Chapter 405 - 6:47 in Itary

The plane touched down at 6:47 in the evening.

By the time they stepped outside, the sky was already slipping into that soft blue-grey color between day and night. The air felt different from Silvermont. Warmer. Heavier. Mixed with city dust and old stone.

Bennett took out her phone as soon as they reached the pickup lane. One short call. A few quiet words. Then she hung up.

A black car pulled up less than a minute later.

It was expensive, but not loud about it. Clean body. Dark windows. Quiet engine. The kind of car people noticed only if they understood cars.

The driver got out and raised a hand to Bennett.

Lucas already had the bags.

Bennett turned fast.

"You don’t have to carry all that."

"It’s fine."

"Lucas, give me one."

"No."

"There are too many."

He looked at her.

"They’re not heavy."

She stared at the load in his hands. Her case. His bag. The smaller ones. It looked like too much for one person. Any normal man would have adjusted by now. Lucas had not shifted once. No strain. No change in his breathing.

She started to argue again, then stopped. He was not handing anything over.

The driver opened the trunk. Lucas put the bags in, closed it, and opened her door before walking around to the other side.

The seats were cool. Soft. The inside smelled like leather.

As the doors shut, Bennett felt that same strange ease again.

She had sat with clients for years. Some talked too much. Some sat like she was invisible. None of them made the space feel this simple. Sitting beside Lucas did not feel like work. That bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

The driver looked at them through the mirror.

"Where to?"

"Grand Hotel Aurelia," Bennett said.

The car pulled into traffic.

Outside, Itary moved past the window in pieces. Old buildings. Narrow streets. Scooters cutting between cars. Lights coming on. Cafés still open. People talking on corners like the night was in no hurry.

Lucas watched it all.

Bennett glanced at him more than once. He was not on his phone. He was not asking about plans. He just looked out the window, quiet, taking the city in.

After a while, she spoke.

"We won’t go for the car tomorrow morning."

Lucas turned his head.

"We got in late," she said. "If we push straight into the meeting, it will be messy. Better to rest today and go clean tomorrow."

Lucas looked at her for a second.

The flight had not tired him at all. He felt the same as when they left. But she was talking like a normal person after travel, and there was no need to correct that.

"Alright."

Bennett nodded, clearly relieved.

"I don’t want us walking into Moretti’s place rushed."

"We won’t."

She watched him a moment longer, then faced forward again.

The rest of the ride stayed quiet.

When the car finally slowed, the street ahead was a mess.

Grand Hotel Aurelia stood tall over the block. Pale stone. High windows. Warm light under the entrance. On a normal night it would have looked calm.

Tonight it was crowded.

People packed the steps with phones up. Cameras flashed nonstop. Barriers tried to keep a path open, but nobody respected them. Someone screamed a name. Someone else pushed forward like the whole street owed them a photo.

"Foto! Foto!"

"è lei! Guarda!"

In the middle of the mess, a woman in dark sunglasses and a long coat was being walked toward the doors. A celebrity. Famous enough to turn a hotel entrance into a circus.

Bennett looked through the window and sighed.

"Of course."

The driver stopped as close as he could.

"I’ll get the bags."

Lucas was already out of the car.

The noise hit harder on the street. Flashes. Shouting. Bodies pressed together near the entrance. Hotel staff tried to hold a lane open, but one of the celebrity’s bouncers had decided the job required pure violence.

He was thick, black suit stretched across his chest, face already red.

"Move! Back! I said BACK!"

"Spostati!"

"Indietro, indietro!"

He shoved two people at once, then swung an arm at a third like he was clearing traffic with pure anger.

Bennett stayed close to Lucas and aimed for the entrance. She was not trying to reach the celebrity. She only wanted to get inside, drop her bag, and end the day.

The bouncer did not see it that way.

His eyes locked on her the second she stepped near the open path. To him, she was just another fan trying to sneak closer.

"Hey~hey! Not you!"

His hand shot out and clamped onto her shoulder.

The pull was rough and stupid.

Bennett stumbled half a step, eyes wide.

"What~?"

Lucas’s hand closed around the man’s wrist before the second yank came.

The bouncer turned, already swelling up, ready to throw his weight around.

"You want a problem too?"

He never finished the threat.

Lucas yanked.

Not a small pull. Not a warning tug. One hard, clean motion that removed the bigger man from the conversation completely.

The bouncer’s feet left the ground.

For a short, ridiculous second, he was airborne like a man who had just discovered gravity personally hated him. His arms flailed. His mouth opened. One expensive shoe kicked at nothing.

Then he crashed.

He hit the open space near the steps hard enough to make people jump. The sound was ugly. Body. Pavement. Something in his arm giving out with a sharp crack. He bounced once, rolled halfway onto his side, and stayed there with the wind knocked clean out of him.

The crowd lost its mind.

"Oddio!"

"Did you see that?!"

"Chi è quello?!"

Phones spun from the celebrity to the man on the floor. Someone screamed. A tourist dropped his bag. A woman near the barrier clapped once by accident and looked embarrassed about it.

The celebrity spun around fast, sunglasses slipping, clearly convinced some crazy fan had finally broken through.

Lucas looked at her once.

Whatever she saw on his face killed that idea immediately. No excitement. No begging energy. No "please take a photo with me" expression. Just pure irritation, like her entire arrival had ruined his evening for no reason.

She froze.

Then she looked away first.

On the ground, the bouncer tried to sit up and failed. He made a noise that was half groan, half injured pride. One arm stayed tucked against his body like it had resigned from work. He turned his head, searching for the man who had thrown him, but from the floor he could not even find Lucas’s face properly.

"Who... who the hell..."

"Chiamate qualcuno!"

Nobody answered him.

Lucas turned back to Bennett and guided her forward through the sudden open space.

"Come on."

Bennett walked beside him, still catching up. One second a stranger’s hand was on her shoulder. The next, that same man was on the ground making sounds like a broken chair.

"You just~" she started.

"He grabbed you," Lucas said.

That was the full explanation.

Hotel staff rushed in from every direction. Some toward the bouncer. Some toward the doors. Some toward the celebrity, who suddenly looked much less interested in being seen.

Behind them, the man on the ground was still trying to recover his dignity and failing publicly. A teenager filmed him. Someone in the crowd laughed and got glared at by security.

"Non ci posso credere..."

Lucas did not look back once.

He led Bennett into the lobby of Grand Hotel Aurelia like the chaos outside had already been filed under unimportant.