Penelope dropped her gaze, watching as Noah’s athletic shoes moved across the faded, worn-to-nubs carpet. She didn’t want to hear this. She couldn’t bear the impact this had on her stay in Bella Terra. It made her purpose here… impossible. Horrible.
But Noah’s relentless voice continued. “He told my grandmother he wanted the bottle now.”
Slowly, Penelope lifted her gaze to him once more, and watched Noah with unwilling compulsion. His family had lived in the United States for over a century, yet he was Italian in looks and demeanor, using his hands to punctuate his sentences, to convey excitement or sorrow. His face, too, was mobile, his expressions so vivid she could almost see the generations of men, the malice, the danger.
“Later, once we realized what was going on, I told Bianchin to get the hell out of town, so he tried to convince me to hand it over. Like I would do anything for that mean old bastard.”
Noah didn’t know—couldn’t know—that each word made them enemies. “So Bianchin left town?”
“Nonna’s well liked here. We three brothers love her dearly.” Noah’s deep voice grew silky soft and dangerous. “If he hadn’t, I would have worried about his health.”
“You wouldn’t hurt an old man!” Would he?
“He hurt my grandmother—she might have died, and he wouldn’t have cared—so in fact, I would have done whatever was necessary to send him into exile.” Noah had grown out of the last softness of youth. He was all man now, and he smiled the kind of menacing, toothy smile she had never imagined on his face.
All right. She supposed he had the right to defend his grandmother with every resource available to him. She knew Nonna had raised him. But… “It doesn’t make sense. Why did Joseph Bianchin decide to resort to violence at this stage?”
“We figured that one out almost too late—and by we, I mean Eli and his new wife, Chloë. She’s an author; she writes suspense. Eli, too, did his part.” Noah shook his head in wonder. “Who knew he had it in him to defend himself against a crooked FBI agent?”
“Eli?” Penelope remembered him as a large, quiet man, intent on wines and wary of people in general.
“Former FBI, but it took Eli and Chloë both to defeat him, and they look like they’ve been used as battering rams.” Noah sat on his haunches in front of Penelope and looked right into her eyes. “The whole thing is about diamonds.”
“Diamonds?”
“Massimo was stealing diamonds, hiding them in the wine bottles he gave as gifts; then, when the coast was clear, he’d steal the bottle and replace it with one that looked identical but didn’t have the contraband.”
Penelope realized her mouth was hanging open. She snapped it shut and asked, “He was doing this during Prohibition?”
“Apparently Nonna’s mother always said he was a gangster. Apparently Nonna’s mother was right.”
“Whoa. How did Joseph Bianchin find out?”
“Bottles of Massimo’s wine are still around; Bianchin’s been a collector for years, pathetically trying to be my grandfather, I guess.” Noah’s eyes flashed with irritation. “We think he opened a bottle, poured it, and found jewels in the bottom.”
“Jewels Massimo hadn’t collected?”
“Jewels he hadn’t collected because he disappeared not long after giving his last bottle to my grandfather.”
“What happened to him?”
“No one knows. Or rather… no one knew until Eli and Chloë found his body in an old water tower. He’d been tortured. Up there beside the body, Eli found a small diamond—and not just any diamond. It was a pink diamond, so Chloë looked up jewel robberies for that year before my grandfather was born.” Noah’s mouth twisted in distaste. “In Amsterdam, a priceless set of pink diamonds was stolen and never retrieved.”
The whole story was fascinating, horrifying, unlikely… and all too obviously, everyone in the Di Luca family believed it was true. Penelope breathed in and out, in and out, slow, heavy breaths as she tried to contain her anguish. “Joseph Bianchin figured that out, too, and he wants those diamonds.”
