by Heidi Rice
Maybe she was right on one level, but when the sunlight caught the darkening bruise on her cheekbone, the slow burn flared into something more insistent. Capturing her stubborn chin between my thumb and forefinger, I tugged her head back towards me.
‘You made it my business,’ I said, ‘when you came to my casino.’ And kissed me with an artless fervour I cannot forget.
My gaze strayed to her lips, the memory of her taste, so sweet and passionate, making hunger fire through me.
Her pupils dilated and a flush flamed over her pale skin, highlighting the bruise on her cheekbone. She tugged her chin out of my grasp, but not before I’d seen the flash of heat and panic.
It is pointless to deny it, bella, we will have to feed the hunger eventually, if we want this torture to stop.
But the sprinkle of freckles on her nose that made her look so young, and the purpling bruise that made her look so fragile, made it clear now wasn’t the time to pursue the overwhelming physical attraction we shared.
Protecting her from Carsoni and his goons and accounting for her debt to me would have to be handled first.
‘I told you, I’ll pay you back,’ she said, but I could hear the quiver of uncertainty.
‘How much do you owe Carsoni?’ I asked again.
Defiance sparkled in her emerald eyes. I found it strangely pleasing. ‘That’s none of your...’
‘Stop...’ I pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her protest ‘...being so stubborn. And let me help. You don’t want to sell your home, or you would have done it long before it came to this,’ I added, letting my thumb skim under the livid bruise blossoming on her cheekbone.
‘Why would you even want to help me?’ she asked. ‘I tried to rob you.’
Shame flickered across her face, and suddenly I knew there was more to the story of that fake bank draft than she was telling me. Had she even known the draft was fake? I wondered. If she had, why would she have stayed at the table so long—when our accounts department could discover the fraud at any time? She was an intelligent woman, however desperate she was. I didn’t believe she would have put herself in that situation knowingly.
‘How much do you owe Carsoni?’ I demanded for the third time, letting my impatience show.
She huffed out a breath but I could see the fight leave her as her shoulders slumped. ‘It was only two million to start with, but it’s over five million now,’ she said, the resignation making me want to do a lot more than just strangle Carsoni. The bastardo deserved to be hung, drawn and quartered.
‘We got a loan on the property to start with, but we could never pay off enough of it. And the debt just kept getting bigger and bigger.’
I forced myself not to react. But fury tightened around my chest as the desire to eviscerate Carsoni increased.
‘How was the debt incurred?’ I asked, because I was convinced now that it wasn’t her debt to repay.
She stared at me directly. ‘Actually it was incurred in The Inferno.’
‘How so?’ I asked.
She sighed, resignation clear in her voice when she began to talk.
‘My brother-in-law Jason and my sister Jude went on holiday to Monaco a year ago. They visited The Inferno. Jude still says she doesn’t know what happened to Jason that night. He was winning at first, but then the losses started to pile up. And he wouldn’t leave. Eventually he’d lost all their savings. They came back here devastated. I was angry with him, for losing everything and I told him so.’ I could hear the tinge of guilt in her voice, and it annoyed me. Why was she taking responsibility for this idiota? But I didn’t interrupt. The mention of The Inferno’s involvement had unsettled me.
We made every effort to spot problem or addicted gamblers and ban them. I prided myself on running an operation where people only parted with money they could afford to lose. It seemed we would need to tighten our regulations.
‘I still do not understand how your brother-in-law became indebted to Carsoni. The Inferno does not accept loans secured in his name.’
‘All I know,’ she continued, her voice dull and lifeless, ‘is that a week later Jason got a loan from Carsoni and returned to Monaco. I suppose he didn’t lose that money at The Inferno.’ Her shoulders bowed as if she were carrying a ten-ton boulder on her back, probably because that is exactly what she had been doing for over a year. ‘I guess he wanted to win the money back. We haven’t seen or heard from him since. Carsoni turned up a week after Jason disappeared with the credit agreement Jason had signed in Jude’s name.’
