The Flaw in Raffaele's Revenge (Harlequin Presents)

by Annie West

  ‘When I was eighteen I met a woman who knew someone that needed a model. The one they’d lined up was ill and they needed a replacement quickly.’

  ‘That’s how you started modelling?’

  ‘Yes. Through one of my clients.’ He used the word deliberately. Testing Lily’s reaction?

  Why was her response so important? Raffa lived his life pleasing himself, no one else. Yet he found his hand tight on her waist and his breathing shallow as he waited for her to speak.

  ‘Did it take long to begin modelling full-time?’

  ‘No. They liked my look. I had more work than I could handle.’ His mouth twisted. He remembered their excitement at the combination of his looks and streetwise aura. As if growing up in the gutter was a bonus.

  ‘So you were only doing...the other for a short time.’

  Was that a blush?

  ‘Long enough. I was almost fifteen when I began.’

  ‘Almost fifteen?’ If he’d wanted a reaction he’d got one. Lily’s voice rose, her fingers digging into the muscle of his upper arm as she levered herself up to a sitting position. ‘That’s...that’s appalling!’

  Something crumpled in Raffa’s chest. He didn’t bother moving but sank back onto the sand.

  ‘That’s child exploitation. Wasn’t there anyone to protect you?’

  It took a few seconds to digest that her outrage wasn’t directed at him. ‘I looked older.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter how old you looked. You were a kid.’ He saw anger etched in Lily’s features. Not because he’d prostituted himself, but because there’d been no one to stop him.

  ‘They were bored and I was there. I spent a lot of time around the marina where the fancy yachts moored.’

  Lily shook her head, her damp hair sliding across her shoulders. ‘Where was your family?’

  Raffa jackknifed up to sit beside her, resting his arms on bent knees. ‘I had none.’

  ‘I’m so sorry.’ The hand on his arm was gentle and there was true regret in her voice.

  He could grow addicted to Lily’s empathy.

  ‘It was a long time ago.’ Yet the ache when he thought of Gabriella was real. ‘Our father left when I was a baby. I have no idea if he’s still alive. Our mother died when I was nine.’

  ‘You said “our.”’

  Raffa fixed his gaze on a yacht out to sea, its sails pristine white against the bright water. He never spoke of this. Yet the compulsion to keep talking was strong. What could it hurt?

  ‘My sister, Gabriella, died when I was twelve. After that I was taken to an orphanage but I kept running away. I spent most of my time on the streets.’

  ‘They didn’t treat you well?’ She leaned closer, her warmth counteracting the chill in his bones as she pressed into his side.

  ‘Well enough.’

  ‘But?’

  He looked down to find her gaze intent.

  Ingrained caution warred with the desire to let go, relinquish the barrier he’d constructed around himself. Already Lily had breached it, making him experience feelings that defied logical description. It would be easy to distance himself as he always did, except he didn’t want to.

  ‘But I was looking for the man who killed my sister.’ With the words came an easing inside, as if someone had slashed open thick cords binding his chest.

  * * *

  ‘Killed?’ Shock filled her. She wrapped her hand tighter around Raffa’s arm and leaned against his shoulder.

  A mighty sigh racked him.

  ‘My sister looked after me when our mother died, or tried to. I was a handful.’ Lily heard self-reproach. ‘She was patient, honest and good. I was wild and she was the one who reined me in. She took the place of our mother but I didn’t make things easy for her.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Gabriella took after our grandmother, who’d been an actress in France. She was beautiful. Stunning.’

  Just like Raffaele. Lily had wondered how he came by his fair colouring. Even for a northern Italian it was surely unique.

  ‘As long as I can remember Gabriella caught men’s attention, but she never returned it. She was reserved. She never went out partying. She never even had a boyfriend.

  ‘Men invited her out but she never accepted. Until that night. She’d met a man who invited her to a party on his boat and this time she went.’

  ‘He was someone special?’

