Romance: My Italian Prince, Undercover Love: Sweet Romantic Comedy (10 page)

“Vanessa, there you are! And sweet Kate,” Mitch turned his dazzling smile on Kat who flicked her hair back a little self-consciously and Vanessa could see her sucking in her stomach. Vanessa sighed.

“Yes Mitch, here I am, how can I help you?”

“I would like to invite you and your lovely friend to a special screening of my latest movie. It’s a short film I’ve been working on here at the Garden and it’s about my journey to reach inner peace.”

“Oh, that sounds great!” Before Vanessa even had the time to say no thank you, Kat had answered for them.

Vanessa cringed inside but smiled and thanked Mitch for the invite.

“So I see you guys at the
Ultra Inner peace garden
at 7 o'clock then. Namaste.” Mitch did the nodding and hand-clasping thing again, waved to the people in the lounge who followed his every move with googled eyes and headed out.

“That was really cruel Kat!”

“How come? It can be lots of fun, a private screening with Mitch DeLeo. It’s amazing!”

“Yeah, but don’t you see that hanging out with Mitch reminds me of Alex a lot and the reason I’m here for is to get over him. Can’t you see the conflict in this?” Vanessa's voice was wobbly and she felt close to tears. How could Kat be so insensitive about this?

“Oh Green! I’m so sorry I didn’t think of that. I was just so overwhelmed.”

“Ok, I get it, but this is it. Ok? No more Mitch-time after this screening.”

“Of course not, I'm truly sorry.” Kat didn’t seem that sorry though as she did a few happy skits as they walked towards their cabin.

“Can you believe we are going to see Mitch DeLeo, and at the Ultra-area. That’s grand Vanessa!”

“Yeah yeah, really grand. But I can’t go Kat, I’m sorry but I have the worst headache.”

“Oh come on Green, take an Advil and join me for just a tiny bit, pleeease,” Kat begged.

“I actually have some stomach pains also so I’m afraid that’s out of the question.”

“But you go ahead and go to the screening,” Vanessa told Kat with a wheezy voice as if she had a hard time breathing.

“I will, but Green you can stop the charade now, you’ll never win an Oscar that's for sure.”

“Okay, sorry. But I really don’t want to go. I’m sure Mitch is just fine with you showing up by yourself, he seemed quite mesmerized by you to be honest.”

Kat smiled and nodded agreeing as she tied the ends of her
Garden of Peace
top in a knot so it showed of her toned tummy.

“You look great!”

“I know,” Kat answered with a smile as she headed out the room.

God, those two were really
like two peas in the pod
.
The same weird self-esteem and unrealistic view on the world. Vanessa could see that Kat and Mitch would get on well and she felt relieved she had gotten out of the screening.

Vanessa woke up from the crashing sound of Kat bumping into a chair. She turned on the light and
squinted at her.
Kat looked like she had been into a serious accident. Her hair stood in all directions and was it leaves and twigs ensnared in her damp tangles? Kat’s face, partly smeared with dirt, and her clothes looked as if they’d been ripped off and then put on again in a haste.

“What’s going on?” Vanessa sat up in alarm as she took in
Kat´s appearance
.

“Did he attack you? Oh my God, I should never had let you go and see him alone. I’m so sorry.”

“He didn’t attack me, Silly,” Kat laughed and sat down on her bed.

“It was more me attacking him…”

“No way,”
Vanessa was shocked even though she didn’t know why. This was just typical Kat
.

“He’s adorable. You should really get to know him better.”

“So you know him now? After a few hours in his company? Come on Kat.”

“Yes I would say I do. We connected in our inner circle and he told me I had touched his heart.”

“Really?” Vanessa couldn’t help but snort out a short laugh.
This was ridiculous, even for Kat.

“Really! Don’t you remember when you met Alex? You told me you saw his face and then you knew.”

Vanessa felt ashamed. She had told Kat that, and she had felt it. It had been as lightning had struck her when she saw Alex face for the first time and something had made her sneak into the operation room and made her grab the cords from the doctors and in the end saving his life. After that, they’d been inseparable. Until everything began to spiral downwards in France, she had become suspicious of Alex intention with her and after seeing the pictures of him and the playboy bunnies she had enough and left without telling him.

“Sorry Kat, “Vanessa whispered.

“Speaking of his Royal Highness, I have done some investigation on your behalf and I’ve got quite some news for you girl.” Kat sounded pleased with herself.

“Oh you do?” Vanessa sat straight up. “Go on!”

“Well, don’t get upset now but I told
Mitchy
what happened between you and Alex.”

Vanessa chose to ignore the
Mitchy
part of the sentence and focused
on the latter.
“You didn't! That’s really private.”

“Relax, we're totally in a trusting circle here.”

