CHAPTER EIGHT
“It’s can’t be as bad as you think, Liza.”
Gram sat up in her bed and pulled off her glasses. The novel she’d been reading laid face down and open so the binding stuck up. I focused on it instead of her face. “If it isn’t something bad, then why did his servant request a meeting with you and not me?”
“Alifonso isn’t his servant, and you forget, Alifonso is the one who hired me. If you made a match, or if Antonio has decided against using our service, he would need to be the one to contact me to close our contract.”
I laid my head on her shoulder. “So I’m making something out of nothing here?” Gram ran her fingers through my hair and hummed. “How could anyone find any fault with you? Besides, he’ll be here any minute and you’ll know what you need to know then. Now leave me so I can dress before he arrives.”
She kissed the top of my head and I grinned. Nothing felt more reassuring than Gram’s kisses. Besides, she had a point. If there had been a problem, Alifonso probably wouldn’t have waited twenty-four hours to contact Gram.
The bell above the downstairs door chimed and Mags’ gritty voice floated up the back steps. From the shakiness in her tone, Tony and his crew were early.
“Madame Johanson will be down any minute,” she squeaked.
“It’s the younger Ms. Johanson I’d hoped to meet with.” Alifonso's voice sounded deep and complex. The low tone made my skin feel tight.
“Oh. I’ll—” Mags snapped her mouth shut the second I walked in the room.
“Alifonso,” I greeted, surprised when he still did a little bow to me before speaking.
“Antonio would like to speak with you. He sent me to pick you up.”
“Antonio would like to speak with me?” Good, because I had a few things I wanted to say to him as well. “Is he here?”
“No, madam, he can’t leave the hotel. I’ve come to take you there.” The coolness in his tone made my skin prickle.
“Is Tony all right?” I narrowed my eyes on him, forcing them to see through Alifonso's carefully crafted act.
“Do you have a coat you’d like to bring?” he responded, ignoring my question.
I planted my feet on the ground in front of him. Alifonso stood half a foot taller than me and could probably flatten me to the ground with one arm tied behind his back, but even if it meant testing out that theory, I wasn’t moving from my spot until he gave me some reassurance. “Tell me what the hell happened yesterday.”
“I have orders not to.”
“Then break them.”
He snickered, and the side of his mouth curled up in a snarl, before he tamed it back down to a flat line. “Not all of us break the rules, Ms. Johanson. I’ll wait in the car.”
I sneered at his back until the front door closed, before the words fully registered. Who had broken the rules? He could mean me for falling for my client?
I grabbed my coat from the rack in the back and stalked to the front door, reaching the SUV before the shop’s door had even closed all the way behind me. Alifonso sat in the back with me, while the other two shadows rode in the front. He opened the door and slid over in the seat, so I crawled in after him, though I wasn’t sure if sitting next to him was such a good idea.
As they’d done the day before, the driver took a quick glance of the street and turned sharply into oncoming traffic, jerking the vehicle and throwing me sideways into Alifonso's sharp shoulder.
Half an hour later,the driver pulled around to the service entrance of the hotel in the back alley, where two men with large black umbrellas stood. I glanced up at the sky. Not a drop in sight. Clear and sunny for days.
We came to a stop and one of the men opened my door, but Alifonso caught my arm before I could move and whispered into my ear, “They will take you to Tony. Speak to no one on the way to the room and wait until they have you inside.”
My skin prickled as his breath swept across my cheek. I nodded my understanding and took the hand offered to me by the man waiting outside. The umbrellas stayed up and surrounded me until we reached the back doors.
Alifonso hadn’t needed to warn me, as the hallways were empty anyway. Not even a maid could be found. The larger of the two men slid a key into an elevator, and the door buzzed open immediately. Inside, there were only two buttons on the panel and he pressed the top one.
I wanted to ask what the hell was going on and where they were taking me, but Alifonso’s warning rang in my ears, so I clamped my mouth shut and just looked ahead at the mirrored doors.
When the doors finally opened, I stepped out into a private room instead of a hotel hallway. A piano was to my left, and a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the Theater District to my right. The same golden chandelier from the bar hung from the ceiling of the great room and also down a large hallway with a door at the end. The sitting area had expensive looking golden chairs and a pink and gold couch that couldn’t possibly sit more than two.
“Wait here.” The larger suit ushered me into the small area and pointed at one of the chairs. “Mr. Ferraris will be with you shortly.”
I sat and twisted my hands in my lap, not realizing that they shook until I held the tight.
The men walked away until they stood on opposite sides of the elevator door. Before long, the elevator dinged and Alifonso, along with two other suits, walked out. My heart sank. I had hoped to see Tony by now, and I desperately wanted answers as to why all the brooding and secrecy.
Alifonso entered the small area and handed his coat to shadow number one. “Can I get you anything to drink before we get started? Water? A glass of wine?” Wine would be fantastic, but I didn’t dare. “No, thank you. Where is Tony?”
