Murder, Mi Amore

by Cara Marsi

  “Thanks, Sal.” Dominic said the words through a tight jaw. Not wanting to meet Sal’s eyes, he continued to stare out the window. It had taken him and Ruggiero the better part of two days to get this far with their boss. Two days since they’d dropped Lexie off at her hotel.

  He missed her. He’d talked by phone to her each day, knew other Interpol agents had her under surveillance, but he missed seeing her beautiful face, hearing her laughter, watching her enthusiasm as he experienced his country through her eyes. The thought crossed his mind that he could be falling in love with her.

  “Damn it all,” he said, clenching his hands at his sides. That could not happen.

  “Did you say something?” Ruggerio asked.

  Dominic turned to Sal. “I need the rest of the day off. I have some things to do.”

  Sal stood and leaned over his desk. “If any of those things are called Lexie Cortese, forget it. You’ve got a report to write. You don’t leave until you’re finished.”

  “Damn it, Sal, you have our verbal reports.”

  Sal’s face hardened. “I’ve got people on the Cortese woman 24/7. You’re getting emotionally involved with her. Cool down.”

  “You wanted me close to her. To gain her trust,” Dominic reminded him. He’d gained Lexie’s trust. Once she found out the truth about him, that trust would evaporate.

  Sal laughed. “And what information have you gotten?” He snapped his fingers. “Nothing. Stay away from her for a while. She’ll be glad to see you when you show up. Maybe then you’ll do your job.”

  ****

  She missed Dominic.

  Lexie brushed her hair and smoothed it into a ponytail. Sighing, she headed into the bedroom. The curtains were open, exposing a three-quarter moon suspended in a deep blue sky.

  Dominic had called this morning to ask how she was and to say he was still bogged down at work. It had been three days since the terror-filled incident on the road. She missed his company, his reassuring presence. Sightseeing didn’t appeal to her without him, so she’d stayed in, taking it easy, trying unsuccessfully to read a book and relax.

  He had assured her he would contact the Abruzzo police to report the incident on the road. But he hadn’t called the Rome police about the attempted mugging when he’d said he would. She’d tried to contact the Abruzzo authorities herself, but the language barrier had proved too much. Dominic and Ruggiero had insisted the near-accident on the road was nothing more than an attempted robbery. But Lexie knew it was about much more than robbery. What the hell was going on?

  And what did Dominic have to do with it?

  Fighting a headache, she rubbed her forehead. She hadn’t eaten all day. She needed some food. She slipped on her jacket, grabbed her purse and left her room, careful to lock the door behind her.

  She’d leave here in five days. She’d never see Dominic Brioni again. Did he care? It was beginning to seem as if he didn’t. He hadn’t come around since the trip to Abruzzo. Something in his voice belied his words when he’d said he was busy working. What did she know about him? Maybe he was a gigolo, preying on female tourists. But he’d never taken anything from her.

  Except her heart.

  ****

  The crowds that usually jammed the streets were thinner tonight. Lexie guessed the cool air kept many indoors. She’d had a delicious dinner at a restaurant near the Pantheon. She’d be home in Las Vegas soon, and back to catching quick bites between work and school. Home. Away from Dominic. She hardly knew him. The thought of never seeing him again shouldn’t make her feel empty, but it did.

  Despite the coolness of the evening, she decided to take a stroll before going back to the hotel. She’d stayed close to the hotel since the car incident, but she was tired of letting her fears keep her from enjoying her last few nights in Rome. No scum, thieves, or whatever would chase her indoors tonight. Besides, even with the thinner crowds, there were plenty of people around.

  She walked, careful to stay on the crowded street, her mind a muddled mess, trying to understand everything that had happened to her, trying to figure out Dominic. Footsteps shuffled close behind her and she looked quickly around. An older woman smiled as she pushed past her. Lexie relaxed. The street pulsed with life, crowded, noisy. She was being paranoid again. Still, she quickened her pace and headed back to the hotel.

