Christine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELS

by Christine Feehan

  Antonietta inclined her head. “Yes. If it weren’t for Byron, Nonno and I would both be lost. I have bruises from the struggle.”

  “Why would someone want to harm you or your grandfather?”

  “Why would someone want to harm my parents?” The words slipped out before she could stop them, hung in the air between the women while they moved through the twisting hall toward the wing where the offices were located.

  “I’ve never heard you say that,” Justine said. “Not once. I thought the explosion was an accident. Wasn’t it ruled an accident?”

  “No.” The single admission came out a whisper. No, it hadn’t been an accident, but she would never admit it, not to herself, not to anyone else. Someone had rigged their yacht to blow in the open sea. The explosion hadn’t managed to burn or sink all the evidence. A fishing boat had been close and managed to pluck a blind five-year-old girl from the water. Antonietta had never demanded to see the report, had never thought it was necessary. If the authorities couldn’t find out who had destroyed her family, what could a child do? And when the child was grown, she had not wanted to look back.

  “I’m calling Joie Sanders right away,” Justine said, a hint of panic in her voice. “Do you think you’re in immediate danger? I’m not leaving your side.”

  Antonietta caught the fierce, protective note in Justine’s tone and found herself smiling. It was the exact same tone Tasha had used over Margurite.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” she assured. “I’ll have plenty of protection. I’m more worried about the children now.”

  5

  “How is she, Franco? Toni?” Don Giovanni asked anxiously. “Poor little Margurite. I should have gone with you all to the hospital.”

  “Nonno, there was no sense in all of us going. Franco and Tasha were already there and Marita, Justine and I made it a huge crowd. She’s asleep, and Marita will stay with her through the night.”

  “The doctor thinks she will be able to come home tomorrow,” Franco added. “There’s no need to be upset.”

  Don Giovanni glared at his grandson. “Don’t treat me like I’m an old man, Franco. I’m upset that someone broke into my home and tried to murder my granddaughter and me last night. And I’m upset that my baby great-granddaughter was injured in what probably wasn’t an accident. And I’m upset that you’re trying to steal my company out from under me.”

  Franco sighed and stalked across the room to pour himself a drink. “It’s been a long evening, Nonno. I’m not certain I’m up to arguing. Toni, are you feeling all right after your horrible experience last night? You should have woken me up immediately. And then when you didn’t wake up. You scared me.”

  “At least Franco is making sense now. Toni, don’t go scaring us again,” Don Giovanni said severely.

  “I didn’t choose to fight a man out on the cliffs, Nonno. I would have preferred my nice, warm bed.” She tried to turn the pending argument aside with a joke. Franco was exhausted after the ordeal of seeing his child so injured. Don Giovanni was upset at himself for not having the strength to accompany his beloved great-granddaughter to the hospital. “I could use a drink, too, Franco.” The moment she asked, her stomach lurched at the idea. “Just water, please.”

  “While you were sleeping up in your room, your cousin was threatening me. What do you think of that, Toni? My own grandson, a treacherous viper.”

  “You know very well I didn’t threaten you, Nonno,” Franco objected.

  “Nonno,” Antonietta said patiently, “Franco would never threaten you. Tell me why you’re so upset. It isn’t good for your heart.”

  Don Giovanni threw his hands into the air in disgust, nearly hitting his granddaughter with his wild gesture. “This talk of mergers. Of ousting me as president. That’s the kind of loyalty this boy shows after I took him back. He utterly disgraced our name, sold out our family, and I welcomed him back to the fold, and yet once again he is the viper at my throat.”

  “I never said any of those things,” Franco denied. “Toni, I never said any of that. I merely pointed out that if we disagreed over so large an issue, we should ask the rest of the family their opinions. And I’ve more than made up for past indiscretions. I’ve worked day and night for very little in return.” He held up his hand to stop his grandfather’s sputtering. “I know I deserved to be thrown out and to work for nothing to make up for the past, but I’ve done that. This is an entirely different matter. The family feels strongly on this issue of the merger.”

