Afterward, they laid facing each other, not saying anything for a while until Ophelie said, in a low, pain-filled voice, ‘He was following me again today.’
Maximo cursed under his breath. This thing with Ferdie…it had been going on for months. At first, when Max had introduced Ophelie to his siblings, they had been welcoming and indeed, his sister, Perdita and his father, Alphonso adored her. But with Ferdie, after a few weeks Ophelie had kept running into him in the most unlikely places; when she was grocery shopping, or coming out of one of the classes she taught at the local college. Ferdie was always there. At first neither Ophelie or Max thought anything of it – until the day Ferdie had told Ophelie he was in love with her. Shocked, Ophelie had gently turned him down- she was in love with Maximo and always had been – she was kind, respectful in her rejection but Ferdie had not taken it well. When Ferdie had embarrassed Ophelie at a public occasion, Maximo had stepped in and the brothers had been at odds ever since.
When Max had gone to his father, Alphonso, asking that their family security team be put on Ferdie, Alphonso had pooh-poohed the idea, telling Maximo he was overreacting and that he would have a word with Ferdie.
Ferdie’s reaction had been terrifying. He had cornered Ophelie in her classroom after hours and although he had not explicitly threatened violence, Ophelie was in no doubt that he was capable. Maximo found her in floods of terrified tears and neither of them slept that night.
Maximo bypassed his father and hired protection for Ophelie. He confronted Ferdie in front of some of Ferdie’s most important clients, determined to get the message across that his behavior was not acceptable.
That had been five days ago. Ferdie had been humiliated and until now, he’d stayed away. But now, as Ophelie told him how she had seen him skulking around the college campus, Maximo’s heart hardened. ‘I promise,’ he told her, ‘I will never let him hurt you.’
It was a promise he was unable to keep. That night, they awoke to glass breaking downstairs. ‘Stay here,’ Maximo told a wide-eyed and frightened Ophelie. Arming himself with a marble ornament he went down stairs to investigate. He found the broken glass window and was confused. It wasn’t big enough for anyone to get through. It was only when he heard Ophelie scream that he realized what it was.
A diversion. Oh, god no…
He sprinted up the stairs, his heart beating furiously. ‘Ophelie!’
‘Maximo!’ She sounded utterly terrified, then Maximo’s heart almost stopped when he heard her scream, ‘No! No, please!’
He burst into their bedroom to see Ferdie as he threw Ophelie through the closed glass windows. The glass smashed and she fell to the balcony floor, gasping and bleeding.
Maximo rushed Ferdie and the two men struggled, each clawing and punching with his whole weight. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ophelie trying to get up, covered in blood. It distracted him enough for Ferdie to strike him hard on the temple, stunning him. Maximo slumped to the floor, knowing he had to get up, now, had to save her, save his love, save his Ophelie…
Ferdie kicked him viciously in the stomach and, completely winded, Maximo could only watch as his half-brother strode to the struggling woman on the balcony, saw him grab a large, lethal shard of glass and plunge it into her stomach.
‘No!’
But Ferdie was merciless, stabbing Ophelie repeatedly until, at last, he let her drop to the ground. Ophelie gasped for breath, for life as Maximo crawled toward her. Ferdie smirked down at the lovers before making his escape. Maximo gathered Ophelie into his arms.
‘Please, please, don’t leave me, my sweet, sweet love,’ he begged her but she touched his face once then her eyes closed forever. Maximo sobbed into the night until his anguished cries alerted the neighbors who called the police. Maximo would not give up Ophelie’s body until Alphonso arrived, appalled.
The whole story came out, Alphonso apologized to Maximo but paid the police off and banished Ferdie to Zurich. Maximo cut all ties with his father.
And Ophelie, his love, was gone.
Maximo made it to the bathroom before he threw up. So much violence, he thought now. He had to get out of Italy, at least for a while. He could not be here for the anniversary of Ophelie’s murder; it would break him.
