“Maybe there’s another reason,” he said. “Is there something you and Princess Gabby know? Something that Rochelle doesn’t?”
She tried to block his question, to block any answer that might try to escape her. “About what?” She felt queasy. She’d been trying to shut out the last year for too long. She hurt too much, was too scared to do anything else. “I don’t know what Princess Gabby knows.”
“What about you?” The moan of the traffic increased in volume. Too loud for questions or for answers.
“I don’t know anything that would put me in danger.”
She forced herself to breathe evenly, anticipating his response, the probing, familiar way he conversed with her. Instead, he said nothing, and the traffic noises blended into a comfortable hum once more. She leaned down farther in the seat, wiping her eyes again.
Finally, he spoke, as if an afterthought. “There’s always the possibility that what you don’t think puts you in danger may threaten someone else. Sometimes it helps to run it past another person.”
“You, for instance?” So he could run to Virginia with it.
“I don’t care who. Just talk to someone you trust. Tell them what you know.”
But she hadn’t told him she knew anything. She would never say that to anyone. Worse to defend herself, though. She’d appear even more suspicious. Instead, she said, “Don’t you tell anyone I cried.”
“I won’t tell anyone anything.”
“Yeah, right.”
“That’s the reason Virginia wanted me for this job. She knows most people would talk to tabloids or at least gossip about you.”
“What makes her so sure you won’t?”
“Come on.” He glared at her across the seat. “Do you really think I’d lower myself to do something like that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I wouldn’t. I was raised not to kick people when they’re down. I just wouldn’t do it.”
She hadn’t expected a speech like this from such a full-of-himself asshole. She felt the tension ease up.
“No shit?” she said.
His thin lips spread into a smile. “No shit.”
They drove in silence, Tania Marie afloat in memories. Marshall and her together, loving each other, swearing that they were forever. How stupid could she be to believe that word, forever,from the lips of a married man? How stupid was she to believe the war was between the wife and her, and that one could actually win? The only one who won these three-way wars was the man.
“The worst part of this,” she said aloud, “is that everyone thinks I’m a tramp, and I’m not.”
“I don’t think you’re a tramp,” Rossi said.
“You don’t?”
“No. You were new on the job. You fell for the wrong man. That doesn’t make you anything but normal. Someday, you ought to tell your side of the story.”
“You mean write a book or do one of those tell-all interviews?” She could never expose herself that way. “Virginia doesn’t want me to,” she said.
“That’s natural. But this is your life, not hers.” He started to go on with the sermon, then stopped himself, shaking his head. “Big talk coming from a guy who lets his father dictate his college degree.” The self-ridicule in his voice was raw and far harsher than anything he’d directed at her.
She patted his shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Rossi. You were pretty cool back there with Virginia. I’m amazed she didn’t fire you on the spot.”
“Screw her.” He slowed the truck as they neared Santa Barbara and cracked the window. “With all due respect, I’ll make it with or without her. I’m that good.”
She hoped he was right. More than that, she hoped Virginia would keep him around. Insane. She was confiding in a kidnapper, her mother’s stooge.
“Got any music in this kidnap-mobile?” she asked.