“I think we can assume that.” Putting one knee on the step beside her, the other on the floor, Noah took her hand again. The light danced on each strand of his short black hair with fevered grace. “Here in Bella Terra, in the last two and a half months, we’ve had three murders, a related death, and as much violence as we’ve had in the last fifty years put together. The resort’s on high alert, and the press is starting to take an interest. We Di Lucas have managed to distract them, but the reporters will catch on eventually. If that happens, every thug and opportunist in the world will arrive on our doorstep looking for that bottle of wine.”
“You truly don’t know where it is?” Her life would be so much easier if he knew and for some nefarious reason was hiding the truth.
But it almost seemed that he read her mind and repeated her thoughts back at her. “How much easier it would be for all of us if we knew, and poured it, and found out whether the bottle contained diamonds—or merely sediment.”
“Yes. I can see that.” She could see it.
“That’s why Rafe was acting like a jerk, questioning you as if you were a person of suspicion. And that’s why I’d consider it a favor if you’d come and see Nonna.”
He made Penelope feel as if she were standing at the edge of a swamp filled with old affection and lost love, and sinking in the quicksand. And in her experience, if she were caught by him, really trapped, she would suffer for it.
He looked into her eyes. Looked into her soul. Appealed to her better nature. “Nonna was hurt badly; Rafe and Brooke were traumatized; Eli and Chloë were horribly injured. Then this week, Nonna found out that someone she loved was a liar and a cheat. Seeing you would take her mind off her troubles. Would you go visit her?” When she hesitated, he said, “I promise… I promise not to be there.”
He seemed to think that mattered.
Chapter 16
Penelope put her hand on Noah’s chest, and in a move that surprised him—although why it should, he didn’t know—she pushed him so hard he sprawled backward on the hardwood floor.
She stood. “As appealing as that sounds, Noah, it’s impossible. I’ve realized… I can’t stay in Bella Terra. This criminal activity is too much for me! I’m a coward. I’m going back to Portland tomorrow.”
He got slowly to his feet, rubbing his aching butt. A coward? After all she’d been through? “You’re not a coward.”
“Don’t tell me what I am or am not. In the past few years of my life, I have seen enough death. I cannot bear to see any more.” She looked fierce and proud, demanding that he respect who she was and what she could endure.
“Okay…” he said slowly, thinking hard, thinking fast. “But you’ve got a job here that you were looking forward to. Or at least, you seemed to be. You could do the design, work with Brooke, without being involved in the, um—”
“Murders?” Her voice rose. “I have to survive to work at a job, and survival seems to be a little iffy here in Bella Terra.”
From the top of the stairs, Noah heard a small, high shriek. He turned in time to see Brooke bound down the stairs.
Rafe ran after her, his arms outstretched as if to catch her.
“Damn it, Noah!” she said. “I was depending on you to convince Penelope to stay, not to scare her into leaving.”
“Woman, would you please be careful?” Rafe roared.
She brushed him aside and confronted Noah, fists on her hips. “Did you have to tell her all the gory details? Couldn’t you have glossed over some stuff?”
“I did gloss over some stuff,” he said.
Brooke swung her back to him.
“That’s helpful, Noah.” Rafe put his hands on her shoulders.
Noah turned to Penelope. “I didn’t mention that my relatives eavesdrop without compunction or shame.”
She nodded. “You didn’t, but I see it’s true.”
She looked so different from the way she had the la
st time he’d seen her; she was now so confident, sophisticated—and distant.
Those brown eyes had once adored him. Her hands had once caressed him. He knew her scent, the weight of her breasts in his palms, and when she spoke, he recalled the husky sound of her voice in his ear as she cried out her pleasure.
She was his. No matter how much time passed, no matter how much distance had separated them… she was always and eternally meant for him.
And he couldn’t have her.
Yet, selfish bastard that he was, he didn’t want her to leave. As his time on earth ticked down, he wanted her near.
“You don’t have to go. We could avoid each other whenever possible,” Noah said.
“That might work,” Rafe said.
Noah raised his eyebrows at his brother. When had Rafe decided it would be better if Penelope stayed?
