I wrapped my arms around my waist, feeling exposed in ways I didn’t like. The long-sleeved, tea-length black dress I wore wasn’t revealing in the least and hid all of my bruises, but I still felt exposed. Naked. As if everyone in this room could see beneath the cloth and makeup to the pain lingering beneath. That they knew what had happened last night.
No one was focused on me at the moment, but it didn’t change that feeling. And even though my body was still screaming for me to run, I held still and reminded myself that everything in this world was about image. So long as I acted the part of the supportive wife, they’d all think I was one. Everyone who’d had a hand in my kidnap and torture last night was now dead.
Everyone except Giovanni, a voice whispered in the back of my mind.
As the Grande Cavaliere began speaking in Italian, my gaze shifted out over the sea of white-masked faces, searching for any sign Giovanni was among them. Each face looked the same. If Giovanni was in attendance tonight, Luc and I would never know.
“Please don’t be here,” I whispered to myself. “Please, please...”
Luc’s voice rang out in Italian, echoing through the room. I looked toward the dais, where he was now kneeling on the bottom step, repeating, it sounded, what the Grande Cavaliere had just said.
The Grande Cavaliere moved to the altar, grabbed what looked to be a medal of some kind on a red ribbon, and came back. Stepping in front of Luc, he clasped the medal around Luc’s neck, and spoke in Italian. Luc repeated the words, then the entire chamber chanted the same words in answer. The Grande Cavaliere stepped back and held up his hands. Luc rose, and my heart raced as Luc turned on the steps to face the room of hidden faces.
“Ti present, il Granduca di Toscana,” the Grande Cavaliere called out.
“Il Granduca!” the members in the room responded as one.
Someone moved up on my right as Luc began to speak to the room in Italian. I didn’t want to look away, but the caped individual pushed a series of papers in front of me and held out a pen.
Irritated by the interruption, I glanced up, only to falter at the hard dark eyes peering down at me from behind that mask. They weren’t Giovanni’s eyes, but that didn’t ease my sudden fear any because the mystery man was still staring at me with contempt. Still watching me. Still waiting.
I swallowed hard and looked down at the papers. They were written in Italian. I couldn’t make out a single word. And my vision was blurring in front of me as I fought the irrational fear at being so close to one of them.
“As a wife, you won’t be required to participate in the ceremony, only sign as a witness.”
I latched on to Felicity’s words from earlier, took the pen from him without touching his fingers, and quickly scribbled my name in the multiple places he indicated. And I didn’t breathe again until he moved away from me and disappeared into the crowd.
I closed my eyes, dropped my head into my hand, and fumbled with the neckline of my dress, searching for the outline of the key beneath the fabric. As my fingers passed over the small object, I breathed a little easier, reminding myself it was almost over. That in a few minutes, I’d be with Luc again, and everything would be okay.
Luc’s voice quieted in the front of the room, and I looked up, curious what was going on. The masked man who’d just been at my side was now stepping up onto the dais with Luc. Luc took the papers from the man’s hand and moved to the altar. Laying them out, he used the same pen I’d just signed with and scribbled his name in multiple places.
Almost. It’s almost over.
Excitement and relief swelled inside me. I was so ready to get out of this room. To never come back here again.
Luc moved back to the steps and looked out over the crowd. “I’m going to announce my first decree in both English and Italian so there is no mistake regarding the finality of my words. I’ve just signed legal paperwork, finalizing the divorce between myself and the American woman, Natalie James Salvatici.”
My eyes flew wide, and I shot to my feet, sure I’d heard him wrong.
“Annulment paperwork has already been filed with the bishop and is currently under review,” Luc continued.
No. Disbelief swirled inside me as whispers echoed through the chamber and my heartbeat turned to a whir in my ears. This had to be some kind of joke. Or a ruse, something Luc was announcing to throw them off.
“As of this moment,” Luc went on, “she is stripped of the Salvatici name, and is henceforth banished from House Salvatici and all its lands.”
