The Florentine Cypher: Kate Benedict Paranormal Mystery #3 (The Kate Benedict Series) by Carrie Bedford Page B

anything about flying to London. “Claire, do you have the keys to the Venice house with you? I don’t think you should try to get back to your apartment.”
    Claire grabbed her purse. “Yes, but let me check.” She fished out a large keyring, which held more than a dozen keys. “My flat, Ethan’s flat, the Venice house, my office keys.” She touched another key but didn’t identify it. A faint blush tinted her cheeks. A boyfriend, I guessed.
    I wondered how to phrase my next objection without coming across as defeatist.
    “How do we get out of here without being seen?” I looked in the direction of the window, thinking of the man in the leather jacket.
    Claire looked at me in alarm. “Are we being followed?”
    “Possibly. There’s a man standing across the road who seems to be watching us. He could be police, but I doubt it. More likely a colleague of your mugger.”
    “You can go out the back way,” Valeria said. “There’s a staircase we use to access the
vicolo
behind the houses.”
    She picked up her key chain and unhooked a key. “This opens the door at the bottom. Try to remember to lock it afterwards or the old lady in the flat below will make a big fuss. Take the alleyway to the left— it leads to the street where my car is parked. It’s a hundred meters away or less. Claire, you’ll recognize it. I think it has enough fuel to get you out of Florence.”
    She handed me the key.
    “I’m worried about leaving you alone,” I said. “You were a witness to the mugging and it appears that those men have followed us. They might come after you.”
    Valeria laughed, showing her small white teeth. “Don’t you worry about me. I’m going to move upstairs with my mother. She’s a formidable lady. She’s got bigger muscles than you have and more locks on her doors than the Italian Treasury. I’ll be fine. And I’ll have Guido walk me to and from work.”
    “Guido?”
    “An admirer of Valeria’s,” said Claire, already buttoning up her coat. “He’s very tall and as wide as the Duomo.”
    “Maybe Guido should come with us,” I suggested, only half joking.
    We crept out into the hall and down the narrow back stairs to find the door on the ground floor already unlocked. I peered outside where a middle-aged woman in a wool coat stood in the middle of the alley. At her feet, a small brown dog sniffed the ground, its tail wagging. She glared at us and bent to pick up the dog, as though we might try to snatch the little animal, so I smiled at her and kept moving, following Claire out to the street.
    “This is it,” she said, stopping next to a grey Smart car. “I’ll drive, as I know my way around Florence.”
    I knew my way around Florence too, but I didn’t say anything as I folded my legs into the cramped passenger side. The little car purred into life. Traffic was light as Claire navigated the city, heading for the A1 to the North. I kept checking the mirror to see if anyone was tailing us. At the first traffic light, we seemed to sit forever waiting for a green. In the wing mirror, I saw a large black sedan speeding up behind us. Claire saw it too. She put her foot down the second the light turned green, and we shot through the intersection, took a sudden left hand turn and came to a halt at yet another light.
    The throaty roar of an engine made me turn to see the black car again. From the sleek trapezoid shape of the hood and the distinctive shield on the front, I knew it was an Alfa Romeo
Giulia
, powerful, capable of high speeds and tight cornering. It rode inches from our rear bumper, looking like a giant bat with folded wings waiting to swoop on its prey. The diminutive Smart car was a mere insect about to be ingested.
    “Is he following us?” I asked.
    “Only one way to find out,” said Claire. She swung the steering wheel to the right, pulling out into the lane of oncoming traffic. I took a deep breath and pressed myself back into the grey fabric of my seat. Straddling the