“Was your father protecting someone else?” Helen suddenly asked as they drove to the villa outside Venice for the ball.

They had rented a two-door Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita to fit in with Palmeiro’s crowd, and that had burned a hole in Helen’s budget. Since Reuben was more familiar with Italian roads, Helen had let him drive it.

Reuben had a feeling that Helen prayed he wouldn’t scratch the car.

He wished that the CIA had paid for half their Venice excursion. However, it had turned out that Dario hadn’t briefed his field office in Rome about this escapade, and they were too miffed to sponsor a car of any kind.

Reuben suspected that Dario was in big trouble, though the CIA had retroactively—albeit reluctantly—approved the pursuit of Palmeiro because they believed the money trail would lead them to the terrorists they wanted.

In the middle of this mess with Mama Hu, Helen wants to know about decisions my deceased father might have made?

“Why are you asking me such a question now?” Reuben asked.

“If that person is still alive, he or she might be in danger,” Helen explained. “What about your biological mother?”

“I never knew her. My father raised me alone.”

“Were you adopted?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have you considered looking for your biological mother, just to be sure?”

“No.” Reuben knew his answer was curt, but it was the best he could give her.

This wasn’t the time for her to dig into his past. At all.

Already, he felt bad about Thursday’s series of antique picking with a trusted CIA sidekick by his side. Reuben knew he hadn’t lost his ability to scale museums and steal jewels without being caught.

And that hadn’t been what he had done on Thursday.

He had spent the entire night searching Palmeiro’s estates for Mama Hu and the Petros eggs.

“All we got is a big goose egg,” Dario had declared after fourteen hours of nothing.

So now they had driven to the ball without a prize to show.

They might not even be let in.

And Mama Hu would still be missing.

They had reached the sprawling villa. Reuben slowed down the sports car, waiting for the gate to open.

“Do you want to know the truth, Helen?” he asked. “I don’t want to be involved in this mess at all, but your mom thinks it will clear my father’s name.”

“I would love to sit down with her and find out what she’s been hiding all these years.”

“Me too. She’s the only link to my father.”

“I hear you.”

“I’ve left my life of crime. They’ve given me a second chance. I cannot go back. I dare not go back.” Reuben eased into the slow procession of guests in their vehicles more expensive than this one. “I don’t care about all these jewels or art pieces anymore. I don’t want to go back to prison. I want to go to my tiny flat where the rent is paid for. I want to live my dull life in peace.”

“My mother could wish for that very thing someday, when she sits behind bars and doesn’t hear a bird sing.”

Reuben reached for her hand. Held it warmly in his. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“I could say I would do anything to get my mother back, but I won’t. I won’t cross the line.”

“I know you won’t. I don’t wish upon you to have a tainted past that haunts your future.”

“It’s not only that, Reuben. I have to give an account of my life to God.”

“That too.”

The valet parking was up ahead, but at the rate people got out of their vehicles, it would be a while before they got there.

Reuben had scared himself the day before when he had eased so easily into his old role.

“If they see that we don’t have any artifacts or something with us, they won’t let us in,” Reuben said.

“I think they will.”

“Why do you say so?” What did Helen know that Reuben didn’t?

“If Palmeiro is holding Mom hostage, then we’re just bonus,” Helen said.

“If we end up in the same dungeons, I don’t know if we can get out.”

“Dario, Leland, and Hugo are on standby. Don’t worry.” She patted his hand.