Maddie squeezed her eyes shut, the awfulness of this too much to bear. She wouldn’t be here to see him, to hug him, to thank him. She stood up, moving to the dog, wrapping her hands around one of his paws. “You’re such a good boy,” she dropped her head, nuzzling her brow to his. “Thank you, Dante.”
He made a soft yelping sound and her tears fell more freely now. For the rest of her life she’d never forget the generous way this dog had thrown himself between her and danger – nor the way Nico had done the same.
“The man was known to you?”
Nico nodded. His head spun. Michael and Maddie? Michael was the man Maddie had told Nico about? The man who’d made her life a living hell? Obviously that was the case but it just seemed almost impossible to comprehend. Had she known their connection? It sounded as though she had. I should have told you before now…
“Yes. We went to school together.” He couldn’t believe he’d been about to bail Michael out, yet again. Oh, this time he’d made sure there were conditions attached to the money, so Michael couldn’t just blow it all, but still. It hadn’t been a business decision. He’d made a choice to finance the man he thought of as an old school friend.
A friend!
That betrayal felt like a python wrapping around his neck now. The certainty he’d just spent an hour sitting opposite a man who had terrorised Maddie, made coffee for him, laughed with him…Even with no way of knowing, Nico felt like he’d betrayed her in some vital way.
“And the woman inside?”
How could he describe Maddie?
“They were involved, at one time. It was a violent relationship.”
“I see. And her connection to you?”
Nico’s chest felt hollow. Empty. “We’re friends.”
The detective paused, then nodded, scribbling something in his notebook. “They didn’t come here together?”
“No. She was here with me.” He frowned. “She came to Ondechiara seeking refuge, to get away from him. She had no idea Michael was coming today. Michael didn’t know she was here. It was a…coincidence.”
He didn’t really believe in coincidences but what else could the situation be called? Maddie hadn’t come here looking for him. Unless…was it possible there was truth in what Michael had said? Had she used Nico to get back at Michael?
The words Michael had hurled at him, a sneer on his handsome face as he’d been folded into the back of the Carabinieri van sticking with Nico, racing around his mind. Why else would she have jumped into your bed? Of all the men in all the world, why you? Why Ondechiara when she only knows about this place because of me? Think about it. She’s using you because she still loves me.
The idea made his gut clench painfully, but he dismissed it almost completely.
He could see why a man like Michael might say that, but Nico knew Maddie, and he knew what she was and wasn’t capable of. It was odd that he was so willing to defend her, to believe her, after what he’d been through with Claudette, and yet on some soul-deep level, he simply knew Maddie. He understood her, and yes, he believed in her.
She was all that was good in this world.
“Did he know?” The detective thumbed his hand towards where the car had been, with Michael stowed in the back. The space was empty now but Dante’s eyes fell to it.
“No.” A hollow sound. “If I had made him wait a week, this would never have happened.” And Nico would never have known the truth. Because Maddie hadn’t been going to tell him, had she?
He frowned, considering that. There were too many questions and he needed answers, but now wasn’t the time to push for them. He closed his eyes and saw Maddie as she’d been in Michael’s hands, the look of fear in her face, and he knew that none of the answers made a difference.
She’d been hurt by Michael and all Nico wanted to do was defend her, to make her better. The details weren’t important.
“It might not have happened here,” the detective spoke calmly, with kindness in his tone. “But a man like that generally doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants.” The detective looked over his shoulder, towards the ocean. “If you want my opinion, she’s lucky it was here, with you, rather than somewhere else, when she was on her own.”
Again, he felt the suffocating sense of nausea barrelling through his chest. The idea of Maddie being alone with Michael – as she had been in the past – made him want to rewind time and rearrange Michael’s features, one by one. The constraint he’d brought in not doing so already had almost given him a stroke. He nodded, displaying none of his inner thoughts, none of the turmoil that was assaulting him.
The detective put a hand on Nico’s shoulder. “I have everything I need for now. Go inside. See the doctor and then put this behind you.”
When Nico returned to the living room, it was to see Maddie crouched beside Dante, her hands stroking his thick fur, her face pale, her body so slight, so small that he ached for her and what she’d been through.
His chest felt as though a tonne of cement had been dropped on it, and not from the effects of Michael’s punches. No, it was the sight of Dante and Maddie crouched together, both wounded, both stronger than he could ever put into words. The way Dante - who’d suffered enough abuse in his lifetime - had defended Maddie, then the way she’d done the same for him.
He stared at them and felt a little as though the bottom was falling out of his world. For weeks he’d thought how right Maddie was in his home, but for the first time, he realised that she belonged here, and that soon she’d be gone. And it wasn’t just his life that would be forever altered by her absence, it was Dante’s too.
“Come here, Nico,” Alessia instructed, so he dragged his gaze away from the sight they made, and he did so gratefully, because emotions were bearing down on him that he had no idea how to process.
“Make it quick.” He softened the warning tone to his voice with a tight smile. It made his eye feel like it was going to explode out of its socket.