  Lily felt Raffaele stiffen. ‘No, she went because of me. I’d been hanging around with kids she didn’t approve of and I’d been acting up, accusing her of being too strict. We had a row.’ He sucked in a deep breath. ‘She was only eighteen herself and trying to manage a boy with the devil inside him. That night she’d had enough. One minute she was telling me why I shouldn’t hang about with that crowd. The next she said she needed some adult conversation and she’d go to the party after all. She took off her apron, put on her shoes and headed out the door.’

  Raffaele stared out to sea and Lily followed his gaze, knowing he didn’t see the beautiful vista before them.

  ‘I followed at a distance. I’d never seen her lose her temper like that and I was worried.’ His voice hollowed. ‘I should have stopped her.’

  ‘What happened?’ Lily needed to know but didn’t want to hear.

  ‘She went to the marina where the expensive cruisers were moored for the boat show. I saw her board one where there was a party—people and music and laughter. I figured I’d see her in the morning but she never came home.’ A shudder ripped through him. ‘Next day she was found floating in the sea. The coroner said there was alcohol and a cocktail of drugs in her system, including one used in date rape. She died of an overdose.’

  Lily’s breath hissed between her teeth. Horror prickled her skin, making each hair on her nape and arms stand to attention.

  ‘It wasn’t your fault.’ Slowly she sat up, relinquishing her hold and turning to him. Raffaele swung round, his eyes locking on hers with such intensity she felt scorched. Such pain she read there. Such guilt.

  ‘If it hadn’t been for me she’d never have gone.’ His voice ground low. ‘Despite what the police said, she was an innocent. I knew Gabriella. She’d never been with a man, never had a drink with one before that night. He drugged her and she died.’

  ‘You saw the man she met?’

  Raffaele nodded. ‘I told the police but they didn’t believe me. I gave a description but they said there was no such person to be found.’ He snorted. ‘As if he’d stay. The cruiser had gone, but I kept looking year after year.’

  ‘That’s why you hung around the marina.’ And had been spotted by those rich women who thought nothing of taking a young boy’s innocence. Lily’s stomach curdled. No wonder Raffaele didn’t talk about his past. ‘But you never saw him again.’

  ‘Oh, yes, I did. Earlier this year.’ Raffaele’s voice was glacial, the set of his jaw aggressive. ‘That’s when I discovered his name—Robert Bradshaw.’

  Lily goggled, struggling to take it in. ‘The same Robert Bradshaw...?’ But of course it was the same. The pieces fell into place, the reason Raffaele was so driven with this deal. She’d known there was something between the two men.

  She read determination in Raffaele’s harsh expression and a fierceness that stirred uneasiness.

  ‘How can you want to work with him?’

  ‘It’s harder than I thought.’ He inclined his head. ‘I look at him and I want to wrap my fingers around his podgy throat and squeeze.’

  Lily froze at the lethal intent in his voice.

  ‘You can’t be sure he’s the one responsible for your sister’s death. It might have been someone else on the boat.’ She wasn’t trying to defend him, but Raffaele’s ferocity frightened her.

  His head whipped around, his stare like the sheen of polished sapphires, cold and merciless.

  ‘It was his boat. His party. He was the one lusting after Gabriella, I saw it in his face. Even if he wasn’t the one to dope her, he was still respons
ible for her safety.’

  Lily agreed. He’d invited Gabriella and should have looked after her. From what she’d seen of Robert Bradshaw, he didn’t look after anyone but himself.

  ‘So how can you work with him?’

  Raffaele’s lips turned up in a slow smile that looked...carnivorous. ‘It’s worth it. As soon as this deal is done he’ll be dead in the water, financially speaking.’

  Lily shuddered at his word choice, her mind going to the image of a young woman, golden-haired like her brother, lifeless in the sea. An instant later she was on her feet, arms wrapped around her torso. Despite the balmy air she felt cold.

  ‘You want revenge.’

  ‘I think of it as justice.’ He was at her shoulder, his eyes fixed on the distance. He looked as handsome as ever but the lines of that achingly beautiful face were forbidding, as if the man who’d made sweet love to her just an hour ago had been evicted by a stranger. Someone who knew violence and distrust, who’d been used and abused. Who was completely closed off.

