Revenge (22 page)

“You could have been killed. And all over a
woman. I told you this would come to no good.”

“At least he’s dead.”

Dom laughed without mirth. “You say that like
it’s a good thing.”

“It is. He beat her and tried to rape her in
front of me. He was not fit to live.”

“He was also an Andretti. Or have you
forgotten?”

Enrico sighed. “I’ll figure something
out.”

“The hell you will. This is going to cost.
Immensely. And you will have to marry Delfina, as soon as possible,
supposing Carlo and Dario still agree to that.”

“I will figure something else out.”

“Are you unable to hear me?
There is no
other solution
. It’s marriage or it’s war.”

Enrico’s pulse quickened. “Then it’s war. I
cannot marry her.”

Silence hung thick between them for several
moments, then Dom said, “You’re forcing me to call for an
election.”

His adrenaline ratcheted up, sending Enrico’s
whole body into overdrive, his heart threatening to jump out of his
chest. “Am I?”

“I have no other choice.”

Ruggero’s words came back with force.
If
you die
,
childless
,
who stands to profit most
?
Maybe this was Dom’s way of forcing the issue without having to
kill Enrico. It was clever. And he’d just played into Dom’s hands
if that was the case. “You don’t want to do that.”

“What else do you expect me to do? If I stand
by and let you destroy this family, it’s not just your head that’s
forfeit. Mine is too.”

Damn it. Maybe this wasn’t about Dom wanting
to take over. Maybe this was about Dom protecting himself,
protecting the family. Protecting Enrico. “There’s got to be
another way.”

“I can’t think of one.” Dom paused. “Shall I
speak to Carlo and Dario, to see if the offer is still on the
table?”

Enrico damned himself as he nodded and hissed
out the one word that meant the end to all his hopes. “Yes.”

Oblivion. She needed it. Craved it.

Aided by Valium, Kate slept through the day
and the following night in the guest room. Enrico had checked on
her that evening, but she’d asked him to leave her alone. Though
the sedative helped, menace and anxiety laced her dreams.

However, the next morning’s sun forced her to
give up on sleep. Stripes of golden light streamed across the bed,
and she stared at them in a haze.

She’d killed a man. Her husband.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she blinked
them away and swallowed the golf ball stuck in her throat. Vince
hadn’t deserved to live. And he didn’t deserve to be mourned.

She hoped Enrico knew what he was doing. And
she hoped she could trust him. That whole interaction with Fuente
reeked of secrets.

Throwing the covers back, Kate rose. Time to
find out what Enrico was hiding.

Kate headed toward the rear terrace of the
house. Enrico hadn’t been at breakfast as she’d expected, and she’d
found herself disappointed by his absence.

Not knowing what to do with herself, she’d
decided to take a swim and soak up a little sun—as much as she
could tolerate without burning.

She’d donned a black one-piece bathing suit
and put on a white blouse over it. Just because Enrico wasn’t
around, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t run into one of the guards.
She had to go shopping soon; she felt strange raiding Antonella’s
closet. Not that she’d ever step foot in that bedroom again. The
carpet was undoubtedly still soaked with blood.

As she was crossing through the foyer to the
French doors in the back, a loud thump came from down the hall.
Then a moan, then a shout. “
Merda
!” It sounded like
Enrico.

Kate poked her head in the door to his study.
Enrico was cradling his head in his hands. “What’s wrong?”

He looked up when she spoke. “I lost a whole
morning’s work. And now the bloody computer will not start up
properly.”

“I could take a look if you’d like.”

He smiled. “I would be grateful.”

She took his chair, and he sat down on the
edge of the desk next to her. Kate rebooted the machine, trying to
ignore the feel of his eyes on her. She asked Enrico to translate a
few words in the messages on the screen. “Do you mind if I restore
the system to see if I can get stable operating system files? It
won’t affect any data.”

He shrugged. “Do what you think best.”

As the computer went to work, Kate looked
around his desk. “Do you have an external backup drive and restore
discs?”

“I do not know.”

“Who maintains this system for you?”

He rubbed his cheek and looked away. “It was
Fiammetta’s job.”

“Was? Where is she?”

His face reddened and his eyes grew moist.
“She died in a car accident about six months ago.”

“You were close.”

He nodded. “She was my personal assistant.
The daughter of my accountant. I had known her from when she was a
young girl.”

Kate studied him. “You seem quite affected by
her death still.”

He gazed at the books over her shoulder. “The
accident was my fault.”

“How?”

“I was driving and I had been drinking. We
were fighting.”

“You and Fiammetta?” When he didn’t say
anything, she said, “She was more than just your assistant.”

He nodded, still not looking at her.
“Loneliness can be a powerful seductress.”

Kate raised a brow. “It was
loneliness
that seduced you? It had nothing to do with her being a young
woman?”

Enrico blushed, finally met her eyes again.
“I missed Antonella. Fiammetta was concerned about me. When she
suggested….” He trailed off. “I could not resist her.”

“Couldn’t or didn’t want to?”

All trace of warmth left his face. “Why does
this matter?”

“I wonder if you’re not doing the same thing
with me.”

He leaned forward, putting his hand over hers
where it rested beside the keyboard. “I am not with you for the
same reasons I was with Fiammetta.”

“Are you so sure? This house is a shrine to
Antonella. There’s at least one picture of her in every room. You
still have all her things. It’s like she just left for a brief trip
and she’ll be back in a few days.”

His voice was hoarse when he replied. “I am
moving past my grief.”