Two hours later, he was being driven to the airport. He stared sightless out of the window. Haunted by Ophelie’s face, he closed his eyes. He knew two things he could do to distract himself. One was help Luca Saffran get through the loss of his love; Maximo nodded to himself. The other would be more difficult.
Find Ferdie wherever he was in the world and kill him.
Zea Azano had managed to ignore Jared all day as he sat in the diner, wearing supercilious grin and exchanging fake niceties with the regulars. To her satisfaction, Zea knew something Jared didn’t. Every single one of the regulars knew Jared’s game and was playing along.
When Flynt had suggested telling a few of the regulars, Zea had been horrified but at first but he’d talked her around.
‘Think about it, baby. Jared is counting on the fact you don’t want it to be known that you’re David Azano’s widow.’
‘Exactly,’ she said, her face growing hot, her chest tightening with panic.
‘Don’t you see? We can use that. If we tell just a few regulars, and tell them what Jared’s doing and that you don’t want your cover blown, we can use his ignorance and arrogance to our advantage. He’ll try to get to you here; it’s the most accessible place for him. You’ll be surrounded by people, protected so when we really try to push his buttons, and I mean, really push his buttons, when he goes off, we’ll control it.’
Zea gazed at him, then at Teresa and Hannah. ‘What do you think?’
‘I’m with Flynt,’ Teresa said and Hannah nodded.
‘Besides, Zea, think of the fun we’re going to have with this jackass.’
So, she was convinced but still she felt Jared’s presence like a seething, sinister thing, waiting to attack and destroy her. They’d been working up to it all week, already fucking with Jared’s brain. Zea came and went at different, strange times like five after three p.m. or ten of seven a.m. And when Jared tried to follow her or cut her off as she left, someone would be there to stop him, whether it be Flynt, Teresa, Hannah or one of the regulars. He never got near her and they could tell it was getting to him. They were daring him and yet somehow, he didn’t follow through on his threat.
Flynt was getting edgy. ‘We need something big, something to push him over the edge.’
Zea agreed but when Flynt came up with a plan, a failsafe plan, he said, grinning widely. Zea had been stunned but when she thought about it, she’d started to laugh and agreed to go through with it.
She saw Flynt’s car pull up to the front of the diner. As she saw him walk in through the door, greeting his friends there, her heart began to beat just a little faster. When he smiled at her, she was lost. Ignoring Jared, he opened the counter and walked in. He kissed her tenderly but passionately, and not just to annoy Jared.
‘You ready, baby?’ He said softly, his gaze on hers and she nodded, her cheeks flushing red.
‘You bet I am.’
Flynt laughed. Both of them couldn’t resist a glance at the glowering Jared. ‘Got something to say, Podesta?’
‘It can wait.’ Jared’s gaze was fixed on Zea and she felt a frisson of fear despite Flynt’s presence. Flynt gave him a cheesy grin and led Zea outside, open the passenger door for her.
When he got in beside her he looked over at her. ‘Okay. Last chance to change your mind.’
Zea leaned over and kissed him. ’No cold feet here.’
Flynt grinned happily. ‘Then let’s do it.’
Jared Podesta watched them with growing anger. The next moment, he was thrown into confusion as the people around him moved into action. Teresa, and that asshole Flynt’s sister, Hannah, came through with bags of decorations and began to turn the diner into some sort of tinsel nightmare. The other patrons seemed to be in o
n the secret, helping the women out. Jared was left in the middle of the melee as they decked the entire place in banners and balloons, glittering white and silver everywhere. When the two women strung the final banner across the counter, Jared finally understood. No. No way. No fucking way. He stood and Teresa and Hannah started to laugh at him.
‘Don’t fucking laugh at me, bitches,’ he roared and the place fell silent. Hannah gave him a wide-eyed innocent look.
‘So, I take it you don’t want to join the party? You don’t want to congratulate the happy couple?’
Jared felt the rage boiling up inside him. ‘Bullshit. There’s no way they’re really getting married so why don’t you just drop the act?’
Hannah looked at Teresa. ‘Hey, is that true? Did my brother and Zea really not go to City Hall?’