So the debt was her brother-in-law’s and by extension her sister’s... And yet she’d had no hesitation in taking it on.
Every one of my assumptions about her had been incorrect. She wasn’t spoilt, lazy or a coward. Why that should make my hunger for her more acute wasn’t something I wanted to think about—because it also made it more problematic.
The desire to throttle Carsoni and Edie’s idiot brother-in-law was much easier to explain. I despised men who preyed on women.
‘You should have told me all this when you arrived at The Inferno,’ I said, frustrated at the thought that she had come to the casino, and participated in the game, primarily to win back money which had been lost, in the first instance, at my roulette table.
I had no reason to feel guilty. I ran a business—if people chose to play, they had to deal with the consequences. But the qualification wasn’t doing a damn thing for the pang spreading across my breastbone and tightening around my ribs like a vice.
She glanced at me then, surprise evident on her face. ‘Why would I do that? It’s not your problem; it’s mine.’
‘It is my problem now, as there is a matter of one million euros to repay.’
She flushed. ‘Once we sell the chateau I can...’
‘No,’ I said, startling her, as I became increasingly annoyed with her stubbornness. ‘You are not selling your home. I will not allow it.’
‘That’s not your choice to make,’ she said.
I forced myself to dial down on my frustration. She had been brought to the brink of ruin because of her brother-in-law’s recklessness, and then roughed up by one of Carsoni’s men. She couldn’t afford to refuse my help.
But as I opened my mouth to tell her what I planned to do about this situation, I heard the gendarmes’ sirens.
I swore softly. About damn time.
She looked relieved by the interruption.
We spoke to the police together, but when she was questioned about the goon who had been hitting her when I arrived she said she couldn’t identify him.
I knew she was lying because she watched me as she spoke to the young gendarme, her eyes pleading with me not to intervene—and contradict her.
I remained silent. But only because I knew that informing the gendarmes of Carsoni’s involvement was not the answer.
As the police left us to question her sister Jude and Joe about the incident, Edie murmured under her breath, ‘Thanks, for not saying anything about Carsoni.’
I nodded.
‘And for punching that creep for me,’ she added. ‘I should have said that sooner.’
‘No thanks is necessary,’ I said, biting down on my irritation at her polite, impersonal tone.
She was clearly exhausted. And I had no inclination to argue with her further.
I knew exactly how to handle a vile parasite like Carsoni. I had refrained from correcting her—and informing the police of her attacker’s identity as one of Carsoni’s goons—for the simple reason that I knew the police wouldn’t be able to touch the money lender. And without Carsoni’s help it would be impossible to track down the man who had attacked Edie.
I, on the other hand, intended to make sure both men paid for what they had done to Edie. And, unlike the police, I did not intend to play by the rules.
She pressed a hand to her forehe
ad.
‘Have you got a headache?’ I asked, concerned by the deathly colour of her skin, which only made the purpling bruise on her cheek more pronounced.
‘It’s not too bad, considering,’ she said, looking ready to keel over.
At last the police left, with promises to start a search for the attacker, who I had no doubt would be long gone by now.
I directed my attention to Jude, who still had Joe hovering over her. I’d never seen my casino manager quite so attentive with a woman before—but then Jude Trouvé was almost as beautiful as Edie. Almost. Which probably explained Joe’s attentiveness. He was a man who appreciated beauty as much as I did.
‘Edie needs to rest—can you keep an eye on her?’ I asked Jude, who looked almost as washed out as her sister. ‘The paramedics said to look out for signs of lethargy or disorientation.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Jude put a gentle arm around Edie’s shoulder.
‘I don’t have time to rest,’ Edie said wearily, trying to shrug off Jude’s arm. ‘We’ve got to put the house on the market—’
‘There’s no need to do it today,’ I interrupted.