  Lily rubbed her hands up her chilled arms.

  ‘How will becoming his partner get justice for your sister? Once you renovate the resort he’ll profit from your investment and your experience. How is that punishment?’

  Raffaele would turn the place into an ultra-exclusive, über-profitable retreat for the rich and famous. It was what he did. That was why Bradshaw was so desperate to bring Raffaele into the equation, holding off other interested parties.

  Raffa’s smile widened in a way that made her glad it was Bradshaw in his sights, not her.

  ‘That’s the beauty of it.’ His voice, like velvet over honed steel, scraped her nerves. ‘He’s so caught up in anticipating a huge profit he can’t see anything else.’

  ‘What else is there to see?’ Lily stepped in front of him, forcing him to focus on her. His eyes were bright, almost feverish, and their expression made her uneasy.

  ‘Bradshaw is massively in debt.’ Lily nodded. That was no secret. ‘He’s going to give me majority ownership of the whole island in return for money to cover his most pressing debts.’

  ‘Olga said a forty-five per cent share.’

  ‘That’s what Bradshaw offered, not what I’ll accept.’

  They both knew Bradshaw would take Raffaele’s terms. He was desperate.

  ‘He’d lose control of the resort—’

  ‘Not just the resort, the whole island.’

  ‘But in return he can rely on you to upgrade the place and make it profitable in a way he can’t.’

  ‘So he thinks.’ Raffaele’s eyes gleamed.

  ‘You can’t do it?’ Lily had never heard Raffaele doubt himself and it took her aback.

  ‘Oh, I can do it. But why should I?’

  Lily frowned. ‘I don’t follow. Surely that’s the deal—that you invest and upgrade the place?’

  ‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Whereas, in fact, all I’m promising on paper is the cash to meet his immediate needs. That’s already a substantial sum.’

  ‘You’re not tied in to upgrading the resort?’

  He shook his head. ‘No. Bradshaw just assumes I’ll make it a priority because of the amount I’m spending to acquire it.’

  ‘But you’re in no hurry.’

  Lily’s breath escaped in a rush. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what sort of businessman Bradshaw was, but she knew the answer. Her research had revealed a man of puffed-up self-importance who lived the good life but had no clue how to fund it apart from spending the inherited wealth others had accumulated.

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘Once he’s signed on the dotted line? Absolutely nothing.’

  Lily frowned. ‘What about your plans to improve the resort?’ She’d heard the enthusiasm in his voice when he spoke of turning it into a truly special place to escape.

  ‘Plans? I have no plans.’ Seeing her confusion he went on. ‘Oh, I’ve got ideas on what would make the place work. It’s a shame, really, when there’s such potential here, but I’ve no intention of turning it into a profit-making venture while Bradshaw owns so much as a centimetre of sand here.’

  ‘And you’re ensuring he can’t interest other investors to do that, by keeping the majority ownership yourself.’

  He nodded. ‘Not only that. The agreement I’ve given Bradshaw binds us both to seeking approval from the other before beginning any form of redevelopment.’

  ‘So he’s hamstrung. He’ll have no saleable assets or income.’ He wouldn’t be able to sell his minority ownership nor could he start a new money-making venture himself.

  She spun round, her gaze going to the headland at the end of the beach, beyond which the resort villas were scattered. What would happen to it? She imagined the buildings crumbling, vegetation taking over with no one to take care of them. For if Raffaele wasn’t going to run the place for profit he wouldn’t bother taking care of it.

  Lily whipped around to face him as a thought lodged in her head. ‘What about the staff?’

  ‘What about them?’

  ‘They rely on the resort for their work.’

  He shrugged. ‘They’ll need to find something else.’

  Lily looked beyond him to the gorgeous, deserted waters surrounding the island. ‘There isn’t anything else.’

  ‘Then they’ll move.’ He frowned and bent to pick up their beach towels. ‘There’s always work elsewhere.’

  ‘You can’t mean that.’

  Raffaele’s frown became a scowl. ‘Of course I mean it. My sole intention in buying this place is to destroy Bradshaw. I intend to see it through. There will be no resort on this island. No enterprise of any kind.’