  Warnings shivered through her. Someone was close, breathing heavily. Before she had a chance to turn around, something cold and hard jabbed her in the ribs.

  “No noise. Keep walking, or I shoot.” The deep, guttural voice with the thick accent whispered in her ear. She drew in her breath, gagging from the heavy garlic scent emanating from the man. He dug fingers into her arm, squeezing until she winced in pain, and pushed her along the street. Others around her continued on their unsuspecting ways, not paying attention to her or her strange companion.

  Her stomach twisted itself into a knot. “What do you want?” she managed. “Who are you?”

  “We’re going to take a little walk,” he said in that same rough voice. “One scream or fight from you and I will shoot you. Capice?”

  She nodded, unable to speak.

  “Now, we walk.” With the gun pressed against her and the strange man holding tight to her arm, they made their way onto a narrow, empty side street.

  Fear thickened Lexie’s throat. She had to keep her wits. It was the only way she could escape alive. If only she’d taken a course in self-defense. She remembered reading something about passive resistance but didn’t think that applied in this situation.

  “You go with me easy, or I shoot you now,” he growled in her ear.

  “If you want my purse, you can have it. Just let me go.”

  “I want the purse, but I want you too, bitch. I’m tired of chasing you.” He chuckled, deadly and evil, making her blood curdle. “You’re hot, not too skinny, like Giovanni said.”

  Giovanni? Where had she heard that name? The body by the Tiber, the man who’d been asking about her. Oh, shit. She was a dead woman. The guy pressed the gun harder into her side, making her move faster. She struggled to remember defense tactics she’d heard of. Maybe she could poke him in the ribs with her elbow, then kick him in the groin. But he’d get a shot off before she had time to kick him.

  Her attacker led her onto a wide street where a large black car with tinted windows waited. It was the car she’d seen on the hellish ride from Abruzzo. Through the darkened windows she could make out the shadow of someone sitting in the driver’s seat. Her heart began hammering until she was sure it would pop out of her chest. She’d been right. The guy who’d tried to drive them off the road wasn’t a pirate. He’d been out for blood. Hers? But why?

  Pure, unadulterated terror pressed against her chest. Beads of cold sweat broke out on her upper lip. If she let him put her in that car, she’d die for sure. She’d take her chances here, getting shot on the street.

  As they approached the car, she looked frantically around. A few pedestrians stood talking across the wide street, not looking in their direction. No one was close. No one would see her pushed into the car. Fear froze her throat. She couldn’t scream.

  The man pulled her around to the passenger side and opened the door. “Get in,” he growled.

  Lexie dug her heels into the cobblestones and turned to look at him. Their eyes met and she looked into evil—icy, pale blue evil. He grunted and pressed the gun closer. She flinched.

  “No funny stuff,” he said.

  “You’ll have to shoot me here,” she said, making her final stand. “I’m not getting in.”

  “Then I’ll have to shoot you.”

  Suddenly something large and hard plowed into them, knocking them to the ground. Her attacker released his hold on her. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, Lexie rolled away and scrambled to her feet, clutching her purse.

  A man was on top of her attacker, his fists flying, pounding into the other man’s face. She didn’t stop to see who it was. She kept moving as people s
topped across the street, watching the fight. Cars and scooters flew by, their drivers oblivious to the drama playing out on the side.

  “Help him!” she shouted, waving her hands and gesturing to the men rolling around in the street. “That fat man wanted to kill me!” She shouted again to the people across the street, but they ignored her, focusing on the fight. She was sure she saw money exchange hands. The idiots were betting on the fight between her attacker and…

  Dominic?

  Dominic groaned. The other guy had his hands around Dominic’s throat. Swearing, Lexie sailed back into the fray and slammed her purse against her attacker’s head. The stunning blow allowed Dominic time. He threw his attacker off and heaved himself up, grabbing the other man by the front of his shirt. Dominic shouted something to the man in Italian while he punched him in the gut, then in his face.

  The driver’s side car door squeaked open. Lexie whirled around. “Dominic!”