Masked faces turned my way. My skin grew hot as people stared at me and their whispers grew louder. The room spun around me as I tried to make sense of what was happening. I turned to Luc, but he refused to look my way. Didn’t even acknowledge I was there. I glanced over the crowd, searching for Marco, for some indication this was all a lie, but I couldn’t find him. The only face I recognized was Luc’s mother, who was no longer scowling but was now looking down at me with a smug and victorious grin.
“And my second decree is this,” Luc said loudly, bringing a hush over the room. “Natalie James is protected henceforth. Any member of this House or any House in the Entente who so much as contacts her will be immediately sentenced to death without trial. These are my decrees by my right as the Granduca. These are now law.”
He nodded toward a masked man standing at the base of the stairs, then began speaking to the room in Italian, repeating, I was sure, what he’d just announced in English. The masked man wove around the edge of the crowd and drew close to me. Heart in my throat, I backed up, but he took hold of my elbow and turned me with ease.
“No.” I struggled against him, but he was strong, way stronger than me, especially in my injured state. “No!” I screamed. “Luc! Luc, please! Wait!”
The man moved behind me, wrapped his robed arms around my waist, and lifted me off the floor. Up on the dais, Luc’s voice faltered, but he didn’t look my way. I fought and kicked out against the man dragging me toward the door, fighting back tears and a hysteria I couldn’t control. Luc cleared his throat, straightened his spine, and continued speaking as if I wasn’t even there.
The masked man hauled me out into the dark corridor. The heavy doors snapped closed with a heavy clank. I continued to struggle, to fight, to scream for Luc, and then I felt soft fingers against my arm and Felicity’s voice saying, “Natalie. Natalie focus. I know you don’t understand, but I’ll explain it to you. We’ll explain everything, you just have to calm down.”
I slowed my fight, focusing on Felicity’s familiar face in my blurry line of sight.
The man at my back pulled off his mask, and then I heard Marco’s voice behind me, saying, “We have to go before they adjourn.”
“The car’s waiting. This way.”
Felicity took my hand and tugged me at a hurried place toward the other end of the corridor. I sniffled, swiped at my face, tried to keep up, but my head and heart were in a constant battle, and I had no idea what was happening.
“Will someone please, please tell me what’s going on? Where’s Luc? Why did he say those things? He’s meeting us, right? Wherever you’re taking me, he’s going to be there, isn’t he?”
Felicity pushed a heavy door open, and we were suddenly outside in the cool night air, my feet stumbling down a series of steps. A car waited at the end of the short walk. Felicity rushed around the vehicle and climbed behind the driver’s seat. Marco opened the back door and pushed me in, then climbed in beside me.
“Go,” he said. “And drive fast, vita mia.”
“I don’t understand.” I sucked back air, trying not to panic, trying to convince myself this was all part of some plan. Luc hadn’t divorced me. He couldn’t have. Not like that. “Someone please tell me what just happened in there!”
“Luc just saved you.” Marco handed me a wad of tissues as Felicity whipped the vehicle down the windy road.
“What? How? He said I was already safe.”
“From his father, yes,” Felici
ty said from the front, glancing at me in the rearview. “But not from the Grande Cavaliere.”
“But... But why would he want to hurt me? He doesn’t even know me. And Luc made that deal with his House through that awful ritual.”
“He wants to hurt you because you’re a threat to everything he’s been directing for the last thirty years,” Marco said. “Luc’s father was only one part of the problem. And once Luc’s father marked you for death, the Grande Cavaliere has every right to go after you.”
“Marked for...” My head spun. “What are you talking about?”
“The burn on your ribs,” Felicity said, cutting the car to the right and pulling out onto a highway. “It was a death rune. That mark, from the Grand Duke, supersedes any deal Luc made with the Knights.”
Horror clamped around my neck. “So take it off me. Cut it off, I don’t care.”