  Something plunged hard in Lily’s belly. Her illusions falling and shattering?

  She’d believed Raffaele a man she could admire. More, she’d thought herself in love with him. She’d suffered through the story of his murky past and terrible loss but now... Distress churned and she had to fight to stand straight, not bend double, nursing pain.

  Lily thrust her hands onto her hips. ‘Most of them have lived here for generations. They’ve brought up their children here. There’s even a school.’

  Raffaele’s shoulders rose and fell. ‘A little collateral damage. But don’t worry, they’ll be helped to relocate. It’s no big deal.’

  Collateral damage. The unimportant consequence of an action.

  Lily knew collateral damage. That was what she’d been the day Tyson Grady had decided to make his ex-girlfriend pay for dumping him. He’d got what he wanted. Rachel never got the chance to go out with anyone else. She’d died as a result of the acid he’d thrown in her face. And Lily—well, Lily had suffered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Bile rose in her throat, threatening to choke her. The sheer arrogance of these males with their feuds and their paybacks sickened her.

  ‘No big deal? This is their home!’ Her breath snagged in tight lungs. She met Raffaele’s gaze and saw no softening, just fierce determination. ‘Doesn’t that mean anything to you?’

  ‘They can make their home somewhere else. What matters is making sure Bradshaw gets his deserts. Ruining him financially isn’t nearly enough. Just be thankful I’m stopping there and not taking the law into my own hands.’ There was a flash of something dangerous in those blue eyes. A flash that sent a quiver of fear ricocheting through her.

  Lily’s hands fell to her sides. The fight went out of her. Bradshaw wasn’t the only one to be duped, was he? Suddenly she felt cold, despite the warmth of the sun and the sand.

  ‘I thought I knew you,’ she whispered. ‘I thought you were...’ Her throat closed before she could blurt out any more.

  She’d thought he’d risen above his pain and his past to become someone special. She’d thought him kind and caring because he’d helped her face her demons. Instead Raffaele Petri was every bit as hard and conscienceless as she’d first thought. How could she have been so wrong?

  ‘Lily? Where ar
e you going?’

  She shoved out an arm to stop him when he stepped towards her. Then she was stumbling over the soft sand, clumsy in her haste to escape.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  DANNAZIONE! TWELVE HOURS and still Raffa couldn’t relax. He strode the path to the hill at the island’s centre, needing an outlet for the furious energy that hadn’t abated since yesterday and that scene with Lily.

  Women!

  One minute she was blinking up at him, sympathy in those glistening eyes. The next she was staring at him as if he were a monster.

  Raffa’s flesh crawled at the memory. He’d grown used to Lily’s smiles. She’d even taken his part in the face of Olga’s antagonism. He fought his own battles, but her defence had plucked at chords deep within, strumming feelings that still reverberated, refusing to disappear.

  Bradshaw was the monster. Who knew how many women he’d abused?

  Raffa broke through the trees to the summit. The ocean lay below him, awash with sunrise pinks and oranges. Bradshaw’s crumbling mansion was lit in gold. In the other direction the resort lay sleeping.

  Except someone else was up. A tiny figure crossed the white sand, wading into the water.

  Lily. No one else swam at this hour. That was why he’d come inland.

  He stilled, chest heaving. It wasn’t exertion that made his heart crash. It was realising he’d come here to avoid her.

  Raffa frowned. As a kid on the street he’d learned never to turn his back on the dangerous or the unpleasant.

  If there was a problem, better to face it than hope it would magically resolve itself.

  And she was a problem. Lily, the woman who’d unleashed worrying new forces, new feelings.

  All night he’d wrestled with a disturbing desire to do something, say something, to banish her scowl so she’d smile at him like before.

  How weak was that?

  Was he going to stop his plan for retribution because some locals would be uprooted? They’d be better off on a larger island. Simple economics meant a bigger population attracted better services and job opportunities. He’d ensure they got help to relocate. Once they’d moved they’d probably thank him for the opportunities he’d provided.