  Sirens sounded close by. Whoever had started to get out of the car slid back in. The driver hit the gas and the car sped off, the open passenger door swinging wildly. Dominic, distracted by her call, looked up. Lexie’s attacker yanked free, and with a final jab at Dominic’s chin, staggered away, zigzagging down the narrow street.

  Dominic shouted something in Italian after him, then turned to her. Blood streamed from cuts on his face and one eye was partially closed. Holding his hands out, he drew her into the circle of his arms. She went all too willingly, knowing how narrowly she’d just escaped death. Whatever his part in all this, he’d come to her rescue…again.

  “Lexie, I should have been here. Did he hurt you?” He leaned back and held her face between his hands, his thumbs skimming over her cheekbones.

  “I’m okay.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him hard. “Oh, God, Dominic, he was going to kill me.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  They’d taken Dominic away, wheeling him with detached efficiency into an exam room in the hospital ER, closing the curtains, shutting her out. Lexie paced the waiting area, clutching a cooling cup of weak coffee. The last glimpse she’d gotten was an EMT holding an ice pack to Dominic’s eye and an IV tube stuck in his arm. The hospital smells of blood, antiseptic cleaner, and sickness made her eyes water.

  Her insides shook, a delayed reaction to her attempted kidnapping and Dominic’s injuries. The EMT’s, or whatever they were called here, had checked her out in the ambulance. She had no injuries, just some bruises on her body that she knew would be black and blue by tomorrow. When they’d gotten to the hospital, she’d refused an examination. The damage to her psyche was worse than any cuts or bruises, and something no medical doctor could cure. But that wasn’t important now. Only Dominic’s condition mattered.

  Leaning against a wall, she gripped her Styrofoam cup, trying to calm her racing heart. Others in the waiting room shot her curious glances. She ignored them, her mind spinning. Damn, she hated these delayed reactions like the one she’d had the night of the first attempted mugging when Dominic and she were coming back from dinner. He’d fought the bad guy for her that time too.

  The police and the ambulance had arrived on the scene tonight at the same time. The police had wanted to question her and Dominic, but the medical team refused, saying they had to get them to the hospital. She and Dominic rode together in the ambulance, holding hands as the EMT’s treated them. On the wild, siren-filled ride through the Roman streets, Dominic had muttered something about idiots, and someone who was supposed to watch her.

  An icy chill had swept through her at his words. When she’d asked him what he’d meant, he’d closed his eyes.

  The hospital doors swung open now, jerking her from her thoughts. Two policemen barged through and strode to the desk. She recognized them as the policemen who’d tried to question her and Dominic. The clerk pointed to Lexie and the cops quickly went to her.

  “Signorina Cortese.” the younger of the two said. “Please come with us. We have questions for you.” He spoke in clear English.

  Anger over her near kidnapping, worry over Dominic, dread over what it all meant coalesced inside her, gathering power like a tornado. Lifting her chin and squaring her shoulders, she glared at the cops. “Oh, now the police want to talk to me. When I tried to get them to listen before, they practically laughed at me. Why should I help you?”

  Confusion flitted across the cop’s face. He looked at his partner, shrugged, then looked back at Lexie. “I do not know what you mean. If you want us to find the man who assaulted you, you must answer our questions.”

  They led her to a small cubicle off the waiting room. Lexie sat in a hard metal chair in front of a flimsy card table. She set her empty cup on the table and began tearing the top apart in small sections, needing to use her nervous energy. What were the doctors doing to Dominic? Was he going to be okay? Why was she sitting here when she wanted to be with him?

  “How long will this take?” she demanded. “I have to go to my friend.”

  The younger officer smiled and sat across from her. The older policeman stood in a corner, his arms folded. Lexie guessed he didn’t speak English.

  “We have questions about what happened tonight, signorina,” the cop said.

  “Make it quick,” she said, challenging the cop. She suspected he had her pegged as hostile. So be it.

  Voices, then footsteps coming closer, sounded outside the cubicle. Through the opening in the fabric panels, she saw two men walking down the hall, their backs to her. One was short and beefy and walked with a rolling gait. The other man was slim, dressed in jeans, the set of his shoulders suggesting a heavy dose of machismo.