Rafe nodded toward Brooke, a brief, short movement that clearly told Noah he was a lot more concerned with keeping his wife happy than worried about Penelope’s security clearance.
“No. Because it doesn’t matter to me whether I see Noah. Our former relationship is of no importance here. That was then. This is now.”
Rafe smirked at Noah. “She put you in your place.”
Going to Brooke, Penelope said, “I’m sorry. I would really love to do this job. I love the house and I enjoyed talking with you, but I just… I don’t want to die for it.”
Brooke’s smile tried to be kind and understanding. “I’m sorry, too. We could really work well together.”
“I know.” Penelope sounded wistful.
She really did want the job. Noah could tell. “Let me drive you back to wherever you’re staying. Give me a chance to talk you out of leaving.” He tried a winsome smile.
“No.” She gathered up her purse from the corner of the entry. “I’ve got my car.”
So much for winsome. “Your leaving is not necessary. You will never be drawn into our troubles. You’re not involved with us.”
She turned on him. “I don’t have to be involved with you. But I’ve already been scared by a cop showing up out of the blue and accusing you of breaking some guy’s fingers. Nobody seemed too worried about the violence. I’ve already seen every one of you pull a weapon with such expertise I would have sprinted out of here—but I was afraid to move.”
He grinned.
“It’s not funny!” she snapped.
He sobered. “No, of course not.”
“I’m already involved enough that you told me the whole”—she flung her arms around her head—“background story.”
She was upset. He didn’t blame her. “At least tell me where you’re staying.”
“At the Sweet Dreams Hotel.”
Soundlessly, he mouthed the words. The Sweet Dreams Hotel.
She faced off with him. “Yeah? Did you have something to say?”
She thought he was a snob. She thought he was casting aspersions on her background. On where she was staying. “Nothing,” he said softly.
“Good.” She started to turn away.
He couldn’t stand it. “I could get you a room at Bella Terra resort.”
She swung back on him. “I can’t afford it.”
“I know the manager.” Winsome smile. “I could get you a good rate.”
“I can’t afford you, Noah,” she said flatly.
Damn it. His winsomeness worked on every woman in the world—except for the one woman who mattered. He supposed it was justice. But he didn’t have to like it.
After nine years, she was back in his territory, and he couldn’t have her. Didn’t dare even try. “If you moved into the resort, I’d stay far, far away from you.”
“I like where I am.”
The Sweet Dreams Hotel. “Sure.”
“Anyway, I’m leaving tomorrow.” She put her fist to her mouth and bit her knuckles, once, hard, as if thinking. “Or maybe the next day. I’ve got that business with—”
“Joseph Bianchin. Yeah. I remember.” Noah did remember, and he wondered what she could want with the coldhearted old bastard. “Listen, I’ve got to get back, talk to some contractors, find out how quickly they can get out here. Penelope, promise me one thing.”
She looked up warily.
“Promise me you’ll visit Nonna. If she found out you’d been here and she hadn’t seen you, she’d feel bad. I’m not pulling anything on you.” A little artfully applied guilt always worked wonders on women. “She really would wonder what she’d done to make you dislike her.”
Penelope pushed her hair off her forehead. He could see the shame twisting her insides until she had no possible answer except one. “All right. I’ll do it. But what you said before. You have to promise. I don’t want you there.”
“Great.” He’d won one battle. Maybe he’d win the next one, too. “I promise, if I see you coming, I’ll run away.”
She smiled faintly. “Good.”
“If you need me to send a car to fetch you to Nonna’s, let me know.” Knowing her fiercely independent nature, he knew she would reject him, so didn’t wait to hear her answer, ducking out the door as soon as he finished speaking.
Penelope hurried to the door and called after him, “I can drive myself, thank you.”
And from inside the house, Rafe shouted, “Hey! Noah! You rode with me, remember?”
Chapter 17
Rafe caught up with Noah as he reached the sidewalk. “I’ll drive you back to the resort.”