Teresa, enjoying the joke. ‘No, no…’ She looked straight at Jared. ‘They really did. How about we all get ready to say congratulations to the newlyweds?’
Jared lost it. He lunged at Hannah, who was closest, and who deftly sideswiped him, kicking out the back of his knee so he went sprawling. Two of the guys from the diner picking him up and threw him out of the door. Both Hannah and Teresa came to the door as he scrambled to his feet and as he turned, they both gave him the finger.
Fucking, fucking bitches. Jared, humiliated and raging, stamped off to his car. One thing he knew for sure; Zea would never make it down the aisle, or to the courtroom, not if he had anything to do with it. His gun was in his glovebox and he fumbled to get it out now.
As he drove, he calmed himself, started to think about what this all had led to, how he had gotten to this place.
He hadn’t even known he had a brother until his father had died and he was called into his lawyer’s office. He’d been drawn to the painting of the old plantation house he’d been brought up in…
He gazed at the picture of the house, remembering the last time he had ever seen it. Remembering being sent away. Just a boy. An only child. Apparently not. In this stranger’s law office, the photograph of his home, the home from which he was banished, seemed incongruous, wrong.
‘Mr. Podesta?’ Jared turned to face the lawyer, his face cold.
‘Mr. Podesta, do you understand what I am telling you?’
Jared smiled, humorless. ‘Mr. Hamilton, what have I done to make you think I am in some way retarded? You have just informed that I have a brother whose existence up to now was denied to me. So, my mother and father hid from me the fact that they had another son.’
William Hamilton shifted uncomfortably. ‘That’s not exactly…’
Jared sat down opposite him, a movement so abrupt it startled the elderly lawyer.
‘Then tell me how exactly, Mr. Hamilton.’ Jared brushed his trousers before turning his hard stare to the lawyer once more. ‘Well?’
Hamilton cleared his throat. Unease made his stomach roll.
‘Your brother was adopted from birth; your mother never saw him. But somehow, don’t ask me how, it was a closed adoption, she found out where he was and kept tabs on him. And when she died, she split her estate equally between you.’
Jared digested the information. ‘Where is he?’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘Where is my brother now? What’s his name?’
‘I’m sorry I can’t…’
‘Mr. Hamilton, you will give me the information I want. My family abandoned me, and until now, I have had no idea that I have a sibling. I want to know my family, Mr. Hamilton. Where is he?’
Hamilton looked into the eyes of the man in front of him, and recognized the dead eyes of a psychopath.
‘It was your mother’s wish…’
‘Fuck my mother, Mr. Hamilton. I want the family I was denied. Where is he?’
‘His name is David Azano He’s a teacher at a private school near Seattle. He lives with his wife in Auburn.’
‘Washington.’
‘Yes.’
‘Thank you. Mr. Hamilton, you will give me the full address and any other pertinent details. You will engage an attorney in Seattle to handle my brother’s inheritance. I will meet with him and impart the good news myself.’
Hamilton opened his mouth to argue but his mouth flapped ineffectually as Jared smiled to himself and rose, not offering his hand to the older man.
‘I will call again tomorrow for the information. I hope, and expect, you will give me the information I want.’
But then the lawyer had called and asked if he’d seen the news. His brother had gone crazy, shot up a school, killed some people, some kids. Jared watched the news dispassionately. Well, that meant he got all of his father’s inheritance, he supposed. The lawyer had disagreed. No, David’s money would go to his wife. That had angered Jared but then he’d seen her, Zea, her face wracked with grief, wracked with guilt on the television and his breath was taken away.
The answer was clear. He would find her, seduce then he would have the prize. Not just the money but the beautiful woman his brother had abandoned. She would be his.
And now, not only was he about to lose Zea but, if she married Flynt Newlan, then he would have lost all control over her. He’d done his homework on Newlan, knew he came from money. If he married Zea then all and any control Jared had over her would be gone.
Jared knew that in the next few hours, it would be settled one way or another and if he had to kill Newlan, or Zea, or both of them, then he would. It was time to finish this.
