In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

VILLA POLLODIO
Ripping off her headphones, she ran to answer the door.
Alessandro must've looked freaked because he said, "What is wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, I just got this weird encrypted Email, and my
firewall is down. How are you doing?"
He sat on the edge of the bed. "How did you log on? Oh, you
found the WiFi, bravissima! Mario has installed broadband and WiFi,
he is très branché, jacked in, you know."
Alessandro sniffed the stale air and then looked over to the
door to the zoo room and sighed, "We have peace now, Maia and Max
went back to Rue du Dragon. The door is not repaired but Maia hates
it here. Eh, it is mama she hates. Max went with her."
They hadn't even said goodbye.
A whiff of dry rot puffed from the shredded velvet as
Alessandro reclined into the pillows, holding his side.
"Do you know, she is determined now to be a pop star. Povero
Max. I think my accident makes her think 'time flies', no?"
He pointed to the laptop from his cushions. "We tell the
security about this, and keep it on, okay? They can maybe trace the
original address."
He took the phone out of his pocket and gave some polite but
curt orders to the head security guy as he nervously slipped in and out
of his red leather slipper. At one point the slipper fell off completely
and he had to grab it with his toes and squirm back into it. His foot was
pedicured and even more perfectly shaped than the Michelangelo's.
"They are coming up with machines. I think it will take some
time. Maybe we change your room, so you can sleep in a fresher bed
than this minable pucier, bene?"
She had barely unpacked, so she grabbed her tooth brush and
coat and waited for instructions by the door.
One of the guys came in and started looking through the
computer, attaching a series of gizmos to the USB ports. She was glad
she had a backup drive with everything on it in case they screwed it up.
Penny hoisted up her knapsacks, and followed Alessandro
through a fog of fatigue and confusion to his wing of the house. Her
new room was larger than the previous one and smelled of stone and
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