“What?” he said coyly. “Don’t tell me you never did that for my brother.” His eyes moved slowly over my body, conducting a head-to-toe inspection.
“What’s the matter with you?” I hissed.
He cocked his head slightly to one side. “You have nice lips. I bet you swallow like a pro.”
No. He did not just say that. “Don’t speak to me like that. Ever,” I growled.
“I’ll speak to you any way I like. But if you don’t like it, there’s the door.”
I had to take a moment to regroup. It was possible that Felix might say or behave like this—frankly I didn’t know the guy, let alone that he even existed—but if he was Paolo, then this little interaction was a ploy to intimidate me. Paolo had used explicit language to rattle my cage before, when we’d first met and he was just my bodyguard. The strong language was a power trip.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” I said to test him. “You’re right, Felix. I do want you.” I stepped in closer and stood up on my toes to whisper into his ear, “I want to taste you on my lips.” I flicked my tongue over his earlobe.
He stood perfectly still, and I was almost sure he’d stopped breathing, too.
I pulled my head back a little to see the expression on his face.
He grinned. “I knew you were a dirty, fucking little whore.”
Unable to control myself, I moved to slap him and landed a good one. He raised his hand to hit me back, but his hand stopped in midair. Horse stood there fuming. Then the two men started yelling at each other. No, dammit, I didn’t understand. It was killing me. But as they yelled, looking like they were about to go to blows, I realized that I had been mistaken. This wasn’t Paolo. It couldn’t be. Because Paolo, even if the situation was dire, would never raise his hand to me. Never.
Shit. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. So then…where was Paolo? And why had my father lied to me?
“Ragazzi!” Nikki yelled, stepping between Horse and Felix. She stuck her finger in Horse’s face as if accusing him.
“No. It’s not his fault,” I said. “Horse was just protecting me.”
Nikki blinked her hazel eyes at me and then turned to Felix. By now, a crowd of guests had gathered around to watch. It dawned on me that Felix could say anything he liked, and I wouldn’t understand. It also dawned on me that if this was Felix, he wasn’t the sort of guy to be toyed with. The Abelli family was notoriously ruthless.
“I hit on him!” I blurted out. Nikki, Horse, and Felix stared at me. “Yep! I hit on your hot, hot man, and I’m really sorry. He just looks so much like his brother, and I guess I’m not over him.” I took a dramatic breath and looked right at Nikki. “He turned me down, and I slapped him.”
Nikki squinted at me. “Then why is Horse saying Felix was about to hit you?”
I shrugged. “Uhh…because I was about to attack Felix, so he had to defend himself. You know how us crazy, horny American women are when we don’t get our way.”
The crowd of fifty or so onlookers snickered. I guessed they spoke English.
Lord, this is so painful.
“Is it true?” Nikki asked Felix.
He nodded cautiously.
Nikki shook her finger at Felix anyway, and if I had to guess what she was saying, I’d bet it was, “Stay away from her. She’s a little slut.”
She then turned toward the crowd and began waving her hands, herding everyone inside, including Horse and Felix. I was about to follow, only to make my way to the front door for a speedy exit, but Nikki stopped me. “Are you all right?”
Nikki was worried about me?
“I think I had too much to drink.” Bob had me by the girly-balls, actually. What a frigging cocktail.
“You really miss his brother, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah. I really do.” I covered my face. “I just wish I knew where he was.” Or, at the very least, if he was all right. Because now I knew the man at this party was not my ex-fiancé.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
I couldn’t tell Nikki the truth, but I needed to say something. The despair weighed heavily on my heart, and it was obvious.
I ran my hands through my hair. “Paolo walked out on me without a word.”
Nikki placed her hand on my shoulder, and I looked into her hazel eyes. “I cannot,” she said, “imagine how hard that must be. And you don’t have any idea where he is?”
I shook my head. “No, does Felix?” I knew what Felix had told me last night in the club, but I wanted to hear what Nikki had to say.
“Felix says his brother went into hiding, but I thought it was an excuse.”
“Why would he make an excuse?”
She made a sly little grin. “Have you seen him? What woman wouldn’t want to have two?”
All righty, then. She was into threesomes. “I think it’s time for me to go. Sorry about making a scene at your party.” I turned toward the house.
“But it’s early, and we haven’t had our photo session yet.”
“I, uh…I can get them tomorrow. I mean, if you’re around?” Of course, I had no intention of taking any pictures and blowing my cover. It was also time for me to leave Rome and go see my dad.
“I’ll ask Horse to check my schedule when he takes you home. You shouldn’t be driving with Bob. He makes the lines in the road a little blurry.”
I made a diluted laugh. “You’re probably right.”
She squeezed my shoulder and gave me a consoling look. “I will find Horse and have him meet you out front.” She leaned in to kiss my cheek.
Funny. Nikki was so different than I thought she would be—not the superficial party girl at all. I mean, she was a party girl, but with substance. The point was, no one was who they seemed, and I was beginning to question my sanity or, at the very least, my sense of judgment.
