Page 94 of Twisted Obsession

‘So, we’re going home to see Salvatore?’

‘Correct. You used your initiative and gave me Ricco’s balls on a plate to serve up to Salvatore, and…’ I took a long drag on the beer in my hand and set it down on the table beside my seat. Then, looking at him I began to pull my laptop out of my bag and switched it on.

‘And?’ he asked, knowing me well enough to know there had to be more as to why we were rushing home and potentially leaving Ricco in Malta, effectively unguarded and possibly unrestrained.

‘Two days ago, Giovanna turned up in Valetta.’

‘Well fuck!’

‘Precisely.’

‘So, don’t tell me—you took her to bed and now we’re going back to Salvatore, so he can hang you up by the fucking balls before castrating you?’ He lifted his eyebrows before beginning to laugh.

‘Hopefully not.’

‘Which bit?’

‘The hanging and castrating.’

‘But the rest is true?’

‘Yeah—you recall the rest of what you recorded Ricco saying, about the main prize that had seemed so out of reach in Rome, having turned up in Malta?’

‘He was talking about Giovanna?’ I saw the second he fell in, as the smile fell from his face. Marco released his seat belt and leant further forward, placing his elbows to his knees, and released a loud sigh. ‘Well, fuck!’

‘I’m convinced it’s her, she’s the prize he’s after. A De Luca woman’s scalp.’ My stomach turned over as I spoke. ‘Potential blackmail material… or bride.’ My stomach protested at my thoughts. Giovanna belonged to no one else except me.

‘Where is she now? Why isn’t she here with us?’ He held his arms open wide and looked around suddenly, as if he was expecting her to appear.

He was right to question me… Hell, I was questioning myself right now.

‘She’s back on her stepfather’s boat heading to Calabria, after I saw to it that Peter Ariti was asked to leave Valletta. I’m assure as I can be that no one knew we saw each other. Ricco has no clue we have the recording, and for a few hours she’s safe on the boat.’ I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince, him or me. ‘It buys us time, time to talk and time to plan. Time to turn the cards back in our favour.’

‘Hmmm.’ He nodded as he agreed, before stopping and looking thoughtful. ‘Stepfather?’ he questioned. I nodded in response, and he grimaced. ‘Was Valentina onboard too?’ he asked, as a look of concern spread over his face.

‘Apparently so.’ I shrugged. ‘Giovanna made her peace with her in Rome and was on holiday with the two of them and trying to put her past behind her… why?’

‘Shit.’ His one-word retort had me shifting in my seat.

‘What?’ I almost screamed at him.

‘You remember me saying I’d seen Ricco with a couple of other interesting women?’

I nodded fast and at the same time gesticulated with my hands that I needed him to hurry the fuck up and tell me whatever it was he had to say.

‘It was a couple of days ago. I saw an older woman with Ricco, she was expensively dressed, heavily made-up, and crazily skinny, and if it hadn’t been for the fact she had different coloured hair from what I remembered her having, I’d have sworn blind it was… Valentina.’

‘I saw Valentina today on her husband’s boat, her hair is now lighter.’

‘Bollocks.’

‘It was her you saw,’ I established, as I started to tap my leg impatiently as I waited for my synapses to start firing, and things fell into place. ‘Marco, everything that’s gone on comes back to her. Ricco would have never had control over Gianni, but the wife that hated him and could feed his addictions would have. Her and Ricco… It’s all beginning to make sense.’

‘Right?’ he questioned, playing catch up with where my head was taking me.

‘Yes, don’t you see? She didn’t ever really try to hide the fact she hated her husband, Gianni. Even when I was a child, when I saw them together, I understood she didn’t like him. She sucked up to Salvatore Snr, who made it very clear her performance was an irritation, but one he would put up with for the sake of his grandchildren. When Salvatore Jnr was pulled back into the family fold, she could hardly hide her contempt… Did that woman also see to it that Gianni killed the mama of his first-born son?’

‘A woman scorned.’ Marco nodded. ‘It might have been where this all fucking started. Weak men with a strong, vengeful woman pulling their strings.’

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