“It was your father who ordered her murder,” he said, his voice calming now, almost cold. “An eye for an eye seems a good idea right now.”
Sailor was silent. Maybe if she let him rant himself out…Then Claudio did something that made her stomach curl with terror. He grabbed a dish cloth, tearing it into strips and bound her hands behind her, to the chair.
“The police told me someone held her back while the killer stabbed her. She couldn’t defend herself…so why should you be able?”
The feeling of being tied to chair made Sailor’s body tremble. Memories flooded back. Her father. The knife. The pain. She couldn’t help the whimper of fear that escaped her. Claudio pulled up a chair and sat in front of her. Sailor only reigned in her screams because he wasn’t armed. Claudio studied her before he spoke, Sailor smelled whiskey and cigarettes on his breath.
“You are beautiful. When I first met you, I admit, I had a crush. I know Soleil liked you…hell, there was proof all over the news that she liked you, wasn’t there? You fucked her…did you actually desire her too or were you just using her to get your rocks off?”
“I loved her,” Sailor said softly, figuring honesty was the only thing which could save her now. “I loved her, maybe not in the same way I love Bodhi, but yes, I wanted her that day and she wanted me. It was one of the happiest days of my life, and when Soleil died, a part of me died too. There isn’t anything I would do to bring her back but I can’t. If I had known Bart Foy…”
“Your father.”
Sailor choked on the words. “My father – in biology only – if I had known he would kill her…I would have swapped places with her in a heartbeat. I loved her, Claudio.”
Claudio got up suddenly, pacing around the room and Sailor saw that she had gotten through to him – a little. After a few tense minutes, he sat down.
“Tell me.”
Sailor was confused. “Tell you what?”
“Everything. From as far back as you can remember. Tell me everything about how you were raised, what Bartie Foy was like.”
Sailor let out a shuddery breath. He was doing it to torture her. Okay, then, let him, she thought. She told him everything, about her mother, about Tilly, about her destiny to be his wife. “He wanted to fuck me, Claudio. My own father. And as he always wanted to be seen as pure and a good man, I have no doubt that he would have murdered me eventually to stop me talking about his incestuous violence.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” Claudio’s voice was like ice. Sailor shook her head.
“No. You asked me to tell you, and I’m telling you. The day I met Bodie, I had escaped from Bart but was working for his agent, Maurice Winston. Winston tried to rape me, and Bodhi saved me. It seems so prosaic to say it, but we really did fall in love quickly. He wanted to protect me.”
“Which is why he asked Solly to pose as his girlfriend? To protect your whereabouts?”
Sailor nodded. “And she agreed without hesitation.”
Claudio looked down at his hands and was silent for a long time. All Sailor could hear was his ragged breathing and the sound of her blood rushing in her ears. When Claudio looked up again, there were tears in his angry eyes.
“They stabbed her twenty-seven times. Twenty-seven. The medical examiner said twenty-two of those stab wounds were fatal in and of themselves. He gutted my sister. By the time the doctor officially declared her dead, she had bled out entirely. Solly didn’t stand a chance.”
“I know,” Sailor said in a whisper, “I’m so sorry, Claudio.”
His face hardened. “So, who could blame me for doing the same to you, Sailor?” And he got up and grabbed a lethal looking bread knife.
Sailor closed her eyes and waited to die. Somehow, in her heart, she knew this had been inevitable, that her happiness was temporary, that she was destined to die young. Oh my god, Bodhi, Solly, Tim…I love you, I love you…goodbye
She felt Claudio rip open the bodice of her dress…
Bodhi tried Sailor’s cell phone again, his heart beating faster and faster. Why wasn’t she answering? He cursed, not seeing his mother behind him holding Solly.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” repeated Solly cheerfully until her grandmother shushed her. Vittoria studied her son. “What is it?”
Bodhi took his daughter and hugged her before answering. Solly wriggled in his arms. “I can’t get hold of Sailor. I would have thought her phone would be on, especially in a city.”