It really was time to leave Italy before I got myself into serious trouble.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I made my way through the large home and out the front door, where hordes of people still arrived in their flashy cars and even flashier outfits. I was sure half the people at the party were Italian celebrities, but the awesome glamour of it all was completely wasted on me. I didn’t know them, and they didn’t know me. I wondered if I should snap some pictures with my camera for Mandy anyway.
While digging through my large purse for my flash, I moved out of the way to wait for Horse and then found my car keys.
Crap. I forgot that I’d parked my car about a mile away. No, I shouldn’t be driving it, but I wasn’t sure about leaving it there either. Maybe Horse would—
“Why did you lie to her?” said a dry, deep voice.
I swiveled on my heel to find Felix standing much too close.
I turned to face him, but took a step back. Being near him made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Sorry?”
“You heard me,” he said, irritated. “Why did you lie?”
I didn’t want to go into any details that might make my situation seem more suspicious than it already was. I had to lie again.
I cleared my throat. “I guess…” I looked down at my black heels. “You remind me of your brother, and I cared about him. Didn’t feel right to get you in trouble with your girlfriend.”
Felix’s eyes iced over with bitterness. “Forget my brother. He’s gone.”
His declaration felt like a house landing on my chest. And the way he said the words, with such conviction, had me believing he knew something.
“Why do you say that?”
Felix glared. “Go home, little American. Go back to your comfortable life with your mommy and daddy. You don’t belong here.”
Why did I feel like he was trying too hard? I was already leaving the party, but he wanted to make sure I left the country, too.
I tilted my head to one side and stared at him, rethinking my earlier conclusion. Then it hit me…
“How did you know I spoke English?” Maybe I was grasping at straws, but it was weird.
Plain and simple.
His dark brows pulled together. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Last night. When I bumped into you at the club, you said ‘watch where you’re going.’ In English.”
He laughed. “You are an American. It’s written all over your clothes.”
“I bought my clothes in Rome, including the dress I wore last night.”
He shook his head at me. “You still think I am Paolo, don’t you?” He made a condescending chuckle and ran his hand through his hair. “You’re crazy.”
“I’m not crazy. I’m trying to figure out what happened to Paolo. Nothing more.”
He pointed his finger in my face. “Then I can help you with that. My brother is gone. He’s not coming back.”
“How do you know that? What aren’t you telling me?”
“What I know is that no one stabs my family in the back and lives to tell about it. What I know is he must’ve been fucking out of his mind to date a psychotic bitch like you.” He straightened his tie and stared down at my lips and then my breasts. “However, if it will make you feel better, you can still suck my dick.”
My mouth fell open.
“Princess Leah, there you are.” Horse’s voice came from the direction of the front door.
I glanced over at him and angrily jerked my head. “Yep. I’m right here. Ready to go.” I looked back at Felix. “Have a nice life.” I left off the a-hole part. What was the point? He already knew what he was.
Horse must’ve seen the tension building again because he grabbed my elbow and whisked me away from the house. “What is the problem with you two?”
I shrugged. “No problem. The guy is just a pig.”
Horse chuckled. “Yes. He is. And the cocaine addiction doesn’t help.”
“Cocaine?” I said.
“I think he sampled his own product one too many times.”
“Felix is a drug dealer?” I asked as we continued walking out to the street, where miles of limos awaited partygoers.
“Never mind,” he said. “I really shouldn’t have mentioned anything. It’s not a big deal, anyway.”
Yep. No big deal. Felix is a drug trafficker. And addicted to coke.
Horse waved to one of the limo drivers parked nearby along the side of the street. The chauffeur jerked his head and ran to open the rear passenger door for us. I’d never ridden in a limo before, but frankly, any possible excitement was squashed by the circumstances.
“Does Nikki know?” I asked.
“Sure. Everyone knows—guess you don’t read the Italian tabloids. Hey—you’re not going to put any of this in your article, are you? Because I wouldn’t recommend it. The Abellis don’t appreciate people saying bad things about them. You might end up…” He made the knife across the throat gesture with his finger and then laughed. “I’m just kidding. About the knife part, anyway.”
Yeah, because they are way more into guns—buying them, selling them, using them.
“Um, no,” I said. “The story is about Nikki and her shoe styles.”
“Good.” Horse showed me into the roomy limo and slid in after me. “So what did Felix have to say this time?”
I looked out the window at the slow-moving line of passing cars. “That his brother is dead.”
Horse shrugged as if to say he didn’t know and didn’t care.
“Is it true you knew him?” he asked.
Knew?…“So he is dead?” The words left my mouth, but I didn’t believe them. Or couldn’t, anyway.
“Probably, but I don’t know. He refused to do some job for his father and then suddenly disappeared. So he’s either dead or in hiding. Likely dead.”
Oh no. Oh no…I held back the tears, hoping Horse was wrong. In any case, Felix definitely knew something more. He had to. Otherwise, why would he say “my brother is gone” with such conviction? So the question for me then became: Should I stay or should I go? On one hand, being anywhere near members of the Abelli family wasn’t such a good idea. However, would I really, really be able to move on if I didn’t know the truth?