Kate sighed. “I don’t believe you.” She held
his gaze for a few moments, not looking away until the computer
beeped. The system restore was complete.

“I think I’ve fixed it. But your virus
protection is out of date, and you’ve got to address that
today.”

He looked chagrined, but happy to have the
subject changed. “I think maybe I have been ignoring some
things.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “You really don’t like
to be bothered, do you?”

He smiled sheepishly, then met her eyes, his
smile turning into something else. “I do when it is something I
like, that I am interested in.” She followed his eyes.
Yikes
. He was getting an eyeful where her blouse had gaped
open. The swimsuit was relatively modest, but she was still showing
a lot more skin than she’d intended.

Pulling the thin silk of the blouse closed,
she leaned back in the chair, ignoring his comment. “You also need
an uninterruptable power supply, a surge protector, and of course
the external backup drive. And you need someone to make sure your
home network is secure.”

“Can you do all that?”

“I can. But could I get a little sun
first?”

“No hurry.” His face brightened. “Would you
mind if I joined you?”

She grinned at his excitement. “Not at
all.”

He hopped off the desk, offering her a hand
up from the chair. After she rose, he held her hand for a beat too
long, looking at her closely, then slowly let go, his fingers
brushing hers as they slid from his grasp. “I need to change
clothes. And get something for you.”

“What?” she asked, as he waited for her to
precede him out of the room.

“You will see.” He loped down the hall, then
bounded up one of the staircases to the second floor. Kate
continued out to the garden, the feel of his hand wrapped around
hers lingering in her mind.
Stop thinking about him. He’s still
in love with his wife
.

Kate settled herself on a lounge chair by the
pool. A few minutes later, Enrico strolled out, wearing flip flops,
black swim trunks, and an unbuttoned white shirt that revealed his
muscular chest and abdomen. Kate caught herself staring as he
approached, hoping her sunglasses hid her gaze. It took her a few
seconds to register that he had a large, all black, woman’s sun hat
in one hand and a bottle of sunscreen in the other. He held the hat
out to her. “To protect your face.”

She reached out and took it. “
Grazie.
”
She started to place it on her head, then hesitated. “This was
Antonella’s too, wasn’t it?”

He nodded. “Go ahead.” He watched her don the
hat, a flicker of something unrecognizable crossing his face. He
tore his eyes away from her after a few seconds and busied himself
with removing his shirt and pulling up another chair. He seemed to
be avoiding her gaze, which gave her plenty of opportunity to
admire his sleekly muscular body. She hadn’t seen him so unclothed
in broad daylight before, and the view was one she couldn’t
ignore.

Kate marveled at his beauty. There was no
other word for it. He might be in his forties, but even in this
light he seemed hardly a day over thirty-five. The way he looked,
he could have posed for Michelangelo and made an even more striking
David. Or he could do the modern-day version and pose in ads for
underwear, cologne, or men’s couture. She watched as he took the
sunglasses perched on his thick black hair and put them on.

Enrico finally looked over at her then.
So
the glasses aren’t just for sun protection.
She wanted to ask
him what was wrong, but it felt like prying.

Instead, she looked around the well-manicured
garden surrounding them. “Your estate is lovely,” she said. “You
must be so happy living here. Well, at least when you’re not afraid
for your life.”

“
Grazie.
” He looked around the garden
for a moment. “Sometimes, yes, I am very happy living here.”

“But not today?”

He froze, almost imperceptibly, but she
caught the sudden hitch in his shoulders and neck. He sighed. “A
house is not a home unless there is a woman in it.”

“Will just
any
woman do?” she
teased.

“You know what I meant.” He looked at her.
“Someone special.”

There was too much want, too much need,
filling his voice. She tried to brush it off with a lame attempt at
a joke. “Well, you have me until Fuente says otherwise.”

“Kate, I wish—” He broke off, then started
again, looking at the pool instead of her. “I would like you to
consider this your home. For as long as you want.” His eyes sought
hers.

It was her turn to look away. “That’s a
pretty open-ended invitation.”

He sat up and swung his legs over the side of
the chaise, turning until he was directly facing her. “I mean it.
Now that your husband is gone, I see no reason why we could not…
proceed.”

Kate’s belly clenched. She sat up and hugged
her knees to her chest, clasping her hands around her shins. She
needed to put more clothes on.

“Have I upset you?”

She rested her chin on her knees, then buried
her face in them. She didn’t want him to see the flush rising in
her cheeks. “No. It’s just—I can’t have sex with you right now. Not
anyone.”

He chuckled. “I did not mean it like that. I
want to get to know you. To court you. Anything else will be your
decision. Always.”

God
,
kill me now
. She was an
idiot. How could she look at him again?

Silence hung between them for a few moments.
Then he picked up the cordless phone on the table between their
chairs. “Would you care for something to drink?”

Perfect
. “There’s no need to bother
anyone. I can get us something. What do you want?” She picked up
her shirt to put it on.

“No, no.” He waved his hand at her to sit
down. “The servants are well-paid. Doing their jobs for them makes
them upset. They think it is a comment on their work.” When she
gave him a skeptical look, he added, “Trust me. You do not want to
upset Maddalena or Nonna Drina, or they will over-salt your
meals.”

She chuckled, then sat back down and let out
a rush of air, feeling herself relax. He looked at her for a
moment. “I am having a campari and soda. What would you like?”

“A dry martini would be heavenly. But all the
martinis I’ve had in Italy have been dreadful. Half gin, half
vermouth. They taste awful.”

He laughed. “They are made the English way in
my home. I did not spend my formative years in London for
nothing.”