Vittoria looked guilty, and Bodhi squinted his eyes at her. “What? What’s going on?”
Vittoria hesitated then sighed. “Look, I promised I wouldn’t tell, but Sailor’s not in the city.”
A thrill of fear went through Bodhi. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”
Vittoria cut her eyes at Solly who was now singing “Hell, fuck, hell, fuck.” Bodhi took his daughter back inside and gave her to Tim. “Look after your sister for a minute, would you?”
Going back outside, Bodhi glared at his mother. “What’s going on, and don’t lie, you have a terrible poker face.”
Vittoria sighed. “She’s gone to see Claudio.”
Bodhi paled, and for a moment, he thought he might collapse. “No. God, Mom, no…why?”
“She wants to heal the friendship between you both.”
Bodhi went cold. “Shit, Mom…no, Claudio isn’t in a good head space right now…Jesus, I have to go.”
Vittoria followed him in. “What is it, Bodhi, why are you so scared?”
“Don’t you know Claudio blames Sailor for Soleil’s murder?”
“Yes, I know, but how do you know…?”
“Because I’ve had a private investigator on him for these last years,” Bodhi said, almost panicking now. “And Maceo Bartoli called me after he went to see him. His paintings…he hasn’t shown in years and you know why? Because every single one of his paintings is him killing Sailor. All of them. Maceo Bartoli sounded sick to his stomach when he called me. I’ve had Claudio watched to protect my fiancée…and now she’s delivered herself straight to him.”
Vittoria looked alarmed. “God, Bodhi…here, take my SUV. Go, go.”
Bodhi nodded. “Keep trying her cell phone,” he said, “and if she answers tell her to get the hell out of there. I hope to god we’re not too late.”
Claudio ripped open Sailor’s dress with every intention of plunging the knife he gripped into her, but then he was brought up cold. Shock. The pattern of jagged silver scars across her belly reminded him. Sailor had been stabbed too. She had given herself up for certain death to protect Tim, to make some good come out of a terrible situation. Claudio stared at her scarred belly, rising and falling as she took shallow breaths, obviously anticipating the pain.
You are not a murderer. Claudio dropped the knife with a clang and sank onto the floor, resting his head on Sailor’s knees. “God, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
He began to weep, reaching behind her to untie her hands. What the hell was he thinking? How did him killing Sailor help anything? He began to sob in earnest, throwing himself away from her, into the corner of the room, his head in his hands.
Solly, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. He’d never gotten over seeing her dead, pale, silent on the mortuary table. He’d ripped off the cloth covering her so he could see what Foy had done to her. Those patterns of wounds he’d never forgotten. Now, seeing Sailor’s scars, he realized he’d been blaming the wrong person all along.
He felt Sailor sit beside him. At first, he wanted to move away, but when she wrapped her arms around his head and pulled it onto her chest to comfort him, his own arms snaked around her waist, and he held her tightly as they both cried.
After a while, they were both silent but carried on holding each other.
“I’m so sorry, Claudio,” Sailor murmured, her lips against his hair. “I’m so, so sorry. I would do anything to bring her back, anything.”
Claudio looked up, wiping the tears from his face, then sweeping a finger on Sailor’s cheek to
wiped away the dampness there. “I know; me too. I just get past it, Sailor. I can’t.”
“I wish I could tell you a way of dealing with the grief, but the truth is I’ve never known either. When Tilly died…I thought I would spend the rest of my life screaming, it hurt so bad. Is that what you feel?”
Claudio nodded. “Every waking moment – and I don’t think I’ve slept much in the last five years.” He sighed, closing his eyes, felt Sailor cup his cheek in her palm, leaning into it. “I’m sorry, Sailor.”
“Don’t apologize; there’s no need. There isn’t a day since Soleil’s death when I haven’t felt responsible.”
“But you’re not. I see that now. What he did to you…your own father…was monstrous.”
