CHAPTER 15
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.”
“Then a martini it is.”
He rang the house and placed their request.
She waited until he ended the call. “When were you in London?”
“From sixteen to eighteen. After my mother and my brothers were murdered, my father sent me to boarding school. He said I needed to improve my English.”
“But?”
“Whenever I mentioned them, he changed the subject. I think he just wanted to be alone.”
“Maybe he wanted to keep you safe from Carlo.”
Enrico nodded. “Even though the engagement had been arranged by the time I left, I doubt he trusted Carlo much.”
“Do you still miss them?” How would she handle such a loss?
“Every day. Especially Primo. Dom sometimes makes the same gestures, or his tone of voice will sound the same as Primo’s, and I’ll miss him all over again.”
“I’d like to meet your cousin.”
“You will. Though not for a while.” His face darkened.
“Did the two of you fight?”
“He was upset about what happened.” He paused, then added, “Dom knows all my business. He knows about Carlo. And Vincenzo.”
“Oh.” Everything that had happened the other night seemed like a surreal nightmare. Her feelings about Vince were a jumble—anger, relief, and yet a strange feeling of being adrift, alone.
“What is it?” Enrico looked at her closely.
“I don’t know the woman who shot Vince. I didn’t think I could.”
He regarded her somberly. “We are all capable of killing, in the right circumstances.”
“But—”
“You did the right thing. Accept it. You saved our lives. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live.” He paused, as if to see what effect his words were having.
She took a deep breath. “I could have held the gun on him, I could have waited for the police.”
“I would not have. You were too close to him. He could have taken the gun from you.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“I had to accept long ago that the Andrettis—or someone else—might force me to do the same thing one day.”
Now was her chance to ask about Fuente’s needling in the study. “Haven’t you already done so?”
He looked down at his feet. “I cannot answer that truthfully.”
So he had killed those men. She watched his face when he finally looked up at her. There was no remorse, no guilt on those features. Only defiance, and a touch of pride. “I have no right to judge you, Enrico.”
Surprise flickered across his face, then he smiled. He pointed to the tattoo on his bicep, the one she’d asked about. “You wanted to know what this means.”
He paused so long she said, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“I do, actually. Though it is unwise for me to be so frank.”
“Can’t we trust each other after all that’s happened?” She caught his eyes with hers.
“What I am about to tell you, you cannot repeat. I could go to jail.”
“I won’t say anything.”
He stroked the tattoo. “I avenged my family. I killed those men. All four of them. In three days. Quattro in tre.”
Kate couldn’t suppress a gasp. “But weren’t you just a boy then?”
“I was eighteen. And about to marry Carlo’s daughter to save my family. I could not go after Carlo, but I could go after his men. I wanted him to know I would be no man’s slave.”
Kate sat back in her chair. Well, well. Enrico Lucchesi wasn’t just a ruthless businessman; he was a street fighter too.
They were interrupted by Maddalena, with their drinks on a tray. She’d brought a pitcher of ice water as well. Enrico thanked her, then handed Kate her martini. He picked up his drink and touched it to hers. “Salute.”
The ringing chime of the crystal reminded her that they were supposed to be celebrating the day. She put on a smile for Enrico’s benefit, and took a sip of the martini.
“How is it?”
“Perfetto.” She took another swallow, feeling the gin burn her throat as it slid down. She had the urge to get spectacularly drunk, something she hadn’t done in years. “I’m going to need another of these.”
“You will get drunk.”
“That’s my intention.”
He glanced at her. “I did not think you would miss him.”
She took another swallow of the martini, then popped one of the olives in her mouth and chewed it, savoring its salty tang. “Neither did I.”
“I think what I really meant is why would you miss him.”
Kate turned to look at him. “He was my husband.”
“But—”
She cut him off with a slash of her hand. “Do you think I was an idiot? Our marriage was good at first. He loved me. And I loved him. Yes, he had a temper, and sometimes he scared me. But maybe if I’d never talked to you, maybe none of this would have happened.” To her mortification, her eyes blurred with tears.
“Kate.” Enrico leaned forward and took the glass from her hand. He set it on the table, then touched her shoulder. “I have to say this.” He waited until she looked at him. “You have nothing to feel bad about. Look at you.” He gestured to her bruised arms and legs, his eyes lingering on her marked face and swollen lip. “He had no excuse for his behavior. None. Your only mistake was loving him. If it had not been me, someone else or something else would have turned him against you.”
A wave of recognition passed through her and she looked away, her eyes finding a bruise on her left shin. He was right. And yet, it was all still her fault somehow. She could feel Enrico’s eyes upon her, and as another truth hit her, a shiver ran down her back. He’d expected her to move on from Vince quickly. Hopefully to him. Which gave him a motive for getting rid of Vince. And gave Fuente a reason to suspect Enrico, not just shake him down. She looked up. “Did you have anything to do with the security breach?”