Alifonso sat in the chair across from mine and leaned forward so his back arched and his elbows rested on his knees. Not the most dignified way for a royal employee to address a guest, but who was I to judge?
“Antonio is on a jet halfway back to Monterra.”
My blood stopped pumping and my lungs caved. “Why?” was all I could manage.
“Given the circumstances, his cousin—the king—thought it best.”
Circumstances? Nothing, from the scowl on Alifonso's face to the cryptic way he spoke to me, made any damn sense. “What is going on?” I leaned forward, mirroring his position in my chair.
Shadow one approached with a large envelope and handed it to Alifonso, who then handed it to me in silence.
I looked it over. No writing. No nothing. “What is this?”
“Open it.” Alifonso sat back, his face turning colder by the second.
I ran my fingers under the seal and popped it open, then turned it over in my hand, and a large piece of white paper slide to the edge. I pulled it out and flipped it over, and the images of Tony and I stared back at me. It was the selfie I’d taken not much more than a week ago downtown. I looked up to him, shock widening my eyes until they burned. “How did you get this?”
“From a reporter who has ties with the royal family.”
“But I…” My brain wouldn’t work. My fingers clutched the picture so hard, the paper corners bit into my skin, and my fingers turned cold along with the rest of my body. “I only sent this to Aja.”
“And she only sent it to the New York Times.”
“No.” I stood up and my voice came out harder and faster than I’d intended, but I didn’t care. “I only sent this to Aja. She’d never sell me out.”
Alifonso stood and picked up the picture from where I’d dropped it. He motioned at one of the shadows who approached with a smaller envelope. My God. There’s more?
“Alifonso, I didn’t do this. Aja didn’t do this. I don’t know what to say.”
His arm dropped to my shoulders and he led me to the couch before taking a sat beside me. “Honestly, Ms. Johanson, I want to believe you. Antonio saw something special in you so strongly, I wanted to see it too.” Tears burned the backs of my eyes and I prayed silently they wouldn’t spill. Too late. Alifonso handed me a white cloth from his suit pocket. “And maybe you didn’t do it intentionally. Maybe you did trust Aja. But friendships can become unimportant when money gets in the way. Maybe next time you’ll choose better.”
With a pat on my back, he handed me the second envelope. “What is this?”
“An agreement and an offer.”
This time, it wasn’t sealed, so I only had to pull the two pieces of paper free. One had typed words from the top to the bottom with a place for a signature, and the other looked like a bank statement with a check attached at the bottom. My eyes darted to the zeros at the end of the number. All five of them. I blinked twice and read it again.
“I don’t understand...”
Alifonso stood and paced a lap around the small space. “I think you do. The paper is a statement saying that while he was in New York you never saw, spoke with, or had any contact with Prince Antonio Ferraris, outside of one visit to the Empire State Building, where you happened to run into him and snapped this picture. The money is an offer to cover the expenses for your services and any incidentals that may have accrued during your time with the prince.”
“I didn’t have any incidentals.”
“Antonio mentioned something about a novel you’ve been writing. He thought maybe this would help you find the time to finish.”
“Tony knows about all of this?”
“It was his idea to include the statement and the check.”
I stood and paced the same small circle Alifonso had. Believing, as I had up until the point he popped my balloon of hope, that Alifonso concocted this scheme made sitting through it almost bearable, but Tony? The man who I’d forced myself to not think about, and to not fall for, pushed me away with his own free will and with the added insult of money? My stomach sank so low I expected to feel it sitting on my shoes any second.
I sank back onto the couch, numb.
Alifonso pulled something from his pocket and held it out in his hand. “I know this isn’t ideal, but look at it this way... he wanted you taken care of.”
I looked up and saw the silver pen in his hand with the hotel’s logo across the barrel. The logo didn’t seem so regal now that is was being shoved in my face. I snatched it away from him and glared, hoping to make him at least a little uncomfortable.
I put the paper on the coffee table and scribbled my name across the bottom, to hell with pretty handwriting, and to hell with his money. I handed the form back, but kept the check, slowly ripping it into six or seven small pieces before holding it out for Alifonso. “I thought he was different.” My voice cracked and he took the bits of papers, the slightest downward curve of his lip the only sign that he even heard me. “I thought you were different too.”
The tears burned so hard everything in the room turned fuzzy. I dipped my head, grabbed my bag and made for the elevator, before remembering I wasn’t in a hotel lobby, but a private room. The doors wouldn’t open for me alone. With every last ounce of strength I had left, I glanced to shadow one and sucked in my emotions enough to say, “Please?”
His skill for hiding emotions under rigid facial expressions wasn’t as practiced as his superior’s, and his frown was obvious enough to make me want to reach for his hand and tell him it would be okay. Give me a week or two and maybe even I’d be able to believe that. But, with tears on the edge of spilling and my throat closing tighter with each breath, I didn’t say anything. I just stood there and pleaded with my eyes for him to open the door and let the elevator swallow me whole.