  Don Giovanni snarled his disgust. “You reason with him, Toni. How can he run a company if he’s afraid of taking control? If he has to consult the rest of the family? What kind of leader would he be? Why, we’d lose the entire business in a month!”

  “That’s not fair, Nonno, you never once said there was a chance I would control the company. If I thought I had a chance—”

  “What?” Don Giovanni demanded, “You’d do your job? You’d wait until I die and ruin everything I’ve ever worked for? You’d sell out to the pirate Demonesini? The demon seed?” He spat out the insult to his closest rival.

  Antonietta intervened quickly. “Nonno, calm down, you’re going to have a stroke if you keep this up. There is no way to oust you as president without my votes, and I would never do such a thing. Franco doesn’t want to oust you either; he’d just like you to listen with an open mind to someone else’s opinion besides your own.”

  She took the glass from Franco, her fingertips judging the amount of liquid to prevent spilling. Out of nowhere she became aware of Byron. He was close by. She could feel him. It was a strange sensation to know he had risen. He was no longer sleeping but moving steadily toward her, as if they were so connected she could know the moment he opened his eyes.

  Good evening. Are you well? I have missed you. She heard the words clearly. They brushed along the walls of her mind like tiny butterfly wings. Her muscles contracted, clenched in anticipation. In reaction. His voice was like velvet rubbing over her skin. She heard her cousin and grandfather arguing as if in the distance, but her body, her entire being, was acutely aware of Byron’s approach.

  It didn’t startle her that he would continue to talk telepathically to her, but it was very unsettling to have such a physical reaction to the intimate feel of his voice. She reached for him in her mind, followed the path of his voice to find him. To feel him. To connect strongly as she needed.

  The palazzo is in an uproar. There was a terrible accident. Poor little Margurite went to visit Nonno, and the family crest fell on her leg. She has a compound fracture and was taken to the hospital. Marita is there with her now. Justine thinks the bolts were sheared straight through. And our chef has gone missing.

  There was a small silence. She found she was holding her breath.

  I will be there soon, Antonietta. I know you are upset over young Margurite. I will visit her in the hospital late this night and see if I can aid her in some way.

  Grazie. She was in so much pain. Everyone is upset. I had the grounds searched for Enrico, but there is no sign of him. Antonietta took a cautious sip of water, finding she was not in the least hungry for food or drink.

  I do not like that your chef is still missing after what I found last night. Someone had to be feeding you poison over a period of time.

  You knew Enrico was missing last night?

  He was not in his room.

  She didn’t want to have this conversation with him. She wanted to know if he had thought of her. If he burned for her. If he woke up consumed with need for her.

  Yes, I did. He answered her thoughts in a smoldering tone. And I still do. I cannot wait to be at your side. I must feed first. I wish to be at full strength when I come to the palazzo.

  She found herself smiling right in the middle of her grandfather’s and cousin’s squabbling. Byron was gone, yet he wasn’t entirely. She felt she had only to reach for him in her mind, and he would be with her. She hugged the thought to her, astonished that i
t mattered so much. Astonished that Byron mattered. Astonished that he could make her feel that everything would be all right.

  “Are you paying attention, Toni?” Franco demanded. “This is becoming a serious issue, and Nonno has no choice but to address it. He may not want to pay me a decent salary, but he has to listen to reason.”

  “I don’t have to listen to anyone, boy. I’ve guided our company through stormy waters more than once, and we’ve come out better than ever. There is no advantage on our side to this merger. If you were a true Scarletti, you would look deeper, look past the lure of fast money, and see what this offer is really about.”

  Antonietta deliberately stepped between her grandfather and cousin. “The Demonesini Company needs a bailout, and they’re looking to us to do it, Franco. It’s that simple. I’ve thoroughly investigated their company. They run on a very small cash flow, and they took a large loss when they lost one of their freighters.”

