We're treading water maybe ten feet apart now. Close enough to see the exhaustion in his face, the worry lines that weren't there before. Close enough to notice that he's being very careful not to move any closer.
"Are you scared of me?" I ask.
"Terrified."
"You should be." I swim backward toward the shallow end. "I'm getting out. This was... fine."
"Fine?"
"Don't get greedy." I pull myself out of the pool and reach for a towel. "It was what it needed to be."
As I wrap the towel around myself, I feel his eyes on me. Not predatory, not calculating. Just looking. Like I'm something beautiful he's afraid to touch.
"Camilla?"
I turn back. "What?"
"Thank you. For this. For giving me a chance to be human with you."
"It's not forgiveness," I warn him. "And it doesn't mean I've decided anything about us."
"I know."
I head toward the house. "I'm going to shower and think some more. Possibly for several more days."
"Take all the time you need."
"I will."
As I walk back toward the villa, I realize something has shifted. Not everything. I'm still angry, still hurt, still completely uncertain about what I want. But something small has changed.
For an hour, I was just a woman swimming in a pool with a man who made her coffee and didn't try to control the conversation.
It felt almost like a choice I was making for myself.
Almost like something I might want.
But I'm not ready to examine that too closely yet.
Not today.
Maybe tomorrow.
Chapter 36: Renato
The man screaming at 2 AM in my warehouse is Torretti's former accountant, and he's been very helpful.
Camilla has been upstairs for two days now, emerging only once for that swim that felt like both salvation and torture.
I should be at home sleeping, or at least pretending to sleep, but instead I'm standing in front of a man zip-tied to a chair while Matteo breaks his fingers one by one.
"The buyer's name," I say again, my voice calm despite the violence. "The man Torretti was planning to deliver her to."
"I already told you," he gasps, his face slick with sweat and tears. "Khalid Al-Zahrani. Dubai businessman. Legitimate real estate empire, but he specializes in private acquisitions."
"I know the family name. What I need is his current location."
"He travels constantly. Dubai, London, Paris—"