  Ruggiero? Her limo driver on the trip to Abruzzo? The men were heading to the area where they’d taken Dominic.

  Lexie straightened. Something was definitely going on here, and as soon as she finished with these buffoons, she intended to find out what it was.

  ****

  “What the hell happened?” Sal’s rough voice penetrated Dominic’s pain. He sat on the edge of the exam bed and gingerly touched his jaw, glad it wasn’t broken. With his good eye, he glared at his boss and Ruggiero, standing behind Sal.

  The nurse handed Dominic an ice pack and instructed him to ice his bruised eye for a good hour. Then Sal waved her out of the room and shut the door behind her.

  “That’s what I want to know,” Dominic said, wincing from the cut on his lip. “Where the hell was our agent who was supposed to watch Lexie? She could have been killed.”

  “He lost her,” Sal said. “We’re dealing with him.” He strode closer. “What the fuck were you doing there, Brioni? I told you to stay away from her for a while.”

  Dominic set down the ice pack and narrowed his good eye at his boss. “I was on my own time. I tried calling Lexie but her phone was dead. She wasn’t at her hotel so I went looking for her. I saw her leave the restaurant and went after her. Damn tour group got in my way and by the time they cleared out Lexie was far ahead. Her attacker had already gotten to her.” Despite the pain, he clenched his jaw. “If I hadn’t been there, she’d be dead.”

  His chest tightened at the thought of Lexie dead. He grabbed the ice pack and slapped it too hard against his eye. Pain shot through his face.

  “You’re going to have one hell of black eye,” Ruggiero said. “The police are questioning Lexie now.”

  Dominic straightened as much as his aching ribs would allow. “Police? They’re going to screw up everything. Do our contacts there know what went down tonight?”

  “How do you think we heard about your accident?” Sal said. “The police know we haven’t found squat in all this time.” He moved closer to Dominic. “Did you get a look at the Cortese woman’s attacker?”

  “It was Pasquale Dellose.”

  “Dellose, that motherfucker,” Ruggiero said.

  “Giampietro must have been working for him,” Sal said. “No wonder he’s dead. Dellose likes to throw his fuck-ups in the river. Dellose and Giampietro must be the other two
involved in the heist. Too bad the Florence police couldn’t have gotten a clearer picture on the surveillance video, but we’ll pass the information on to them. Maybe they can get Dellose before he skips.”

  Dominic shifted on the hard bed, trying to find a position where he didn’t hurt so damn much. “Sal, this should cement what Ruggiero and I tried to tell you. There’s no reason a scum like Dellose would be after Lexie unless they’d passed off the diamond to the wrong woman and they want it back.”

  “None of this makes any fucking sense.” Sal paced the room, picked up some paper towels and crumpled them in his hands, then dropped them to the floor. He spun around. “We need to wrap this up before it’s too late.”

  Swinging his gaze to Ruggiero, he waved a hand. “Get going. Contact the Florence police. See if they got more intel from that scum they captured.” He turned to Dominic. “Check yourself the hell out of here. You have a new assignment. Find that diamond. I want to know for sure whether or not the Cortese woman has it. This whole thing could be a setup by Dellose to throw us off the track. The Cortese woman could be working for him. He makes us think she has the gem while they pass it on to their real contact.”

  Dominic jumped from the bed, flinching at the pain in his side. “That’s bullshit.” He moved closer to Sal, invading his space. Sal moved back.

  “I will look for that diamond,” Dominic said in a tight voice. “If Lexie doesn’t have it, it means we’ve been set up, not that she’s involved. If she has it, it means it was slipped to her without her knowledge. I’ll take the diamond. Once we have it, the police can get one of their informants to go to Dellose, dangle the diamond in front of him, and offer him a deal. His leniency in exchange for information about the terrorists.”

  “Think you have it all figured out, Brioni? I’m calling the shots here. You look for that diamond. If you find it, you call me.”