Crap. This is awful. If I were one of those characters in a movie, I might be screaming at the screen, saying, “Get the hell out of there, you idiot!” But the reality was, once you love someone, truly love him, you can’t just shut it off. The person seeps into your bones and permeates your soul. With time, I knew the pain of losing Paolo would lessen, but that felt so far into the future that it wasn’t even real. Because right now, in this very moment, the agony of not knowing was just as bad as the pain from losing him. I might be willing to gnaw off my own foot to break free. Meaning, I’d risk myself to learn the truth.
But if Paolo is dead, you can’t bring him back. And if he’s not dead, you can’t save him. I dropped my gaze to my trembling hands resting on my lap. I need to talk to my father. He’s the only one who might have a chance of helping.
No, I couldn’t trust my dad to tell me the truth, but I could trust that he’d do anything to keep me from harm’s way. I’d have to appeal to his heart and help him understand that there would be no moving on until this situation ended one way or another. I needed to fly back to St. John and talk to him face-to-face.
I took a deep breath and released it.
“You all right?” Horse asked.
“Signore? Dove stiamo andando?” said the driver.
“He wants to know where is your hotel?” asked Horse.
“Oh.” I dug out a little card from my purse and handed it to him.
Horse looked at me like I was nuts.
“What?” I shrugged. “They don’t give us a lot for expenses.”
“Now I know why you’re so unhappy.” Horse told the driver where to go, and during the entire ten-minute drive, he talked about how Rome had the nicest hotels in the world but that I’d managed to pick the only one where people were regularly shot.
When we pulled up to the front of my fleabag, he offered for a fifth time to put me up in one of his uncle’s hotels. “You won’t have to pay for a thing,” he assured me.
“Thanks for the offer, Horse, but I’m fine here.”
I slipped out and then remembered. “Oh dangit. Will my rental car be okay? I left it parked about a mile from Nikki’s house.”
“You didn’t take a taxi to the party?” he asked.
“No.”
“I will come by in the morning and take you to your car.”
“Oh. No, that’s not necessary. I can take a cab on my way to the airport.”
“You’re leaving Italy?” he asked. “But you didn’t get your time with Nikki for those photos.”
I’d forgotten about that. “I got enough last night outside of the restaurant and bar,” I lied.
“What time is your flight?”
I didn’t want to tell him because I felt an impending offer of hospitality coming my way.
“Not sure, actually. Six a.m., I think? I’m on standby.”
He looked very disappointed. I guessed he wanted more time to get into my pants.
“Sorry,” I said. “But it was really nice meeting you and—”
“Well, then. I will take you to dinner right now.”
I looked at my watch. It was almost 1:00 a.m. “It’s kind of late.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. This is Rome. We only go to bed when we have someone sexy and warm to put in it.”
“I really can’t—”
“Please?” He pressed his palms together in the prayer position. “Besides, you cannot leave Italy without having tried the best meatballs in all of Rome.”
“I’m actually not a big meat eater. I’m more of the tofu type.” Although, I had to admit my earlier sandwich had made me reconsider my vow to eat animals only on special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving or when I was in Italy hanging out with violent cokehead mobsters. Yanno, special.
Horse’s big green eyes blinked at me, and it was hard to resist that beautiful face, even though I wasn’t into him.
??
?Please?” he repeated. “What are you going to do other than sleep for ten hours on a plane tomorrow? And who knows if you will ever return. You must seize the moment in life, and this is something you won’t want to miss.”
He’d successfully pushed one of my buttons. I really hated to go home without seeing more of Italy. And Spain. And Greece. And…okay. I wanted to see the world. “All right.”
“Yes!” He scooted over to let me back in the limo.
“What convinced you?” he asked.
“I can’t stand seeing a man beg.”
“I will remember that.”
CHAPTER NINE
Within about twenty minutes, the limo pulled up to a set of iron gates in a very posh-looking neighborhood. To be clear, the homes we’d passed weren’t like Nikki’s. These homes reminded me of those outrageously huge English estates like on Downton Abbey. Anyway, whoever said that Texans owned the market on “big” had never been to Rome.
“Whose house is this?” I asked Horse, wondering why we weren’t pulling up to an after-hours, hole-in-the-wall restaurant instead.
“My grandmother lives here.” But as he spoke, I noticed a family crest and name in big huge iron letters right on the front of the gate.
“Abelli?” I whispered in horror. “You’re an Abelli?”
“I thought you knew.”
Oh shit. “So Felix is…?”
“My cousin. And do not look at me like that. Just because I am an Abelli doesn’t mean I’m a murderer or thug. Even Felix has been trying to live a better life.”
Whatthehellever. I have to get out of here.
“Why did you bring me here?” I was about to jump from the car and make a run for it. But at the same time, I didn’t want to raise any suspicion because Horse didn’t seem to have a clue who I really was. The people inside, however?
“Uhh…because my grandmother makes the best meatballs in all of Italy.”
“I can’t go in there,” I said.
“Why not?”
Why not? “It’s almost two in the morning. It’s rude.”