“Hmm, ok” Vanessa wasn’t convinced about this circle of trust but she was curious on what Kat had discovered about Alex. “
But how can Mitch have updates on Alex?
He’s been up here for quite some time now and as far as I understand, you’re not allowed to talk to people from outside when you’re enrolled at the
Ultra-inner-peace program.

“That’s correct, just phone calls if it’s life threatening. But he didn’t need to
talk
to Alex to understand how everything was being played. He immediately figured it all out. He’s really clever you know Vanessa.”

“Is he? That’s news for me at least,” Vanessa didn’t mean to come off so harsh at Mitch but she couldn't help herself.

“Talking about life threatening situations, what happened with Mitch surgery? He made Alex sign some agreement on being his
legal guardian
if he would end up on life support.”

“Ah that…” Kat shrugged. It was nothing, he told me he had an emergency operation on his toe.”

“His toe, I thought he was dying?”

“Yeah, it sounded like it when you told me, so I had to ask him about it, but apparently it was quite the trauma for him.

“Trauma? Emergency operation? How can you get a trauma from surgery on your toe? And how can one even think it might make you end up on life support?” Vanessa shook her head.

“I know,“ Kat said beaming. “Isn’t it adorable? He’s so sensitive and in touch with his emotions.”

“If you say so,” Vanessa wanted to get back to the subject of Alex and urged Kat to tell her what she had found out.

“Okey Vanessa, are you ready?
This is how it all played out; e
verything Alex do is directed by that guy Brunetti. Mitch told me he decides everything for Alex, who now has gotten so used to it he hardly notices.”

Vanessa nodded;
this was no news for her.

Kat continued, “Mitch´s theory is that when you came into the picture, Brunetti felt threatened.
He wants Alex to stay a royal and he fears that if he doesn’t marry another royal he will lose his privileges as a
Prince,
and maybe even his title.”

Vanessa tried to make sense of all the information, she felt overwhelmed.

“How come Mitch knows all of this?”

“He knows because he’s been a victim himself by Brunetti's
scare-tactics.
When he and Alex first became friends, Brunetti did everything he could to end their friendship. Mitch feels deeply ashamed for letting himself being manipulated by Brunetti and going after you as he did in France. But he was in a very vulnerable state of mind at that moment.”

“Yeah I’m sure he was, go on.” Vanessa was eager to know exactly everything.

“So when I told him about how Alex had behaved going off to that cocaine party with the Playboy Bunnies, he knew! Brunetti set it all up, he’s one hundred percent sure of this Vanessa, Alex would never ever touch any kinds of drugs. Mitch knows because he had been trying to make him try out all kinds of drugs during their party years, but Alex always passed on it,” Kat explained.

“How did he explain the bunnies?
”

“Well, He didn’t have an explicit explanation for them but one can assume it was Brunetti as well.

“I guess,” Vanessa's
thoughts were circling her head. “But he still sent me a letter and fired me as an answer to my letter to him spilling my heart out.”

“Don’t you think that could be Brunetti also?” Kat wondered.

“I could be, but how can we be sure?”

“I know,” Kat said, “Let’s go and ask him.”

“Ask him? Who, Alex?”

“Of course Alex,” Kat stood up and walked around the room impatiently.

“But he’s in Italy,” Vanessa sounded wobbly and near tears.

“Mitch can arrange for us all to go on his private jet.”

“Seriously? This is crazy!”

“It is but it's also so exciting isn’t it?”

“A little,” Vanessa admitted.

“But oh, what about him dating that movie star?

“Nah, Mitch just laughed at that. He knows who it is, he told me she was an old stalker of Alex, and that she’d been obsessed by him for ages. He´s sure that that Brunetti used her to get PR for the Prince and his new foundation in Hollywood. Apparently Alex is now in the movie-business.”

“This is too much Kat. I mean how can someone be so mean and set up all these lies to get an adult man to do as he wants?”

“Apparently, Brunetti can
.
But you know what Vanessa, we should not let him win. Let’s go to Italy, let’s go talk to Alex and at least get an explanation from him and after you can decide if you still want to be involved with him. I think it’s worth a shot, don’t you?”

Vanessa stood up, “Get that plane ready! We’re going to Italy!”

Chapter 10

Vanessa sat curled up in the huge plush seat at Mitch Private Jet trying to block out the sound of Kat and Mitch making out in the seat next to her. It was not an easy task ask they both seemed to be both murmurs and talkers when it came to snogging. At few times Vanessa couldn’t help but laughing out loud.

“Hey guys, keep it down a notch will you?” Vanessa hissed at the pair. But she couldn't be too mad at them, they were actually quite cute together.

“So what's the plan when we arrive to Venice?” Vanessa asked feeling a tad nervous.

“Don’t worry about it,” Mitch said with his guru-like soft voice. “We’ll go to the festival area and find Alex.”

“Yeah, don’t worry Green,” Kat chipped in. “Mitch will stage an intervention on your behalf to make Alex see clear on Brunetti.”