“It’s not far. I gotta get a coffee. I can walk.”
Rafe grabbed his arm and swung him toward the car. “I want to talk.”
“Of course you do.” It was the price Noah paid for being the youngest; his brothers could not stop thinking of him as a dumb kid. So he figured he might as well get it over with.
Rafe was speaking even before they got in the car. “Noah, what are you doing? Talking to that woman, flirting with her—after she left Bella Terra, you made it clear you thought you had barely escaped marriage and bondage to a social climber.”
“Nice house.” Noah looked back to see whether he could catch another glimpse of Penelope. “You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, but the infrastructure is good and you paid a good price. You and Brooke will be very happy there.”
“You are the biggest pain in the ass. Okay, I get it; you’re not going to tell me what you know about the bottle of wine and the diamonds.”
“It’s for the best.”
It said a lot for Rafe’s restraint that he didn’t jump Noah about that. “Can’t you at least give me a clue about your former girlfriend?”
Noah chose his words carefully. “All those years ago, when I said she was a social climber, I might have overstated the situation.”
Rafe unlocked the car. “So now you claim she’s a nice girl and you’re a ruthless schmuck who dumped her so you could screw around with the rest of the world?”
Noah climbed into the passenger seat, and as soon as Rafe got in, Noah said, “If I had it all to do over again, she would have never left Bella Terra. I was a fool.” Rafe didn’t even understand how big a fool Noah had been. And if it were up to Noah, he wouldn’t find out until Noah had redeemed himself.
“I know that feeling. So many years wasted when Brooke and I could have been together…” Rafe always turned to mush when he started talking about Brooke.
Good time to change the subject. “Hey!” Noah said. “Everything turned out okay, and now you’re having a baby.”
Rafe gave Noah a crooked smile and put the car in gear. “Is that not the greatest news ever?”
Noah crowed with laughter. “I knew there was a reason you and Brooke didn’t move to Sweden. Congratulations, you old daddy.”
“Thanks.” Rafe got serious again. “But listen, that’s why I’ve got a thing about who Penelope Alonso Caldwell really is and why she’s here.”
Noah rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t you ever give up?”
“No. No, I don’t. We’ve got people—st
rangers, crazy people—hunting for Nonno’s bottle of wine because, right or wrong, everyone thinks the bottle holds a stash of priceless pink diamonds. You know something about somebody who’s after the diamonds, and you won’t tell us.”
“Don’t worry. I’m handling it.”
Rafe turned for one second and glared.
“Watch the road,” Noah said.
“And now, out of the clear blue sky, your old lover shows up for no good reason that she can give. Brooke says I’m paranoid. I say I’m smart.”
“Penelope is not an opportunist.”
Rafe slapped the steering wheel with the flat of his hand. “How do you know? Have you seen her in the last nine years?”
“No. But I know her.”
“Deep in your soul, you know her?”
“Something like that.”
“Did she tell you why she came to Bella Terra in the first place?”
“Something about business.”
“So you don’t know.”
Actually, Noah did. She was here to speak to Joseph Bianchin about something. But telling Rafe that wasn’t going to help clear up any suspicions.
“I’ll ask her,” Rafe said.
“Good luck. When you’re acting like a tyrannical ass, she’s not going to tell you anything.” Noah didn’t want Rafe picking on Penelope.
“That’s convenient. May I point out that when you’re acting like she’s your lost love, I’m not going to believe a damned word you say about her.”
“Yeah. Well.” She was his lost love. It made him laugh when he remembered that moment today when he’d realized he was selling himself to Penelope like a rock star on the make.
Rafe turned onto Main, still raging about Penelope and her effect on Noah. “I am running all her references.”
“Why bother? She’s leaving town.” It was better that way. Seeing her today had given Noah hope where there had been none, and hope was a commodity he didn’t dare cultivate. It was dangerous for him to think he could find the kind of love his brothers now enjoyed.
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