those drops, and the poisonous breath of the dying dragon, froze the blood in the governor’s veins and he died, too.” Mia grinned, even though it truly was a gruesome tale.

Gio blinked a couple of times. “How did you even know that?”

“My dad told me when we came here before and he took me to the Museum of Natural History to see the Dragon Stone—but that’s a different story.”

Gio scrunched his handsome face, as if he was trying to make sense of it all. “So Katia Glasser says she’s related to that governor who slayed the dragon?”

Mia shrugged. “I guess so. There might be other stories I don’t know. The man at the front desk at the art museum said she was eccentric.”

“No argument from me,” Gio said, “and I haven’t even met her.”

Mia took a last bite of her veal dish. “After I saw her picture at the museum, I went and sat on a bench in one of the galleries. A Chinese woman sat next to me and noticed my bracelet.”

Gio set it on the dark-wood table and shaped it into a circle. His expression darkened as Mia filled him in on her encounter with the woman and what she’d said about the beads.

“She said they could kill you?” he asked, his tone a note higher than usual.

Mia nodded. “I know. I freaked out a little myself. Then I did some research and found out there’s poison in them—specifically abrin. Similar to ricin, but even more potent.”

Gio finished the last of his beer and gazed out the window where daytime had waned into twilight. Darkness falling had Mia feeling more skittish, thinking about what had happened last night.

“You think Brent knew he was giving you a bracelet made with poison beads?” Gio asked.

“At the end of the video, he said he still loved me,” she said softly. “But I don’t think the bracelet was about that. I’m not sure he even knew the symbolism of the beads. He was trying to put together the same puzzle we are, and that bracelet is a critical piece. We just have to figure out how it fits.”

“Do you—”

Mia’s phone rang. She pulled it out of her purse and glanced at the screen.

Nora?

“I need to get this,” Mia said and tapped the screen.

“Hello.” Mia tried to keep her breathing even, but her insides felt ripply all of a sudden.

“Mia, it’s Shirley, Nora’s friend.”

“Is everything all right?” Mia couldn’t even bear to make small talk.

Shirley sniffled. “It’s Nora.”

Mia’s heart sank. She leveled her frightened gaze on Gio. “What about Nora?”

“She died tonight.” Shirley’s voice wavered.

“She died?” Mia covered her mouth with her hand, and her eyes welled with tears. “Oh my God. What happened?” Her words came out muffled.

“They think it was the flu. She hadn’t been feeling well, but then all of a sudden she got really sick yesterday. They took her to the hospital this morning, and she was gone by tonight.”

Mia’s stomach lurched. “I thought she got a flu shot.”

“She did,” Shirley said. “We both did.”

Mia became light-headed thinking that Moncure might’ve bet on the wrong virus strains this time around. What if the vaccine they’d worked so hard to produce
wasn’t efficacious
?

During an epidemic…

Or had the same person who’d murdered Brent also gotten to Nora?

…

Gio scanned the nearly deserted streets and alleys as he and Mia headed away from the restaurant. Mia had become too distracted by the news of Nora English’s death to be as watchful as she should be, especially in this part of the city where only pedestrians were allowed on the cobblestone streets. Most of the historic buildings were shuttered, even at the early evening hour. Darkness had set in, and the temperature had fallen to near freezing.

“Where to?” he asked Mia who walked next to him, trancelike. She stopped and gazed at him as if it just occurred to her that they were staying at separate hotels—or so he assumed.

“Um…” She stared downward as she tapped the toe of her boot on a raised cobblestone. “I need to tell Lila. She’ll be so shocked.”

Gio skimmed his fingers beneath her chin and lifted her head until she focused on him. “So where are we going? Did you check into a different hotel?”

She nodded numbly. “Just across the river.”

“I’ll walk you there. Get you settled in. Make sure you’re safe.” He had no intention of leaving her tonight, but there was no need to have that debate in the cold on a dark street, even if she had the energy for it.

She nodded. Learning about Nora’s death had left Mia in a state as he’d never seen her. The vulnerable look in her eyes was more than he could take. He reached out and drew her to him tightly, pressing her head to his chest. She came willingly, and he sensed she was crying but he couldn’t be sure. He lost himself in her orange-blossom scent, inhaling deeply and thinking how romantic this city would be under completely different circumstances.

“Thank you for being here with me,” she said.

“I—”

A gunshot echoed loudly and Gio flinched just as searing pain tore through his upper arm. Mia gasped. Adrenaline surged through him in a torrent. The bullet had hit him only inches from Mia’s head.

Holy shit.

He whipped her away from the direction of the shooter, blocking her with his body. “Are you hit? Mia?”

She whimpered. Fear or pain? He couldn’t tell.

Another shot rang out and burrowed into the side of the building behind them. Bits of plaster rained down.

He quickly picked up Mia, his arm on fire, and cradled her close. She curled up and made herself a smaller target and he took off running zigzag over the rough cobblestones.

God, please don’t let her be hit…

Another crack of gunfire broke the silence of the night. Gio braced for a bullet, teeth clenched hard and running for their lives. If it hit him, he didn’t feel it.

Go!

The next shot came from closer.

Jesus!

Gio carried Mia past an alcove where he could’ve darted in for protection, but they’d be easy targets there. He kept running, pain pulsing in his arm. Warmth spreading.

He clutched Mia close and sucked in ragged breaths of frigid air.

The street ended in a clearing near a footbridge that crossed the river.

Mia’s hotel…

Head down, he took off toward the bridge in a full sprint, hoping like hell the shooter wouldn’t come out in the open. The few people he whisked past stared at him as if he were crazy, but he didn’t stop until they reached the other side.

He hurried around a corner, stopped, and listened. His heart clamored, and he could feel Mia’s matching the rhythm of his. She was alive, but was she injured? He drew in a deep breath, the icy air burning his lungs.

Bullets had stopped flying after he’d reached the clearing on the other side of the river. He suspected they were out of danger—for now—but they needed to take cover quickly.

“You okay?” he asked Mia, holding his breath, desperate for her to answer.

“I think so.”

Relief coursed through him. “Thank God. I’m gonna put you down now, but stay close to me.”

Gio’s arms ached from clutching her so tightly. He set her on her feet and released her gently. His muscles screamed. Pain tore through his arm and shot up into his shoulder.

Mia’s gaze swept from his face down to his arm where blood stained his coat. She grabbed his good arm with a death grip, panic in her eyes. “You got hit. Oh God, Gio.”

“Don’t worry about that now. Where’s your hotel?”

She glanced around, got her bearings, and pointed to a riverfront building just yards away.

“Are you serious?”

She nodded. He leaned around the corner of the building and checked out the cross street. It looked quaint as a fairy-tale lane with flickering lamps and brightly painted shutters on the historic buildings, but he knew better than to let that fool him. Even so, they had to get to someplace secure.

He wrapped his good arm protectively around Mia and tipped his head in the direction of her hotel. “Let’s go.”