“He was no more my father than he was a human being, Claudio,” she said fiercely. “I was dying, and yet when I saw Bodhi kill him, all I felt was relief. Relief that even if I died – and I was convinced I was already dead – that Bart Foy couldn’t do this to anyone else. If I’d had the chance, I would have done it myself. But sadly, I didn’t have much time to plan it.”
“Bodhi said you broke your own arm to get to the hospital.”
She nodded, half-smiling. “Not one of my best ideas, but it did the trick. I hid a scalpel and some scissors in the cast, but they found them.”
Claudio smiled and brushed the hair away from her face. “You sacrificed yourself for Tim.”
“What else could I have done? I had to end it one way or another.”
He gazed at her for a long time. Sailor had become perhaps even more of a beautiful woman as she outgrew her puppy fat, although she still retained the curves that made men weep, Claudio thought. He felt ashamed. This young woman had been through hell, and he had just almost killed her for no reason. “You said you have a daughter?”
She nodded. “I was two weeks pregnant when Bart stabbed me. She’s a little badass, she survived it, and now she’s four and running us ragged.”
“She takes after her mom.”
Sailor smiled a little hesitantly. “Her name is Soleil,” she said softly, and Claudio felt a thrill of pleasure rip through him.
“Thank you,” he whispered, tears on his cheeks again. He gathered himself. “Do you have a photograph?”
Sailor nodded and got up to find her purse. She saw she had a raft of calls from Bodhi, but restrained herself from calling him. Talking to Claudio was the priority now. She found some photos of Solly and handed him her phone. Claudio smiled at he looked at her daughter.
“She’s beautiful,” he said softly. Sailor stood next to him and put her head on his shoulder.
“She would love to know you.”
Claudio handed her the phone, his face stricken with grief. “I can’t…”
“Just think about is all I ask,” Sailor said and pressed her lips to his forehead.
Claudio rubbed his face, looked deep in thought for a long moment. “Sailor…I would like your help with something.”
“Anything.”
He held up his hand. “It may shock you, or upset you, but I think it has to be done.”
“Okay.” She had no idea where he was going with this. Claudio beckoned her.
“Come with me.”
He led her back to his workshop and shoved open the door wide. He motioned for her to follow him to the back of the room. A stack of canvas lay there, and Sailor saw that there was maybe fifteen or twenty, covered with a tarpaulin. Claudio hesitated then removed the tarp.
Sailor rocked back. The first canvas was unmistakably her, dead, butchered. She gave a small cry and backed off.
Claudio raised his hand. “Please. Don’t be afraid. I’m not showing you to hurt you. These paintings…they are the result of my fear, my grief. I mean you no harm, Sailor, I swear. I would like you to help me burn these. I don’t want to be reminded of my…unjustified…feelings now. Let’s burn these and put an end to it.”
Sailor stared at him for a long moment and then nodded. She helped him carry all of the canvases out into the yard, and they piled them up. She tried not to look at them, but sometimes she would catch a glimpse and be sickened. Claudio saw her face, and she saw he was ashamed.
When they had set the pile alight, they stayed o watch them burn. “I will seek counseling,” Claudio promised her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “And I’m sorry, Sailor, I truly am.”
“Then come and see your godchild,” she urged him, “Come see your best friend. Bodhi is still devastated over your estrangement. Please.”
Claudio looked away from her. “I can’t,” he said, “too much time has passed.”
“Don’t you think, Claudio, that if you and I can reach this place, you and Bodhi can too?” Sailor felt despairing; if Claudio didn’t reconcile with Bodhi, then what had she just gone through for?
Sailor felt tears threatened and Claudio took her face in his hands. “Beautiful Sailor, I am sorry. For what I thought, for what I did. For assaulting you today. Please forgive me.”
“I do forgive you,” Sailor was weeping now, “I just can’t bear to see you both so miserable without each other.”
“I deserve the misery,” he said and walked her back to her car. Sailor opened the door but shut it again quickly.
“We’re getting married. Next August, here in Italy. If you won’t come before then, please, come be with us at our wedding. At least,” she was desperate now, “at least promise me you’ll think about.”
Claudio held her gaze. “I will. I will think about it, I swear.”