“Careful,” she murmured, lifting her fingers to run over the cheekbone. He felt the shift of movement in the room, felt the moment Maddie came to stand at his side, but a little apart from him, as though she was awkward in some way, afraid to be too close. Damn it, he didn’t want that. Did she think he blamed her?
He wanted everyone to go.
He wanted to wrap her in his arms once more and whisper words until she was calm, he wanted to make this better for her.
Alessia’s examination was brusque but thorough. She checked the reflexes of his eyes, examined his bone structure, lifted his shirt and felt his ribs, then nodded.
“Rest. Take it easy. No strenuous physical activity for either of you. If you feel groggy, disorientated, or in any way worse than you do now, you’re to call me immediately. If you cannot reach me, you go to hospital. Understood?”
“Will I be okay to fly in a couple of days?”
His heart thumped into his ribs. He didn’t need that kind of assault from the inside.
Alessia considered that. “You don’t have any broken bones. So long as you don’t develop any additional symptoms tomorrow, then yes. Do you have someone who can care for you in England?”
Nico turned to look at Maddie. “I’m…not really. I can call my dad if I need to, but I’d prefer –,”
His heart thumped harder. The idea of her being completely alone after this –
“See how you go. Just take it easy. Don’t push yourself. Rest lots.” Alessia turned back to Nico. “He bore the brunt of it, as you said.”
It was the last thing Nico wanted Maddie to hear, all things considered. Her guilt was already palpable. “I’ll be fine,” he assured smoothly. “I’ve seen worse.”
At that, her lips twisted into a small smile. “How is Gabe?”
Their eyes met and he felt again the loss of Alessia from their lives. She’d been like a sister to them, at one point, her father like the son Gianfelice had wished he’d had – where his own children were frivolous and hell bent on blowing the
ir way through their trust funds, Alessia’s father had been the opposite: steadfast, hardworking and respectful. Alessia had spent a lot of time with the Montebellos, growing up, so she knew all the intricacies of their relationships and histories, including the time Gabe and Nico had got into a physical brawl that wouldn’t have ended had it not been for Yaya and a big pot of water she tipped over their heads.
“He’s…Gabe,” Nico lifted his shoulders.
He felt as though Alessia was going to say something else but then she blinked, her eyes wide, her smile carefree.
“Thank you for coming so promptly, Alessia.”
“Of course.” She turned to Maddie, a kind smile on her face. “I hope your sprained ankle and now this won’t stop you from coming back to us one day, Maddie.”
A polite smile, then Alessia reached out, putting a hand over Maddie’s. “And if you do, please call me. I can show you all the sights he’s forgotten about.” She grinned, and Nico had another pang of something.
He didn’t want Maddie to go. The realisation came to him as if struck by lightning. He wasn’t ready to end this. Not yet. He turned to face her and smiled past the blinding pain. “Thank you, dottore.”
Chapter 12
“I DIDN’T KNOW. NOT at first.” She’d stopped shaking, but she was still pale, so the bruise on her cheek was all the more obvious. He couldn’t look at her without wishing he’d succumbed to his first instincts and laid into Michael with all the might of his fists.
But he hadn’t.
For two reasons. It would be so much easier for prosecutors to make their case if the violence had been unprovoked, and unanswered. And secondly, he never wanted Maddie to think him capable of the kind of violence Michael had exhibited. He was a different kind of man. Even when his temper was pushed to breaking point, he remained in control.
He was safe. Reliable.
He reached an arm along the back of the sofa, stroking her hair gently. “I believe you.”
“Do you?” Her eyes were hollow. She sipped her tea – he’d lost count of how many she’d had since everyone had finally left and they were alone once more.
“Of course.” And he did, without hesitation.
“That day I met you, I didn’t know who lived here, I didn’t know anything. Even when you said your name, I didn’t realise.”
He recalled that – the oddness of her not knowing he was a Montebello, how refreshing it was to engage with a woman who wasn’t familiar with his life story and his bank balance.
“I woke up – after we’d…after that first time – and all I could think about was Michael and the fact you were old friends. Oh, God, Nico, I was so terrified. I felt like I’d made the worst mistake of my life.” She bit down on her lip, her eyes beseeching. “Not in sleeping with you, but because of your connection to him. I’d spent six months trying to get away from him, to forget him, to move on with my life and then you…” She sucked in a big gulp of air. “Why did you have to know him? What are the chances of that, Nico?”
He nodded, understanding. It was a cruel joke, in some ways. “So you ran back to La Villetta. Were you planning to leave Italy?” He didn’t know why but the idea of that felt like he’d swallowed a fistful of barbed wire. He didn’t want to go near it, didn’t want to analyse how he would have felt if he’d got to La Villetta that stormy summer’s afternoon and found that she’d already left.
If he’d never got to see her again.
“No.” A hollow smile. “By the time the cab dropped me off, I was a little calmer.”
She looked down and his gut contracted painfully. “I never do anything like we did that afternoon. It was so random. I don’t know what came over me but I met you and I just…” Her sentence petered into nothing. She bit down on her lip, shaking her head a little.
