Now, though, worry was the only emotion she could feel. Elli, despite her natural beauty, looked drawn, ill, pale, and thin. Tandy made her sip her scotch as she waited for Elli to explain herself. Eventually, Elli told her about Indio, about his anger, about fucking him, about her guilt, and about things with Aldo going downhill …fast.
When she had told Tandy everything, Elli rubbed her eyes, sighing. “I’m a mess, Tand.”
Tandy blew out her cheeks. “Look, Els, let’s get to the crux of this. There are two men, both of whom you say you love. Both hate each other. Both have said pretty vicious things about each other. Both of whom have, and correct me if I’m wrong, been aggressive towards you.”
“Indio wasn’t aggressive towards me. He was just trying to …”
“Stop making excuses for Indio. He behaved appallingly. Didn’t you say he came at you—that the sex between you wasn’t lovemaking, but almost violent? And what happened with Aldo on the plane? Wasn’t that the same thing?”
Slowly, Elli shook her head.
“Why not?” Tandy was amazed, and Elli dragged a shaky breath into her lungs.
“Because I wanted Indio to fuck me and I didn’t care how he did it. He could have taken me at knifepoint and I would have still wanted him. I remember every single second of it, Tandy, and it’s like heaven to me. Even with what happened afterward.”
Tandy stared at her in dismay. “You’re never going to get over him, are you?”
“It’s why I feel so hopeless,” Elli muttered. “And now that it’s affecting how I feel about Aldo …”
Tandy chewed her bottom lip. “Els, can I be brutally honest?”
“Please, please do be. I need a kick in the butt.”
Tandy sighed. “I think you need more than that, darling. I think you need to break things off with Aldo and get some space from both of them. Go back to work, do your thing, and be you again. Don’t fuck Indio again. At least not while you get your head together. If he wants you, he’ll come get you once he knows you’re not with Aldo, and then you’ll know for sure.”
Elli listened to her friend, and Tandy could see her shoulders easing and the tension fading. “You’re right. You’re right. God, of course that’s what I should do. Space. “
Tandy’s cell phone rang. “Excuse me, bub. Yeah, hey, Jess.” She listened as her caller spoke. “Well, sure …I do have another friend with me …Elliana Moretti.” She listened, then laughed and handed Elli her phone. “Someone wants a word.”
Eli took the phone. “It’s a damn small world, Elli Moretti,” Jess Storm said, and Elli laughed.
“Yes, yes, it is.”
Jess met them a half hour later, hugging them both, her lovely face lighting up as she greeted them. “Two of my favorite people,” she said as she sat down, and Elli felt a rush of warmth. She’d only met Jess once, but she had formed an instant bond with the other woman. Jess Storm was a stunningly beautiful woman, with big, brown eyes, long chestnut hair pulled up in a scrappy, messy, sexy ponytail, and jeans and a t-shirt that were her obvious choice of uniform. A tomboy, Elli thought with a smile. Just like me and Tandy.
Jess tucked her legs up under her as she took a sip of soda. Tandy ribbed her gently about not drinking, and Jess flushed. Tandy gawked at her. “You’re not?”
“Ssh, I’m not supposed to be telling anyone yet. I’m not even three months. We haven’t even told Lily yet.” Jess grinned widely. “It was an accident. We hadn’t planned to have any more—we were happy with Lily Bean. But now …god, I cannot wait to see him or her.”
She suddenly studied Elli’s face. “Hey, are you okay? You look a little stressed out.”
Elli smiled. “I’m okay. Just jetlagged.”
Tandy gave a noise of disgust. “Elli, we’re all friends here. Tell her.”
Stammering slightly, and first asking Jess to keep it to herself, Elli told her an edited version of what she had told Tandy.
Jess frowned. “Indio? Are you talking about Indio Navaro?”
Elli’s eyes opened wide. “Yes …jeez, it is a small world. How do you know Indio?”
Jess’s eyes were warm. “He’s good friend. A very, very good friend. He built our house out in the San Juan’s a couple of years ago. He became a part of our family …oh gosh, I just realized.”
