She tucked the flash drive into the lining of her jacket, then lay down, keeping as far away from Aldo as she could. Soon, she would be in Paris with Indio and away from this man.
She fell into an uneasy sleep as dawn approached and woke a couple of hours later, feeling scratchy and queasy. Aldo was still asleep, and she had to smile—karma, bitch. She left him a note saying she had gone to work and, grabbing her jacket, she went to find Umberto to ask him to drive her to work.
After he dropped her off, Elli walked around to the back of the office and called Indio, telling him everything.
“You did what?” Indio was chuckling helplessly on the other end of the phone. “You drugged him? Elli … it’s funny, but if he’d figured it out …”
“He didn’t. He’s too arrogant to believe anyone would ever see through his sick plans. And it worked effectively, too. Motherfucker had been doing it to me for months—I’m assuming to keep me pliable—so it was time he got a taste of his own medicine.”
Indio wasn’t laughing five minutes later when Elli told him what he had found. “That does it,” he said. “You need to get out of that house now.”
“I’m at work, silly.”
Indio drew in a shaky breath. “I don’t care what you do, just …don’t got back there.”
Elli sighed. “Okay. Oh, fuck …”
“What?”
“My passport is there. Look, one more night and I’m gone, I promise. I’ll get Viv to say I have to be in Paris tomorrow night for an interview.”
“Good. I have an idea. A friend of mine, Benoit Vaux …I can arrange for him to be your ‘interviewee.’ You’ll interview him at his home, and I can come get you from there.”
A thrill ran through her. “I can’t wait.”
The day raced by and before long she was back at Aldo’s place, the place she’d never been able to call home—and now she knew why. Besides the obvious fact that Aldo was a sick freak, Indio was home to Elli. No one and no other place could ever be.
She got through dinner, giving a performance worthy of an Oscar, even as her nerves jittered. After dessert, Elli wrapped her arms around Aldo’s neck as he checked some emails and peeked over his shoulder. “Hey, baby.”
Aldo turned his head to smile at her. “You’re in a good mood.”
“I have good news …well, for me, anyway.”
He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. Elli went along with it, smiling at him and not even giving a hint at the fierce hatred inside her. She nipped at his bottom lip with her teeth playfully, and Aldo grinned. “Tell me.”
“I am interviewing Benoit Vaux tomorrow.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Vaux? Wow, that’s a coup. He doesn’t like publicity normally.”
“Well, I’m a serious journalist, and he’s a serious man. So I’m flying to Paris for a few days to see how he works. He’s very kindly offered me one of his guest rooms to stay with him.”
“Really?” Aldo sounded skeptical. “So he goes from uber-privacy to having a journalist live with him?”
Elli thought quickly. “Okay, I admit, he’s a friend of Vivienne’s, and she’s calling in a favor. I have to pack …do you know where I left my passport?”
“In the nightstand, next to mine. I put them in there when we came back from Seattle.”
She kissed him and hopped off his lap. “Cool, thanks.”
She was almost at the door of the study when he called her back. “I might come with you,” he said thoughtfully. “I have a few contacts I wouldn’t mind catching up with.”
Fuck. Elli kept the dismay off her face and smiled. “Well, that would be lovely …except you should know, I’m grumpy when I’m trying to get a story down.”
Aldo laughed. “So stay out of your way. I got it. You weren’t grumpy when you interviewed me.”
She gave him a cheesy grin—god, they were almost like a loving couple in these moments. “You distracted me with sex.”
“Which is what I’ll do in Paris.” He grinned wickedly. God, she could almost believe he wasn’t a psychopath when he was like this.
Elli smiled. “Then it’s settled. I’ll go find our passports.”
She went into the bedroom and pulled open the nightstand. A thought came to her and she very carefully pulled out both passports, making sure one covered the other, then made a big deal of trying to find something else in the drawer and those below it. She made her expression one of confusion and looked around the room, making her movements very deliberately.
If he had put cameras in her apartment, he might have put them in here. He could be watching her right now. Shit, if he had put them in his study ...
No. She would be dead right now if he knew she’d snooped in his study. She had to trust that only the bedroom—the bedroom where he had fucked her and where he had murdered Yvetta—was the only room he would feel he needed to watch her—and them. She hoped that was true. She carried the passports out and only when she was sure no one would see her, did she slip Aldo’s down her underwear, wincing at the cold, leather cover.
“Honey? I found mine, but yours isn’t with it. I had a quick look around, but it’s not there. Did you put it somewhere else?”
For the next hour, she helped Aldo search the bedroom for his passport. Eventually, Aldo stood, frustrated, and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, damn.”
“It’s weird.” Elli was enjoying herself now. “I’m trying to retrace what we did when we got home.”
Aldo sighed. “Look, let’s leave it. You’re only going to be gone for a few days, right?”
She kissed him. “Right.”
He put his arms around her and suddenly she was scared he would feel his passport hidden in her underwear. “I like your thinking, cowboy, but rather unromantically, I really have to pee.”