“I know.” He ran his fingers over her hair, so gently, wishing in that moment that the only touch she’d ever known was like this – so reverential and full of respect. “I was there. I was struck by the same lightning bolt.”
She looked towards him, her eyes enormous. “That’s exactly what it was like!”
He nodded thoughtfully, playing it out in his mind.
“I should have sent you away again.” Her eyes were enormous in her face. “But I wanted to be selfish.” She lifted a hand to his chest, as though she couldn’t help herself.
“Selfish?”
She shook her head slowly. “Michael had already taken so much away from me. He controlled everything about my life. I didn’t want to give you up because of him.” She squared her shoulders, her dainty features assuming a defiant look. “I wanted you and the only reason I would have walked away from what you were offering was because I was afraid. I refused to be afraid anymore.”
Fierce pride exploded through him.
“I thought about telling you,” she said quietly. “I hated lying to you and once you knew about him – not who he was – but that there’d been someone like him in my life, I felt like it was an actual lie. Like I was purposefully keeping a secret from you. But I didn’t know…”
“I would have believed you,” he promised, knowing instinctively that it mattered to her to hear that, and wanting her to understand that his trust in her was absolute.
“I know.” Her eyes were fierce when they connected to his and a pulse of understanding throbbed between them. “But I didn’t know if it would change things. He’s one of your oldest friends. You knew him for years before you knew me. It would have complicated everything and you were the first good thing to happen to me in a really long time.” Her words reached inside of him, filling him with a swirling pool of mess. “I just wanted to hold onto that, to you. I just wanted to hold onto this for as long as possible.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, nodding, the fact their summer was almost over sitting at odds with her admission just now. He stroked her hair lightly, toying with the ends, and when he inhaled he caught a hint of her beautiful floral fragrance.
“The last time I saw Michael, I suspected he was way off the rails. He’d had a lot of potential in school but a huge ego and a dark streak I never fully appreciated.” Nico shook his head. “It was a few years ago – before you met him, I presume?”
She nodded.
“I always felt like I should have done more. I wished I’d got him into rehab or something –,”
“Don’t.” She lifted a finger to his lips, her half-smile so beautiful and gentle. “Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have known what he was capable of.”
He ran a hand across his jaw gruffly. “I didn’t know how bad it was.”
“I believe that. He’s a very good actor. In the beginning, he was so charming. He made it easy to like him, easy to believe he loved me.”
He moved his hand to capture hers, lacing their fingers together.
“Why was he here?” Her eyes were like saucers in her face. His stomach clenched at the sides. Because he’d betrayed her. Unknowingly, unintentionally, he’d brought the lion she most feared right where he’d told her she was safe, and she’d got hurt as a consequence.
Nico’s lips compressed to form a gash in his face. “He’s broke. He kept saying it had been a bad six months. He reeked of alcohol when he first arrived. Honestly? He needed me to bail him out. And I didn’t know then what I do now. I felt sorry for him. I just remember the way he was in school, and I wanted to see him succeed. So I told him I’d invest in him – that I’d set up an amount for his use. His effort, my capital, we’d split the returns. I thought it would be a way to get him back on his feet without making him swallow his pride.”
She nodded, her delicate features impossible to read, but hearing him say what he’d offered her abuser made him sick now. “Did you feel he’d be able to do that?”
“No.” He grimaced. “Not necessarily. But I felt I owed it to him to allow him to try.”
“And lose your money?”
“I have enough money.”
She nodded again, slowly,
and all he could do was stare at her beautiful face, marred by the beginnings of a bruise, and swollen at her cheek. He hated to think how often she’d been like this because of Michael. He hated a lot of things in that moment.
“I’m the reason he’s had a bad six months.” She whispered the words. “Is that what he meant, do you think?”
That she thought so was impossible to tolerate. “He’s the reason he’s had a bad six months, a bad life.” He moved closer, brushing her lips with his, needing her to understand. “Losing you hurt him, of that I have no doubt, but not because of who you are. Because he lost the ability to control you, and he thrived on that. I am so sorry you ever went through this. I’m so sorry you’ve ever known a day’s fear in your life.” He kissed her again, still gently, but with all the truth of his feelings. “I wish there was something I could do to take that pain away.”
She put a little distance between them, lifting a hand and running it over his undamaged cheek. “Don’t you see, Nico? You have.” And she smiled, a smile that reminded him so forcefully of the way she’d been the day they’d met. It was like the sun piercing the clouds in the sky. “I came here so broken and then I met you and without even realising it, you put everything back together inside of me.”
His chest compressed. Something burst through him. Something good. Warm and pleasant and addictive.
He didn’t speak – there was no need. Not when her perfect words hung between them.
But a moment later, a little line formed between her brows. “What will happen to him?”
The warmth dissipated and for the briefest moment there was something else. A flash of jealousy. It surprised him, and he suppressed it immediately, refusing to feel it. She wasn’t asking out of concern. It was natural she’d want to know. “What would you like to happen to him?”
“Honestly?”
Jealousy fired once more.
Billionaire Brides: An Anthology Page 60