But that’s how she’d felt. Frightened.
Oh, what had he beenplayingat, proposing at such an inopportune time? Why add pressure to a situation that was on the cusp of erupting? Why couldn’t he have let them deal with whatever fate had planned for them now and worry about everything else later, if later existed?
She was so, so frightened ofnowbecause now was almost here, and the man she loved was minutes away from entering the lion’s den, and, God, he believed she hated him…
Her heart jumped into her throat and stuck there. He was pulling over on this street lined by a high white wall that itself was lined with impossibly high trees.
Forget minutes away. Forget seconds away.
They were here. Now was here.
Chapter Ten
Niccolo stoppedthe car in front of the pedestrian gate that opened into the cemetery. The mourning crowds had thinned away, respecting the family’s wish that the funeral itself be a private affair. Which was good for him. It meant that leaving at the end of it all would be easier. That’s if there was an end.
It was time. The beginning of the end.
He turned the engine off and turned to the white-faced woman beside him.
His heart turned over. Any anger at the vitriol she’d thrown at him had dissolved. Not that there had been much anger. None of what she’d said hadn’t been deserved.
“Open the holdall.” After the complete silence of the drive, his voice sounded loud. Her body jerked at the sound.
Her gaze darted to his.
The misery in her eyes made his heart flip over again.
“Open the holdall, Georgia,” he said softly. “And take the gun out.” The small gun Dante had arranged to be placed in the holdall, along with numerous rounds of bullets.
She closed her eyes briefly.
“Keep it in your hand at all times, okay? You need to be alert to any danger.”
She cleared her throat. When she spoke, her husky voice was scratchy. “How will I know if there’s danger?”
He gave a rueful smile, wishing with all his heart that none of this was necessary. “You’ll know. Remind me of the drill for using it.”
Her voice was hardly audible. “Safety catch, aim, fire.”
“Perfect. Remember, there are six bullets loaded in it. If I’m not back in thirty minutes, call me. If I don’t answer, get a taxi to the hotel and call Dante. He will send someone for you.” Whether she could get out of Naples and whether that someone could smuggle her into Dante’s castle before the Espositos tracked her down was for the fates to decide. It was a future he could not allow himself to imagine. The next thirty minutes would decide both their fates, and he needed to keep a cool head if he was to have any chance of tipping fate to their advantage.
Tears swimming in her eyes, she swallowed and nodded. Then she swallowed again and whispered, “Please be careful.”
“I’ll try, I promise.”
He estimated he had five minutes to get himself into position, but he couldn’t get out of the car with so much left unsaid.
Leaning closer, he gently stroked her cheek. “I’ve always loved you, Georgia.”
Her face scrunched up with pain.
“From the moment you came into my life, you were the best part of my life. The months I spent with you were the happiest I have ever been. Your love for me… I felt it. The words were never said, but I felt it, right here.” He tapped his fist to his heart. “I’d never been in love before. I barely knew what love was. My parents never loved me. My brother shows no emotion. Whatever feelings he has, he keeps them close to his chest – you wouldn’t think he has feelings. Dante loves me, but that’s a fraternal love, not an affectionate love or a romantic love likeyour love. Your love…” He exhaled. “Your love was everything to me.
“When I realised I’d walked into Lorenzo’s blackmail trap, my first thought was you and what it would mean for us. Even while I dreamed up the plan to make you my mistress and keep you with me for always, I knew deep down that you would never accept, but your pain…Carina, it was too much for me. I felt it like it was my own pain, and that scared the hell out of me. I walked away because I couldn’t deal with how deeply my feelings for you ran, but I didn’t know there was no walking away from you and no way out from my feelings because I couldn’t get you out of my head or out of my heart.”
He blew a long puff of air from his lungs, then refilled them. “Last week, I watched my cold, emotionless brother fall in love with his wife. I didn’t even recognise what was happening, but it was right there under my nose. The day before I was supposed to marry Siena, I saw him holding Luisa’s hand, and he looked happy. Gennaro lookedhappy. It was a modern-day miracle. I can’t remember the last time I saw my brother smile, but he was smiling, and he was looking at Luisa as if she was the most precious thing on this whole earth, but as I watched him looking at her, all I could see was your face. I stood in that church, and all I could picture was you walking down the aisle towards me. That’s what the final spur for me to escape it all came from –you. Because Siena wasn’t you. No one else is you, and there has been no one else for me since I left you, and when Rico told me his brothers were coming for you… I have never known such cold fear and panic. I nearly lost my mind.”
He cupped both her cheeks and rubbed the tip of his nose to hers. “If anything happened to you, Georgia, that would be it for me. You are my love, my life, my soul, and I’m just sorry that it took me so long to realise it, and more sorry than words can ever say for the pain I’ve put you through. If I make it out of this, Iwill spend the rest of my life making it up to you, because you are the love of my life, and there will never be anyone else for me but you.”