Aldo laughed and released her, and she went to the bathroom and locked the door. Searching, her eye alighted on the back of one of the cabinets. She slipped Aldo’s passport into it, hoping he would never need to look there—at least until she could get it out of the house or, even better, lose it—he’d never be able to replace it by tomorrow, no matter how much money he had.
Happy in that knowledge, she went back to the bedroom and didn’t even feel too badly when Aldo insisted on them making love before and after she packed, knowing that this time tomorrow night, it would be Indio’s arms she was in.
Elli breathed in a lungful of Parisian air and smiled at the man opening the limousine door for her. In a few minutes, she would be whisked to Benoit Vaux’s left-bank apartment, where Indio would be waiting for her. As she traveled through the city, she was staggered at the beauty of the place, the manic traffic, and the speed of life there. Elli gazed out at the Eiffel Tower, lit now in the early evening twilight. In the world’s most romantic city, she would finally be able to love Indio freely and openly.
He was waiting as she stepped out of the car and he whisked her inside and kissed her passionately, leaving her laughing and gasping for air. His arms were tight around her. They gazed at each other for a long moment, no need for words.
There was a discreet cough behind them, and Indio turned and laughed. A tall, dark, handsome man gave them an amused smile. Indio chuckled.
“Sorry, Ben.”
Benoit Vaux, grinning, kissed her cheek. “It’s wonderful to see you again, Elli. Please come upstairs and meet my family. I warn you, our daughter is still awake and causing trouble.”
He led them upstairs, where he introduced Elli to Shiloh, a tall, willowy blonde with a friendly smile, and their daughter, Lily.
“Hi, Lily,” Elli said. “That’s a beautiful name. My friend has a daughter called Lily too.”
Lily, unlike her namesake, Lily Storm, wasn’t shy at all. She nodded. “It’s a popular name,” she said wisely and her mother laughed.
“Precocious nine-year-old,” she said with a smile. “Please, Elli, come on in. Indio’s made himself at home already.”
She said this with
a fond glance at Indio, and he grinned back. Elli could see the friendship between them all and it made her heart warm all the way through the delicious dinner with Benoit and Shiloh. Then, after midnight, Indio and Elli left by the back entrance and were driven to Indio’s place across town. Elli’s eyes widened at the beauty of the apartment. “Wow. And you just moved in?”
Indio grinned. “Yesterday, but I’ve had my eye on this place for a long time.”
The walls of the high-ceilinged rooms were painted a delicate lilac, and Elli grinned. “God, it’s lovely.”
“Nothing compared to what I’m looking at right now.” He took her in his arms and kissed her. “Hello again, Elli Bella. It’s so good to hold you when we have no fear of discovery or any anger between us.”
Elli relaxed into his arms. “God, Indio, it’s all I’ve ever wanted.” He smiled, and taking her hand, they walked to his bedroom. Elli leaned against him.
“You know, I could do with a bath. To get the journey off me.”
“Your wish is my command.”
In the bathroom, he ran hot water into a vast tub. Elli eyed it with a grin. “Big enough for two. You know, I’ve never had sex in a bathtub.”
Indio pretended to be serious, stroking his beard. “Really? Well, scientific studies show that sex in a tub in Paris, specifically with a man whose name begins with an ‘I,' means beautiful woman called Elli are guaranteed an orgasm.”
Elli giggled. “Oh, is that what they say?”
“They do.” He grinned, looking ever more like the boyish hero of her youth. Elli kissed him.
“Silly man. I love you so much.”
“As I love you, Elli Bella. God, when this is all over, we’re going to be as silly as we like. More fun and more jokes. I’ve laughed more in the time we’ve been reunited than in the eight years we’ve been apart. I’m looking forward to getting back there.”
“Adventures.”
“Hell, yes.”
They lay in the warm water, Elli leaning back against his chest. Indio’s fingers trailed bubbles up and down her belly. Elli felt more relaxed and content than she had in years, turning so she could look at him. He cupped her breasts in his hands, stroking a rhythm over her nipples with his thumbs. She swept his damp curls away from his face and studied his swarthy, tanned skin and his bright green eyes gazing at hers, soft with love.
“Have you any idea how beautiful you are, Indio Navaro?” Her voice was awestruck. “Inside and out. There could never be any other man for me. Not ever. I was dumb to think there could be.”
Indio smiled at her. “Then I’m just as dumb, Elli. I spent eight years trying to fight what I felt and what I knew in my bones was our destiny.”
Elli’s eyes were sad. “Why? Why fight so hard? Enzo …he would have come around. He wasn’t my keeper.”
Indio shook his head. “Right now, I don’t know why. When his girlfriend accused me of assaulting her, it was such a visceral shock. In a way, I don’t blame Enzo for banishing me. I didn’t feel good enough for you …in my mind, no one was good enough for you, Elli.”
She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. “You were and you still are my hero in every way. I love you so much, Indio. So, so much.”
Indio slid his hands into her hair and gazed at her. “Marry me.”
“Yes,” she said simply, but he shook his head, smiling.
“No, I mean, while we’re in Paris. Marry me. Don’t go back to him. Stay with me. I’ll keep you safe, I promise. I can’t bear that he touches you.”