But then the idea came to him and he almost burst out laughing. So, so obvious.
Bree leaned her head against the window of the ferry lounge. Outside, the weather was squally, the ferry heaved and fought against the boiling sea. Bree’s stomach roiled but she swallowed back the nausea. Bree sighed at the peace the day alone had given her. She’d gotten up before dawn, caught the first boat into the city on Kizzie’s suggestion, just hanging out in coffeehouses alone, or in bookstores. She had bought Kizzie a new cello bow and some Arvo Part on vinyl to say thank you.
She had spent the weekend with Kizzie at her place on the island, enjoying the waterfront villa. Kizzie had grinned when Bree expressed her admiration. ‘I know it’s outrageously expensive but god, the peace. Plus, I don’t disturb the neighbors when I practice.’ She’d played the cello for Bree and Bree had been deeply moved by the music, even ended up in tears. It felt good to cry. She and Kizzie had talked non-stop about everything, everything and it had taken the edge off the tension she had felt starting to overwhelm her.
Then Kizzie had started to talk about Jesse. ‘He misses you, Bree. So much. Don’t make that face, I know you feel the same. And the truth of the matter is there’s no way you can go on avoiding him if we’re going to be friends. Or if he decides to move away from Seattle and you never see him again.’
Pain shot through Bree and she winced. Kizzie had seen it. ‘There you go. So, the only way is to fight through the painful part and get back to being…jeez I don’t know. Friends. Friends who, yeah, are in love with each other, but still just…friends. Soul-mates, if you like.’ She grinned at Bree but her eyes were serious. She took her hand, trying to soften her words. ‘Honestly, if you can’t…then I don’t know what’s going to happen to all of us. I can’t choose sides, Bree, he’s my brother. Being selfish, I can’t live without either of you, so it’s time to suck it up and get over it.’
The grief Bree felt at her words was overwhelming.
Kizzie could see the anger, the pain on her friend’s face. Bree shook her head. ‘I’m so wrecked by everything that’s happened lately, Kizzie. The shootings, Emory, my mom and dad.’ Tears started to pour down her face. ‘And Jesse…I should have given him a chance to explain. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t gone off at him. I love him so, so much, Kizzie, I’m sick of pretending I don’t.’
Sitting down in the window seat, she glanced over to Jesse’s house. Seeing it in darkness, she covered her face with her hands and let out one wrenching sob. ‘And I’m so sick of
pretending that my heart isn’t broken and I don’t know how to fix it. That every time I think of him with her, Julietta, I feel like I’m dying.’
Kizzie’s eyes filled with tears as she watched her friend weep. ‘Oh sweetheart…’ She went and pulled Bree over to the couch, made her sit, held her as she tried to stop crying. ‘You should know…he’s not with Julietta like that. He’s supporting her because of the baby but it’s you he loves. I know it.’
Eventually Bree’s sobs shuddered to a stop and she sniffed. Kizzie let her go and smiled at her.
‘I have an idea. You need to get away from everything, at least for a day.’
Bree wiped her eyes. ‘That sounds good. What’s the plan?’
The ferry pitched and rocked, the weather outside worsening. Bree closed her eyes, rubbed her forehead. For once, they’d decided, the Varsity could stay closed for a day. Bree would get out, into the city, away from everyone and clear her head. And it had worked. She felt stronger, a decision had been made. Jesse…the pain of never seeing him outweighed everything. Everything. So, she would try to live with being just his friend. The thought made her stomach warm.
Bree shifted in her seat, pulling her coat tighter. The breeze from the ocean swept in as the door to the deck opened behind her and she shivered. She leaned her head on her hand, sleep threatening.
Then she felt someone sit down beside her, a hand slide gently into hers. In the second before she opened her eyes, a memory came flooding back. A shock of messy hair and a crooked smile. She knew this skin, the warm fingers tangling gently through hers. Her stomach flipped and she opened her eyes.
Evergreen: An Alpha Billionaire Romance Page 18