Sailor gave him one last hug and got into her car. As she drove down the hillside, she could see the fire blazing, a figure, standing in front of it, still watching her drive away.
She couldn’t help but feel a sense of disappointment, even though there was still hope there. She wanted so badly to reunite her lover with his best friend.
Her cell phone rang and Sailor remembered she hadn’t called Bodhi back. She pulled the car over to the side of the road and answered it.
“Hi, baby.”
“Jesus H. Christ,” she heard Bodhi’s voice, the terror in it, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Of course not, honey, calm down, breathe. I’m sorry I didn’t call you back right away.”
He obviously knew where she had gone. She heard his ragged breathing as he steadied himself. “God, Sailor, the images in my head…”
Sailor thought back to Claudio’s paintings but shook the images away. Bodhi need never know about them. “Why are you concerned?” she asked, lightly. “It’s only Claudio.”
When he spoke, there was ice in his voice. “Don’t lie to me, Sailor. You’ve never done that before, it’s not like you. I know what Claudio had been thinking these last years. Did he hurt you?”
Sailor bit her lip. Did she lie again? “No, but it was a difficult conversation.” At least that was true. “And I failed. We reached an understanding but he won’t…” Her voice choked up then, and she began to cry. “I’m so sorry, Bodhi, I thought I could make him see, make him want to reconcile with you.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” His voice was soft now. “I love you for trying, but this all has to come from Claudio.”
Sailor wiped her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. “And I didn’t go to Vinci to get you a gift.”
Bodhi laughed. “Hey, pretty girl, look up ahead.”
She looked up to see Vittoria’s SUV driving toward her, her lover behind the wheel. She had never been so glad to see him and when he parked in front of her and got out, she went straight into his arms. “You came to get me.”
“Of course, I did.” He kissed her tenderly. “Man, you are the bravest person I know, and you keep proving it over and over.”
She flushed but looked at him with serious eyes. “You knew? About the paintings?”
He nodded. “I did. Did he show you them?”
“Yes. And then we burnt them together.”
She saw Bodhi’s shoulders slump. “Thank god.” His arm
s tightened around her. “Sailor…all I ever wanted to do was protect you and our family. Forgive me for not telling you about Claudio’s…psychosis?”
“If you’ll forgive me for today.”
“Deal. God, when you called, I thought I might drive the car off the road with relief. Let’s just hang here for a while so I can get my blood pressure down.”
Sailor grinned wickedly at him. Actually, I was just thinking I might try and raise your blood pressure. There are some shady cypress trees over there.”
Bodhi laughed. “Then send it through the roof, baby.”
And, laughing, they were soon making love under the trees. Bodhi thrust into her as she lay beneath him, and she gazed up at him. “You know how much I love you?”
Bodhi grinned and rammed his cock deep into her, making her moan. “As much as this, and this, and this…”
Tuscany, Italy
August
Sailor stood at the doorway to the villa that she and Bodhi had purchased a little over a year ago. She breathed in the sultry, warm air of the Tuscany hills, listening to the quiet murmur of their guests as they waited for her in the makeshift aisle under the pergola. Her daughter Solly was playing with her little basket of rose petals, eager to walk with her mother down the aisle.
She heard a noise behind her and turned, her hand flying up to her mouth when she saw who was behind her. The surprise and joy flooded through her and tears started to drop down her face.
“I thought you weren’t going to come, I thought…oh my god…”
And she ran into Claudio’s arms. He hugged her tightly. “I could not stay away, not today. I’m sorry I did not come before.”
Sailor smiled up at him with tears in her eyes. “Come meet your god-daughter.”
Solly beamed up at Claudio as Sailor introduced her, and raised her arms to him. “Hug.”
Claudio laughed and swung her up into his arms. “Hello there, Solly.” He studied her dark curls, her bright green eyes, and her café-au-lait skin. He smiled at Sailor.
“She is the perfect mix of you and Bodhi.”
Rockstar Untamed: A Single Dad Virgin Romance Page 18