Elli smiled through her tears. “Yes, yes, god, yes, Indio …”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his. Indio reached between her legs and spread her labia, and she guided his cock inside her. They made love slowly and intensely until they were both gasping for air and laughing, telling each other how much they loved each other.
***
In the morning, Elli woke up with Indio’s arms around her and felt happier than she ever had. She turned in his arms and watched him sleep for a few minutes before he opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Good morning, my love.”
Indio kissed her, and they made love before showering together. Indio went out to buy some breakfast rolls, returning just as Elli finished dressing. She was waving two passports at him. Indio was confused. She grinned and handed him one of them.
“It’s Aldo’s. I took it so he couldn’t follow me here.”
Indio laughed, flicking through it. “Clever girl, although, knowing how corrupt he is, he probably has several under assumed names.”
Elli’s face fell. “Damn, I never thought of that.”
Indio mussed her hair. “It was still a good idea. We can see where he’s been.”
Something snagged in Elli’s memory then. “Hey, let me see that for a second.”
She flicked through to where there was a customs stamp and held it up. “This is from when we went to Seattle. US Customs stamp, right? They always, always stamp it?”
“Yep.”
“Well,” she said, flicking through the passport, “This passport is about halfway through its life, so any trips that Aldo took—as Aldo— within the last year should be in here. Indio, about a month into mine and Aldo’s relationship, he said he was going to New York for a meeting for a few days. I didn’t think anything of it, but during that time, I was attacked and threatened by a stalker.”
Indio sat up, alarmed, but she waved him down. “I wasn’t seriously hurt, don’t worry. But I spoke to Aldo via Skype one night, and my friend Tandy—I’ve told you about her, right?—she was staying with me and made a comment about where Aldo was speaking from.”
Elli recalled the confusion on Tandy’s pretty face …
“Something struck me. He’s a solid-gold billionaire, right?”
Elli half smiled, half frowned at her friend. “So?”
“Well, it’s just, if I had his money, I would be staying in the penthouse suite. From what I saw, that wasn’t the penthouse of The Four Seasons.”
Elli told Indio exactly what Tandy had said and waved Aldo’s passport. “There’s no customs stamp for the time he said he was in New York. I don’t think he left the country. I think he was watching me and that he attacked me to make me feel vulnerable.”
Indio nodded slowly. “You’re probably right …what with the cameras in your home and his sick games …Jesus, Elli, there’s no way I’m letting you go back to that man.”
She took a deep breath in and nodded. “Yes, there’s no way. But we still don’t want him to flip out, so when I go back to Italy, I’ll say I need some space and that I think we need to be apart for a while. Rather than pull off the band-aid, I’ll ease him into it, so he doesn’t get suspicious. I don’t underestimate his capacity to hurt the people I love if I upset his equilibrium.”
“I don’t want you to be at risk,” Indio said with real emotion. “If anything happened to you.”
Elli went to him and perched on his knees. “Indio, your proposal last night …I got on the internet this morning. We can get married here, but we need to be resident for thirty days for it to be legal.”
His arms tightened around her. “Damn. I wanted to be your husband right now.”
She chuckled. “And I wanted to be your wife. We should go somewhere, in Paris, that’s totally cliché and have our own little ceremony. Then, as soon as we get back to Italy, I’m yours, baby.”
Indio kissed her. “That sounds like a plan. In the meantime, let’s go find what we can on Constanza.”
***
They flew into Uganda the next day and, much to Indio’s amusement, Elli wore a short blonde wig. She posed in it, and Indio shook his head. “You’re not a blonde, baby.”
She stuck out her tongue at him. “But you like my disguise, right?”
The fun was soon over when they began to see the conditions that the local people had to live in and Elli was moved to tears. Decades
of civil war had torn the country apart. She visited some of the aid camps set up by Aldo’s organization, and on the surface, they seemed to be places of hope.
It was Indio who found someone willing to talk to them. They met late at night at the rundown hotel where Indio and Elli were staying.
The man, David, was a Ugandan-born medic who had resigned from Aldo’s organization the previous year.
“I was fooled for a few years. I didn’t think to look below the surface and took everything Constanza said at face value. He comes here often, and it took a while to realize that after his visits—every time—there would be a child or two or three who went missing. All girls.”
Elli felt sick at the implication. “So, he’s not selling guns?”
David shook his head. “Eventually, it got back to me. The kids that went missing were being sold to the sex trade.”
Elli gave a sob, and Indio rubbed her back, his own face drawn. “How the fuck is he getting away with this?”
“Russian contacts and unlimited money to hush things up. People have died here …I’m sure my life too is now forfeit, which is why I have nothing left to lose by talking to you.”
Elli grabbed his hand. “We will protect you, David.”
He smiled sadly. “Do not promise that, lovely lady. This world is rough and corrupt. Even the people hired to protect a person can turn at the promise of money.”
“Why don’t you leave?”
“Because this is my country and they are my people. I may not be able to stop Constanza, but I can do something about the flow of children into his grip. My colleagues and I, we offer free medical treatment with the little money we have to buy supplies.”
Elli looked at Indio, who nodded. “David, I can help …we can help. We can open clinics and get you supplies.”
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