“I can’t,” Felicity answered. “Not until the area heals. And Giovanni saw it. All he has to do is tell one person and the Grande Cavaliere has legal permission to hunt you. It’s what he’s wanted all along, to get you out of Luc’s life.”
This couldn’t be real. These people couldn’t be that evil.
But even as the thoughts circled in my mind, I swallowed hard because I knew these people were that evil.
Marco’s hand closed over mine on the backseat. “This was the only way, Natalie. Luc can’t issue a decree protecting you so long as you’re his wife.”
Bile rushed up my throat. I was about to be sick. “But... But what does that mean? Where are you taking me? Luc’s going to join us wherever you’re taking me, right?”
Marco and Felicity exchanged looks in the rearview mirror, but neither answered my most pressing question. All Felicity said was, “We’re taking you out of Italy. For good.”
I didn’t know what airstrip we drove to. I only knew that it was close and that within minutes, I was onboard Felicity’s family’s private jet once more. Only this time, Luc wasn’t with me.
Dazed, I sank into one of the seats in the main cabin. Marco latched my seat belt and moved to tell the pilots we were ready. Lights rushed past the dark windows as the jet streaked down the runway. Minutes later, we were in the air, climbing, rising in the sky, away from Tuscany, away from Italy, away from Luc.
“Here, drink this.”
When Felicity shoved a glass of amber liquid into my hand, I tossed it back without thinking. The whisky burned as it went down, but I didn’t care. I was too numb to feel it, still trying to figure out what Luc really had planned. Felicity took the glass from my hand and carefully handed me a stack of papers.
“I know you’re confused, Natalie, but hopefully this will help.”
I looked down at the papers as she moved away and turned into the galley with Marco. The top paper was folded in thirds, like a letter, and my fingers shook as I opened it and began reading.
Angioletto,
By now you are probably already in the air, hopefully out over the Mediterranean, heading as far from Italy as you can get. I know you are confused. I know you are most likely angry with me. You have every right to be both.
It’s late, though I feel no exhaustion. I’ve been sitting here beside you for hours, watching you sleep, watching your long lashes brush your soft skin, memorizing the way your sweet lips move ever so gently as you dream, trying to keep from kissing you and waking you and making you mine all over again. I told you that you were mine that night in Rome when you let your dress fall to the floor. I was wrong. You were mine the first moment you walked into my office in New York. That day, it was as if you opened my eyes, grabbed hold of my heart, and crawled inside my soul. I came to life that day, and every day since then, I’ve seen the world differently. I’ve seen myself differently, and it’s all because of you.
There are things I need to do to fix the mess that my father created. And I can’t do those things with you here. It’s too dangerous. I’ve put you at risk too many times to count, and I won’t do it anymore. You saved me, Natalie. You saved me in every way that matters. Now, it’s my turn to save you.
I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through. I’m sorry that this is how it has to end. I know you’ll never be able to forgive me for this, but I hope that someday you can at least understand. And I pray that one day, you remember that everything I’m doing, everything I’ve ever done, has all been for you.
You are finally and truly safe, angioletto. Giovanni will never touch you. And I promise, if it’s the last thing I do, I will make him pay for what he did to Elena.
~Luc
My vision blurred. I blinked rapidly and read the letter again, gripping the key tightly at my chest. Nowhere in the letter did he say he loved me, but I felt his love in every aching word. And it only forced the tears to fall faster from my eyes.
I folded the letter with shaky hands and I told myself he was doing what he had to. He was keeping me safe as he’d said. It wouldn’t be forever. As soon as he did what he needed to do, he’d come for me.
I glanced through the other papers. And gasped when I realized what they were.
Legal paperwork. Pages of it. Confirming he’d put everything in my name in carefully hidden accounts: his island, his business, all his money. He’d given everything to me.
My heart shattered into a million pieces. Unable to hold back the dam any longer, I let the papers slide to the floor and curled into a ball in my chair, letting the misery wash over me.
This really was the end.
He was never coming back to me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Natalie
Eighteen months later...