  Antonietta could feel the thick tension in the room. She turned her back on her grandfather and deliberately smiled at her cousin, determined to change the subject. “Franco, have you any idea where Enrico could have gone? Helena says he has no woman and rarely left the palazzo.”

  Franco shook his head. “I spoke to the servants and to the authorities when they came this morning. They were allowed to search Enrico’s room.”

  A soft knock on the door heralded Helena’s arrival. “Pardon me, but Signora Marita is on the phone, and young Margurite would like to say good night to her father. Signora Marita says Margurite is sleepy from the medicine, Signor Franco, and I’m afraid she will fall asleep if I ask her to wait for you to call back.”

  “No, no, Helena, you did the right thing, grazie. Forgive me, Nonno, I know this meeting is important, but I must speak to mia bambina. I don’t want her to go to sleep without giving her my love.”

  “I understand completely,” Don Giovanni said and waved him out of the room.

  There was a moment of silence. “That is the one thing that makes that man endearing. I can’t help but love him for that. I still cannot quite believe he betrayed us.”

  Antonietta slipped her hand onto her grandfather’s arm. “Franco has many wonderful qualities, Nonno; he just had the poor luck to fall deeply in love with a woman who is never satisfied.”

  As she spoke she thought of Byron. Wanting to touch him again. Wanting to feel the fluttering in her mind, in her stomach. What was he? A stranger with a commanding voice and a quiet, self-sufficient air, who had come out of the storm-drenched night when they needed him most. She had no idea where his home was, had no idea where he was staying. Even if he had another woman somewhere.

  “Franco is strong-headed, Toni,” Don Giovanni said. “He has ambition. And he has a greedy wife. That combination can be deadly.”

  “Nonno,” Antonietta tried desperately to keep her mind on the conversation. “Franco made a mistake, and he knows it. It was years ago, when he was young and impressionable. He was crazy about Marita and would do anything she said. Stefan Demonesini and Christopher certainly can be charming and persuasive. Franco simply fell into the trap of thinking they were his friends.”

  Don Giovanni sighed heavily and sat in a chair. “And Tasha has invited the serpent into our home.”

  “Nonno.” There was amusement in her voice. “You’re being melodramatic. We grew up with Christopher. He played here as a child and has been at every one of our family events. He isn’t a serpent, and he works very hard.”

  “Tasha doesn’t have good sense. He isn’t suited to her at all. And she knows how uncomfortable you are in his father’s presence.”

  Antonietta could hear the concern and worry in her grandfather’s voice. He sounded tired and even old. “I’m used to seeing him, Nonno; he’s at every charity event and every function we attend. He will always see me as the woman who spurned his advances when every other woman was thrilled to be at his side.”

  “He offered marriage,” Don Giovanni reminded, hearing the note of distaste in her voice. “You always thought he was after your money, but he had plenty. Why didn’t you ever think it was a genuine offer?”

  How could she explain an aversion that made no sense? “I thought I was scarred, overweight, and ugly, Nonno, it never occurred to me a man would want me for me.”

  “That’s utter nonsense!”

  “But it was how I felt at the time. I was very insecure.”

  The housekeeper knocked politely on the door a second time. “Signorina Scarletti? The authorities are here, and they are demanding to speak with you. I’ve shown them into the garden room.”

  “Thank you, Helena. I will come immediately.”

  “Signorina Tasha is entertaining the men as we speak.” Although she spoke in the most even of tones, it wasn’t difficult to pick up on her alarm and dismay at leaving Tasha alone with the authorities. Tasha was unpredictable, and the entire family and every one of the servants knew it.

  “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about last night,” Don Giovanni protested. “You have no choice but to go. If we allow Tasha to entertain the authorities, we’ll all be locked up.”

  Antonietta patted her grandfather’s leg. “Be nice, Nonno. She wore herself out at the hospital. She was wonderful with Margurite.”

  “She does love the children,” Don Giovanni agreed. “Did Byron happen to mention to you whether or not he would be here today? I don’t know his address, and the authorities wanted to hear his account of what happened. I don’t think anyone believed he would dive into the sea to pull out a drowning old man.”

