When Yvette Conti appears in Stolen Secrets, Jamie Beth remembers the nanny who helped care for her family in Rome. Charlie remembers something else. Yvette watched doors, windows, and strangers more closely than any ordinary sitter.
This new bonus scene goes back nine years, to Yvette’s first evening with the O’Rourkes. Three days earlier, eight-year-old Jamie Beth became separated from her parents at a crowded Roman market. She followed the family rules and stayed safe. Her parents hired Yvette soon afterward.
The Nanny at the Door
Nine years ago
Rome, Italy
Yvette
The bedroom window did not lock. Yvette tested the latch a second time. The metal caught, then slipped loose with one pull.
“Dad checks it every night.” Jamie Beth stood in the doorway in her pajamas and socks. She should have been brushing her teeth. Instead, she watched Yvette with the same sharp attention her father had shown during the interview.
Yvette released the latch. “Your father is careful.”
“He’s FBI.”
“I know.”
“He checks doors, too. Sometimes twice.”
“That is a good habit.”
Jamie stepped into the room. “Are you checking because of the man at the market?”
The question landed harder than Yvette expected. “Your parents told me what happened.”
“He wanted me to follow him. I didn’t.”
“Good.”
“Was he a bad man?”
Yvette had studied the report. Light jacket. Brown hair. Forgettable face. No photograph and no second sighting. “I do not know. You were right not to go with him.”
Jamie considered the answer. “Mamma said you were here to help with Ryan and Evan.”
“I am.”
“Then why are you in my room?”
Smart girl.
“I am learning the house. That includes every room.”
“Are you a spy?”
“No.”
“You answered fast. Dad says people answer too fast when they practice a lie.”
Yvette folded her arms. “Does your father know you listen to his work calls?”
Jamie smiled. “Maybe.”
Footsteps approached. Charlie stopped at the open door. “Everything okay?”
Yvette pointed to the window. “The latch does not hold.”
He crossed the room and tested it. His jaw tightened when the window opened. “The landlord repaired that last month.”
“He needs to repair it again.”
Charlie shut the window and checked it once more. “I’ll call first thing in the morning. Jamie Beth, use the other bedroom tonight.”
“But that’s the twins’ room.”
One of the boys began crying down the hall. The second joined him a moment later.
Charlie sighed. “Not anymore.”
Jamie Beth walked to the door, then turned back. “Yvette?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know karate?”
“Some.”
“Good. You can come to the market with us next Saturday.”
She hurried after her father.
Yvette stayed beside the window. Traffic moved along the street below. A scooter stopped at the corner, then sped away. People passed beneath the streetlights without looking up.
The assignment had come with few details and one firm instruction: keep the girl safe.
Next Saturday, Yvette would go to the market.
Anyone who approached Jamie Beth would have to get past her first.
Where it fits: This scene takes place nine years before Stolen Secrets, after Jamie Beth’s visit to Campo de’ Fiori in Mirror Estate Series: Short Stories Vol. 7.
Yvette returns in Stolen Secrets, Book 7 of the Mirror Estate series, as the danger surrounding Jamie Beth reaches Orlando. Its companion novella, Shadow Extraction, follows another part of the operation unfolding in Europe during the same week.