It had been a long day. Longer than I’d planned for. But then, every day was longer down here in the islands, simply because there was more daylight to get everything done.
Exhaustion pulled at me. I was desperate to get home and kick my feet up, grab a glass of wine, and just chill. But I had a few minutes to kill before Haych picked me up with the helicopter, and even though I knew better, I just couldn’t stop myself from looking.
I fingered the key hanging from the long chain around my neck as I sat at my desk in the offices of Luc’s shipyard—well, my shipyard now. Most of the employees had gone home. The warehouse was quiet. I knew to be careful—only search on the dark net, use an onion server, hide my tracks. Just as I knew life would be so much easier if I just wouldn’t look. But no matter how hard I tried to let go of the past, it didn’t seem to want to let me go.
Sometimes, I wasn’t sure it ever would.
I scanned threads, searching for any news Luc might be involved in. And when I found something halfway down one of the pages, I couldn’t help but smile.
The board was buzzing about an unnamed billionaire who’d purchased all the modeling agencies in New York and fired some of the biggest managers in the industry. I knew immediately it was Luc. I knew he was cleaning house and getting rid of the scum trafficking women to elite men in his shadow world. He’d told me that he’d originally planned to change things at Covet before I came into his life and distracted him. He was doing it now but on a much larger scale, purging the beta program his house has been instrumental in for so long.
I opened another tab and typed Luc’s name in the search bar. Dozens of images of Luc filled the screen, making my stomach warm and toss like a boat on the open ocean.
He was as sexy as ever—his muscular body filling out the charcoal suit, his thick dark hair barely brushing his collar, a hint of stubble on his square jaw, and his unique and stormy gray eyes as mesmerizing and intimidating as they always were. His skin was golden, as if he’s been out in the sun more than usual, and as I studied him, I could practically smell him through the screen—that intoxicating mixture of jasmine and spice and rum that has the power to ignite a fire deep in my belly.
There were pictures of him talking with other men in suits, in sunglasses walking down the street, at a fashion show, standing on the sidelines. But the one I clicked on wa
s of him and a blonde woman walking out of a swanky restraint in what I immediately recognized as Venice.
She was dressed in a little black number and high heels, her straight blonde hair falling around her perfect face. I could tell with one look that she was a model—she had that thin, perfect build and long shapely legs. And she was clutching her purse at her front as she stepped onto the sidewalk, looking down so she wouldn’t trip as the paparazzi took her photograph.
Luc was beside her, looking dapper in his black slacks, a white dress shirt open at the collar, and a fancy black jacket. He was also looking down, but his hand was at her back, directing her, and from the tense line of his shoulders and the flex of his jaw beneath his sexy stubble, I could tell he had no use for the photographers harassing them, and that he only wanted to get somewhere private.
I sat back in my seat, a mixture of loss and despair washing over me as I studied the images. Memories of the way he’d rescued me from the paparazzi that had swarmed around us outside that fashion show in Rome filled my mind. The way he’d rushed right toward me, pulled me against his strong body, and swept me up into his arms, carrying me into the car where I was safe and protected by him.
My gaze dropped to the article below the picture, and even though I knew better, I couldn’t keep from reading it.
Marriage rumors swirl around billionaire playboy Luciano Salvatici and supermodel Mila Diedrich. The two were spotted for the fourth time together at the exclusive Acquerello on San Clemente Island.
I looked back at the picture and focused on his left hand, hanging at his side. No wedding band. No sign of the tattoo that used to hide beneath.
I’d known neither would still be there—we were divorced, our marriage had even been annulled by the bishop—but a hole opened up inside me just the same. I looked back at the woman he was intimately touching at his side, and my stomach pitched with the thought of him in Venice with someone else. Even though I knew it would only torment me more, I couldn’t stop from wondering if he’d taken her to the the Gritti Palace. To the hotel where he’d taken me. To the place where I’d first realized I’d fallen in love with him.
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