  Antonietta could not prevent the small smile. “Oh, I’m certain he will be here soon, Nonno.” She leaned over to kiss her grandfather. “Anyone would do anything to save you. You’re the family treasure.”

  Byron settled the young man against the wall of the building where he remained, dizzy and unaware of what had transpired, but uninjured. At full strength, Byron took to the sky, shape-shifting on the wing, something he could never have done even twenty years earlier. Hunting vampires had given him a hard edge, a coolness under fire, and complete confidence in his ability to handle a tight situation, but it hadn’t prepared him for a woman like Antonietta.

  Of course, his first impulse had been to carry her off, claim her with the ritual binding words, and let nature take its course. But he had been cautious, after learning from a lifetime of being impetuous. After having been captured and tortured and used as bait in an attempt to murder the prince and his lifemate and destroying his relationship with his best friend, Jacques Dubrinsky, Byron now believed in caution and patience and thinking puzzles all the way through. With a lifetime of mistakes behind him, he wasn’t going to chance any more.

  He was determined to know Antonietta. Unfortunately, the members of the Scarletti family had a built-in protective barrier in their minds. He couldn’t simply scan their thoughts and learn all there was to know. He took his time, infiltrating the palazzo through his friendship with Don Giovanni. Waiting. Watching her. He realized she needed to feel in control. She needed independence. She needed to be courted and won if he were to make her happy.

  Byron sighed softly, allowing the wind to carry the sound out to sea. The murder attempt had changed everything. He needed to know she was protected, day and night. He needed to be able to touch her mind at will, needed to be able to know what was happening to her at all times.

  Once more he dropped from the sky to the ground where he had left his gift for her. He knew Antonietta well enough to know she would take his present whether she liked it or not. Antonietta was far too polite to reject anything given to her by another.

  The dog was the picture of noble elegance. From the moment Byron had seen the animal, he had admired the sheer poetry in its flowing lines. The borzoi was always graceful, whether in motion or standing perfectly still. Byron knew the accepted theory was that borzois had been around six to eight hundred years. He knew from personal experience that time line was a bit off
. The breed had endured, refined perhaps, but stayed true. Byron bent over the dog, took the intelligent domed skull between his hands, and stared down into the dark, gentle eyes.

  “This is your new home, Celt, if you would like it to be. She is here. The one who can be your new companion and one who will love and respect you as you deserve. She will admire you in the way I do and understand it is your choice to stay or go.” They understood one another, the dog and Byron. He knew the animal was gentle but possessed a ferocious heart.

  Celt was as fine an example of the borzoi as Byron had ever seen. The dog’s head spoke of intelligence, his jaws were long and powerful and deep. His fur was pure black, his coat the texture of silk. And Celt’s eyes reflected the true heart of the breed.

  “You will have to wait out in the garden until I see her,” Byron explained aloud. “I know it is raining and you are uncomfortable, but I will protect you from the elements for however long it takes. You know some there will be unkind to you.” His hand stroked across the great head, found the silky ears and scratched. “I trust none of them, and neither should you. Look only to her protection. Be cautious of offers of friendship.”

  He felt the animal answer, the understanding and affection that passed between them, and he was doubly grateful to Antonietta for giving him back his emotions.

  Byron’s tall, broad-shouldered frame shimmered for a moment, nearly translucent in the rain, then he simply disappeared, droplets among the steady downpour. He found entrance into the house through a narrow gap in one of the second-story windows. At once he felt the terrible tension in the great palazzo. Fear and anger vibrated throughout the spaces, all the way to the great ceilings, up to the battlements, and along the traces.

  Byron glided silently through the wide, marbled halls, down the sweeping staircase to inspect the damage near Don Giovanni’s private room. Two people were collecting evidence, carefully putting bolts in plastic bags. He knew at once this was no accident but a deliberate attempt to harm someone, most likely the old man.