“What?”
Jess squeezed her hand. “You must be her …he would talk about his great love and how he broke her heart—and his own—when he had to go away. He said it was his only regret.”
Elli felt her throat close. “He did?”
Jess nodded. “I can always see it in him, Elli. He carries you with him, in his heart and soul.”
Elli could feel the tears threatening. “He doesn’t want me now, Jess. He made that very clear.”
Jess studied her, then shared a look with Tandy, who nodded. “Elli, I have a confession. You may think that because we invited you and Aldo both to come see us that we’re close friends of his. Elli …we’re not. We only know Aldo very slightly, and mostly from what Indio has told us. It’s you I wanted to see again, so I asked Theo to extend the invitation to both of you. I wanted to talk to you, and I didn’t want Aldo to grow suspicious.”
Elli stared at her. “Jess, you’re scaring me.”
Jess took her hand. “Sweetheart, listen. I know something or two about dangerous men.” She pulled up her t-shirt and, with horror, Elli saw a mass of silvery, jagged scars on Jess’s belly. “Courtesy of my now-deceased step-brother.” Jess dropped her shirt. “I never underestimate a man’s propensity for violence. I know that might sound melodramatic, but I had to put a bullet in Jules’ head, or he would have killed me and Theo and Lily, while she was still inside me. Indio told me about Yvetta.”
Elli closed her eyes. “He told me he killed her.”
Jess sighed. “He thinks he did. He thinks it’s his fault she was murdered. But, no, Elli, Indio Navaro did not stab Yvetta to death. Who does Aldo say Yvetta was to him?”
“His fiancée. The love of his life.”
Jess shook her head. “Yvetta was Indio’s fiancée. Indio’s lover.”
Ellie was shocked to her core. “Did you meet her?”
Jess shook her head. “Yvetta died three years ago. Almost immediately after, Indio came to Seattle and we met him. He was …hollowed out. He eventually opened up about Yvetta, his devastation at her death, and his guilt over not protecting her.”
“Jess and Theo were the people I saw Indio talking to, the time I mentioned to you before, but I hadn’t met them at that time.” Tandy said.
Ellie chewed her lip. “Did he mention Aldo?”
“No. Not once. Indio alluded to something else. He said the man responsible for Yvetta’s murder had something on Indio that meant Indio had to leave Italy. He wouldn’t say exactly what, but now, Elli, I’m positive it had something to do with you.”
Why are you so sure?”
“Because all Indio would say is that he failed to protect Yvetta, and he would not risk that happening to ‘her.' I think he meant you.”
There was a strange mix of emotions inside Elli, both an icy fear and a little relief. “Then he couldn’t have been talking about Aldo. Aldo loves me, he …” She broke off, seeing the look on Tandy’s face and knowing she was skeptical. “I won’t believe that he was the one who killed Yvetta and, for chrissakes, he hadn’t even met me then. How the hell would he know about me?”
Something jogged in the back of her mind—something from the day she had met Aldo. Your articles are the reason I subscribe to the magazine. But how would he have known about her and Indio? No.
But hadn’t, just an hour or two ago, she been planning to investigate Aldo? What Jess had told her merely fanned that flame.
Jess sighed. “Look, this is all conjecture, really. What does your gut tell you?”
Elli rubbed her hand over her forehead. “God, Jess, I’m so conflicted right now.”
“I told her to get some space from both of them.”
Tandy was picking off the label of her beer, looking annoyed.
“I concur,” Jess said. “But you’re a big girl, Elli. Just know …you have allies.”
Elli smiled at her. “That means the world.”
The one drawback to the afternoon with her friends, Elli thought, as she walked back to the Four Seasons, was that it had to end and now she had to go back and see Aldo and pretend as if nothing had happened.
He greeted her with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. “Hello, darling. I missed you.”
Elli gave him a half-smile. “You were busy, honey. I didn’t want to interrupt your work.”
He pulled her into his arms. “You can interrupt me anytime.” He kissed her, and she tried to respond, but after a moment, Aldo drew back and studied her. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
His eyes narrowed. “You know I don’t like it when you lie to me.”