In fact there would be no need to do it at all, once my legal team had contacted Carsoni and informed him of what was going to happen next, if he wanted to stay out of prison. But she had that stubborn look in her eyes again, and I decided to humour her rather than indulge in a pointless argument that would just exhaust her more.
I fully intended to handle this situation, with or without her permission, but I needed to make sure she was being properly taken care of before I could leave.
‘Mr Allegri is right, Edie.’ Jude tightened her arm on her sister’s shoulders before she could argue further. ‘We can worry about the money again tomorrow. It’s not like the problem’s going to disappear if you worry about it more now.’
I said nothing as I watched her sister usher her up the stairs. Edie allowed herself to be led, the last of the fight having drained out of her. The sight of those bowed shoulders and her painful movements made it hard for me to speak round the ball of outrage in my throat.
When they reached the landing, Jude glanced over her shoulder. ‘Thank you so much, Mr Allegri.’ Her gaze landed on Joe and her skin flushed a becoming shade of pink. ‘And you too, Mr Donnelly. I consider you both knights in shining armour. I can’t thank you enough for saving Edie from that brute.’
I didn’t want her thanks, any more than I had wanted Edie’s. And I knew damn well I was the opposite of a knight—in or out of armour. But I nodded anyway.
‘Would you be okay to see yourselves out?’ she added, her request gentle but firm. I nodded again. I had a job to do before I returned to check on Edie.
As Joe and I left the chateau, it occurred to me that while Edie was the bolder of the two sisters, Jude had a quiet strength that was equally impressive.
‘Jude told me that creep Carsoni is at the bottom of this,’ Joe growled as we walked down the driveway towards the helicopter. ‘Apparently they owe him some astronomical amount of money—and the debt just keeps increasing.’
‘I know,’ I said as I climbed into the cockpit of the helicopter, my fury at the whole situation flaring again. ‘Rest assured, by tomorrow they will owe him nothing.’
CHAPTER NINE
I GROANED AS I rolled over in bed the following morning, awoken by the shaft of sunlight streaming through the old casement window in my bedroom. The pain in my cheekbone and my elbow though didn’t hurt as much as the hollow ache in my stomach at the thought that this would be my last summer at Belle Rivière.
I crawled out of bed and walked over to the window seat where I had spent countless lazy hours reading books on everything from geometry to Gauguin to Green Gables in those idyllic summer months when our mother had been vivacious and happy, usually because she had a new protector. That state of bliss had never lasted very long—because rich, powerful men had a tendency to get easily bored, especially when the woman they were dating had the sort of emotional baggage my needy, insecure mother carried with her everywhere she went. But in the brief weeks and months of a new affair Jude and I had learned to be as inconspicuous and undemanding as possible, so that my mother could concentrate on the new man in her life. And stay happy. That usually meant boarding schools in England in the winter months and Belle Rivière in the summer, where we would stay with the staff while my mother gallivanted about the country on the arm of her new beau.
The boarding schools would change frequently, according to my mother’s whim and what the man she was currently attached to was prepared to pay for our education. But summers in Belle Rivière had been the one constant in our lives. And it was here that I missed her the most.
My mother had been far from perfect, but on her good days she had been a force of nature that could line any dark cloud with dazzling silver sparkles. If she was here now, she would be able to take the worry away—probably with an impromptu picnic or a dress-up party—she’d never been good on finding practical solutions but she had been a master of delightful distractions. When she died, all the light and laughter was sucked out of my life and Jude’s. And, however impractical it was, I would do anything for even a tiny glimmer of those dazzling sparkles right now.
I sat down and gazed out of the window at a scene I had come to love over those frenetic summers. But all I could see was the beauty I was going to lose.
The forest of oaks and pines and spruce marked the perimeter of the sixteen-acre property, the ruins of an old stone chapel in the distance overgrown with wild roses. A carpet of poppies added a splash of vibrant red to the intense greens of the meadow leading down to the river. I prised open the window latch, forced open the swollen frame and breathed in the perfume of wild flowers and pine sap I had come to adore. I could hear the musical tinkle of the river in the distance which wound its way along the bottom of the meadow shielded by the valley of trees and reminded me of my mother’s laughter—bright and bubbly and so beguiling.
