“Your watchdog is probably already calling for reinforcements. He knows it’ll be his head if he loses you.” As if on cue, a commotion can be heard coming from the stage area in the distance. Instinct tells me they’re coming. “Go back to them for now. Tell them you were searching for a bathroom and lost your phone. I’ll be in touch soon.”
One final embrace and he disappears into the bushes, leaving me with tears on my cheeks and so many questions. How can I pretend a missing phone is the worst of my troubles? How can I possibly fool Faro? How can I make Ronan understand whathehas decided is best for me might not be whatIwant?
The snap of a twig only gives me a millisecond of warning before a man joins me in my secluded hiding spot. I’ve been found.
But not by Faro.
“Francesca,” Carlo breathes, looking equally vexed and concerned. What is he doing here and how did he find me so quickly?
“I-I dropped my-my phone,” I stammer. I’m a terrible liar, but he pulls me into a tight embrace after his dark eyes have scanned me from head to toe. I shudder in his hold, inhaling his familiar scent like oxygen and wishing I could simply tell him the truth and beg him again to spare Ronan if he ever catches him.
But the next moment, his body stiffens. He rears back, staring down at me with a harsh expression. “What is this new fragrance you’re wearing?” he asks in an icy voice that raises every last hair on the back of my neck.
“I…” Oh God, I smell like Ronan’s aftershave.
Frozen in place, I can scarcely breathe when he leans in, baring his teeth and looking more unhinged than I’ve ever seen him. “Have you let another man have what’s mine, Francesca?”
"No!" But if I say the fragrance is my brother's… they know what he looks like, and they'll search high and low.
“I want to believe that. Believe me, I do. But how can I believe anything Brian Donnelly’s daughter tells me when it’s obvious you’re lying?”
The wounded look in Carlo's eyes hurts me more than I would ever have expected.
Faro and another soldier stumble into the glade before I can reply. They have my phone. He turns away from me to address his men. “Take her to the hotel where the reception will be held. Guard her, day and night. She’s allowed to see her family when they arrive but no one else, and she’s to remain there. Set up the watch rotation and send it to me. I have work to do.”
Without another word, he strides away, leaving me alone with my guards.
41
Carlo
Monsters are often most dangerous when they're wounded.
I wasn't far away when Faro texted me, and the tracking device led me straight to her. And what did I find?
Wrath sings in me, drowning out my anguish, but just barely. I turn at the last moment, watching the men lead her away. My fucking stupid heart wants to call out to them, so I bite my tongue.She was with another man.
The stink of that foreign aftershave still clings to my jacket. Striding toward my car, I rip it off and then tear at my necktie and shirt, throwing them away like garbage. Everything is garbage, including the beautiful illusion I'd started to believe.
I feel like a fucking fool.
A fool like Sofia,a voice whispers in my mind.
Guilt slashes through me, of how carelessly I wounded an innocent girl, of how my actions drove her to rashness and running away. I wronged Sofia, and I can't make it up to her now, but her cousin has savagely avenged her today, driving a stake through my cruel heart.
In the car, I have a spare shirt. I throw it on, not bothering with the buttons.She was with another man.Whoever he is, I need to kill him. Very slowly.
The Ferrari roars in time with my fury, but, when I reach my building, the undercurrent of anguish takes over. I can't breathe. The ride up to the penthouse passes in a blur. Everything is a blur until my eyes land on the piano I gave her. A vision of Francesca in her greenslip dress with her red hair spilling around her soft shoulders swims in front of me.She was with another man.
After everything I've seen and done in my life, all the treason and backstabbing I've witnessed, how can this betrayal be so utterly crippling?
I should smash the piano to bits. That would satisfy the monster for a little while. The mere thought of acting on that impulse makes me want to vomit. My eyes burn in a way they haven't in many years.
"Carlo?"
I didn't think about Dinora being here. "Go home," I rasp, wanting solitude. I stare at my hands. Even now, I'd cut them off before raising one to Francesca.
"Carlo," Dinora says more firmly as she steps up to me.