Oh god. Her heart began to thump. “You got me. I have a splitting headache,” she said smoothly. “But I don’t want to ruin our dinner plans.”
“Nonsense. We’re not meeting Theo and Jess Storm until tomorrow. Tonight, we can have room service and an early night.”
Elli smiled gratefully at him. “That sounds perfect.”
“You liked Jess, didn’t you? Are you looking forward to seeing her again?”
Was she paranoid to hear accusation in his words? She brushed past it, not wanting to give anything away. “Of course.” And Aldo said nothing else, not through the room service dinner or when Elli faked being asleep to avoid sex. He seemed perfectly happy just to lie next to her.
In the middle of the night, she awoke to find the bed empty. A thin sliver of light underneath the bathroom door led her to open it a crack. Aldo was masturbating furiously, his face red from concentration. She was about to close the door and give him some privacy when she heard the frenzied whisper coming from him. As she focused on the words, her stomach clenched with horror as her lover whispered another woman’s name over and over.
Yvetta. Yvetta. Yvetta.
They arrived back in Italy, and Elli intended to break things off with Aldo immediately. There were any number of reasons, starting with what Jess had whispered in her ear after the dinner that Elli and Aldo had shared with her and Theo.
“Always here. Just say the word and we can come get you.” Elli hated the concern in the other woman’s eyes—was she really in as much danger as everyone seemed to think? She couldn’t be with a man who frightened her. That was one thing.
Then, on the flight back to Italy, a different kind of fear struck Elli—one involving biology. The thought that she could possibly be pregnant with Aldo’s child had left her cold. And then, thinking that it might actually be Indio’s child … Elli had closed her eyes and allowed herself the fantasy that it was and that Indio would welcome her and the child and they would live in his farmhouse, running around, having fun, and making furniture in his workshop. She didn’t even want Aldo’s child. That was another thing.
And then there was the fact that, even if he was as clean as his public persona would suggest, she now knew she didn’t love Aldo and could never love anyone but Indio. She’d rather be alone forever than stay with a man out of convenience. It wouldn’t be fair to Aldo.
For all those reasons, Elli tried to finish things, but he deflected her trying to talk to him with a mention of another party. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one, too, my love,” he had said. “Some of our friends will be there.”
Elli bit her tongue and went along with it, distracting herself with work. She also wanted to get a look at Aldo’s study, see if she could find anything in his files about his business concerns in Uganda. So she went along with the plans, keeping out of his way during the day. She would return to work on Monday, which would give her some breathing space.
She asked Umberto to take her to the small town near Aldo’s mansion, and she ducked into a drugstore and bought a few pregnancy tests, not trusting the results of just one test.
It was with great relief, after seven tests, that she found she wasn’t pregnant after all. She sat in the bathroom of the small coffee house and sighed. So why was she so irritable and exhausted?
I need to get away. But, as she laid her head back against cool tile of the bathroom, she knew she had to take her chance to find out more about Aldo. He would not take it well when she broke things off with him, and she had no doubt that he could ruin her career with one phone call. So she needed a backup plan. If Aldo was corrupt, she needed to find out before she left him.
But there was pull in her—a growing need. She wanted to see Indio again. Of course, she did. She didn’t care if he yelled at her, but she needed to see his face, his beautiful face, again.
Oh, how I love you. Elli sighed. She knew what she wanted now, and no one was going to stop her fighting for him. She and Indio were meant to be together. She knew that with every cell in her body.
She was still thinking about Indio when she returned to Aldo’s villa that night to find him excited and almost manic. “Did you forget, darling? The party?”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, god, I did, I’m sorry. I’ll go get changed.”
Aldo smiled and kissed her mouth. “Good girl. We have about a half hour.”
Elli quickly showered, shoving her already-clean hair under a shower cap to save time. She wore the lilac dress she had worn a few months ago. It weirdly made her feel close to Indio—a small victory, perhaps, but it made her feel better.
Aldo smiled at her. “You look beautiful, darling. Shall we?”