I swallowed heavily. How was I going to survive without this oasis in my life? After losing my mother, I wasn’t sure I could bear to lose this too.
I squeezed my fingers to the bridge of my nose and then wiped away the tear that slid over my sore cheek.
‘Edie, at last you’re up.’
I turned and winced, my neck muscles protesting at the sudden movement. Jude stood in the doorway, grinning.
‘Hi,’ I grumbled, massaging the stiffness.
‘How are you feeling?’ she asked as she rushed across the room, her voice a mixture of concern and something that sounded weirdly like excitement.
‘I’m okay,’ I said, determined not to worry her any more than I had already. ‘I just wish...’ I blinked. Don’t cry—it’ll only make this situation worse. ‘I wish I could have found a way for us to keep Belle Rivière.’
If only I could burrow into a ball in the centre of my bed and make all the worries disappear, the way I’d sometimes had to do as a little girl, when I could hear my mother’s crying, or the feral sounds of lovemaking from her room next door, which had always confused and frightened me.
Jude plopped herself opposite me and took my hand in hers. ‘I think we can save Belle Rivière after all, because I’ve got some news.’
‘What news?’ I said, wanting to believe her but unable to shift the lump of failure and old grief wedged in my throat.
‘Incredible, incredible news,’ Jude said, grasping my hands and enjoying the suspense. ‘Dante Allegri just called—he’s got Carsoni to cancel the debt. We don’t owe that bastard another cent.’
‘He’s...? What?’ That got my attention. I stared at her blankly, forcing myself to quash the leap of pure joy in my heart. A hope dashed was so much harder to bear than no hope at all. ‘But... How did he manage that?’
‘I have no idea,’ she said, her smile so bright it hurt my eyes. ‘I didn’t
ask, because I really don’t care. All I care about is that no one ever hurts you like that again. If we get to keep Belle Rivière that’s even better.’ She clasped my arms, but the hope starting to bloom under my breastbone meant I couldn’t even feel the bruises. ‘But you’re the only thing I really care about,’ she said. ‘I should never have let you take the risks you did.’ She glanced around the room—the faded curtains, the moth-eaten rug, the worn bed sheets. ‘I love this place too, but nothing’s more important to me than you, Edie.’
‘He must have paid him off,’ I said, the leap of joy in my heart joined by that disturbing feeling of connection I’d tried so hard to ignore the afternoon before—when Allegri had punched Brutus for me. ‘It’s the only thing that makes any sense.’
‘Blimey, do you really think so?’ Jude said, her eyes popping wide. ‘But we owed Carsoni over five million euros by the last estimate.’
‘I know,’ I said, my stomach churning with shock.
Nobody had ever done anything like that for me before. But why would he?
The urgency and hunger in his kiss blasted into my memory—and made the churning in my stomach become hot and languid. Was it possible...?
‘He must like you an awful lot...’ Jude said, her thoughts straying into the same uncharted territory as mine. ‘But then, he did beat up Brutus for you.’
I forced myself to contain the leap of excitement at the memory of that punch.
Get a clue, Edie. Dante Allegri can have any woman he wants. For goodness’ sake, the man dates supermodels. Why would he want you?
I pressed trembling fingers to my lips, the memory of his tongue commanding the inside of my mouth in greedy strokes sending my senses reeling.
Okay, he had wanted me as much as I had wanted him, during that searing kiss. But even I knew the promise of that kiss wasn’t worth five million euros. I was still a virgin. I had zero experience. Then again, he didn’t know that.
‘Do you think...?’ Jude stared at me, her mind still heading in the same insane direction as mine. ‘Do you think he’ll expect you to become his mistress?’