They left the apartment and were driven by Aldo’s car service to the party. It was only when they entered the main ballroom that Elli’s heart began to beat faster and her stomach clenched in dismay. This wasn’t a party of their actual friends …it was the masked people from the orgy. Elli looked at Aldo, her distress evident. “I thought you said you only met once a year.”
Aldo’s smile was triumphant. “Usually, we do. This year, we thought we’d have a reunion party, as it’s five years since we began the club.”
Oh god, no …Elli turned to go, but Aldo grabbed her wrist. “Come on, Elli, you had a great time before. Let’s just enjoy this.” He cupped her cheek in his hands. “Lately, I feel you drifting away from me and I thought this could bring us together again.”
“By having other men fuck me?” she said incredulously, and his face changed and grew angry.
“Perhaps if one of these men were Indio Navaro, you wouldn’t object?”
Something made her snap back, “Perhaps not,” but she instantly regretted it, as Aldo grabbed her wrist and hauled her into a private room. This was getting out of hand.
“Please don’t make me angry,” Aldo said. “You’re behaving like a child.”
“Because I don’t want to get fucked by strangers? Take me home, Aldo. Now.”
His smile was humorless. “No.”
Elli stared at him, her anger not dissipating one iota. “Fine. Then you can watch me fuck every man in that room, but you don’t get to touch me. At all. How’s that?”
She stalked out of the room, but Aldo stopped her. “Wait, Elli …”
For a second, she thought he was going to apologize, but instead, he smiled coldly. “You forgot your mask.”
He handed her the same dark red mask she’d worn before. Elli put it on and didn’t look at him again as she went out into the hallway, slamming the door behind her. She ran quickly down the hallway, away from the party, wanting to cry, but not being able to get tears out. She hunkered down in a dark alcove and breathed deep lungfuls of air into her.
Then she felt a hand on her hair, stroking it, and flinched away. Please go away. But the person didn’t leave, but merely removed their hand and stood quietly in the darkness, waiting. Finally, she looked up at the man in shadow who was comforting her and her heart raced. He was wearing a lilac mask and his dark curls were wild about his head. He put his finger
to his lips and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. His lips were soft against hers, tender and loving, and then he swept her up into his arms and carried her to a bedroom upstairs. He locked the door behind them and laid her on the bed.
Elli’s body was on fire as he covered her body with his, pressing his lips to hers, and she pushed the mask from his face, wanting to see his beautiful eyes.
Indio smiled down at her. “Hello, my Elli Bella.”
She did cry then, out of sheer happiness. Indio kissed each one of her tears away. “Don’t cry, my love.”
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she whispered, touching his face as if she couldn’t believe he was real.
“I’m here, il amore mia. I’m sorry about what happened the last time I saw you. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
She half laughed, half sobbed. “I don’t care as long as you’re here now. Indio …I love you so very much.”
“I love you, Elli. I have always, always loved you …” and he kissed her again, this time with such passion her head whirled. Elli clung to him.
“Indio …I know you didn’t kill Yvetta. I know you just feel guilty about her.”
Indio, his eyes sad, nodded. “I’m sorry I told you I did, but I am responsible for her death.”
She stroked his curl away from his face. God, he was so handsome, it almost hurt to look at him. It was like staring at the sun. “Indio, was it Aldo? Did he kill her?”
Indio looked at her with unhappy eyes, but nodded. “And, Elli, what scares me most is that ever since her death …he has focused his malevolence on someone else. The love of my life.”
Elli knew he was talking about her, but she needed to hear him say it. “You mean …?”
Indio smiled little and kissed her gently. “You, you damn frustrating, beautiful wonderful girl …woman, sorry. You are the love of my life. You always have been. Every cliché in the book, that’s what I feel for you, Elliana Moretti.” But his smile faded. “Aldo Constanza targeted you, Elli, and I don’t mean that to sound insulting. Any man would want you, but Aldo sought you out. He knew any new relationship would make the papers, and that I would see you together wherever I was in the world.”
Dark Masquerade: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 11
