Page 45 of With a Vengeance

And she’s not the only one.

As she enters the dining car, Anna spots someone else moving through the door at the opposite end, heading into the galley.

She hurries across the car, determined to catch whoever it is before they get a chance to move entirely through the galley. But when she passes from one car to the other, she realizes that’s not their plan. The person has stopped at the icebox in the center of the galley and now stands partially obscured behind the open door. A man, Anna realizes. Beneath the door she can see trousers and black leather shoes.

“Who are you?” Anna says. “What are you doing here?”

“My name is hunger and I’m desperately looking to be sated.”

Anna groans. It’s Dante. Of course. Now peering around the icebox door to flash her that all-too-familiar grin.

“You could have at least ordered something for us to eat before you kicked the staff off the train.”

“I paid them off,” Anna says. “There’s a difference. And food was the least of my concerns when planning this voyage.”

“Obviously. The only thing in here are cold cuts.” He removes a slab of roast beef wrapped in butcher paper and drops it on the counter. “Is there any bread?”

Anna moves to the other end of the galley, where a breadbox sits next to an eight-slice toaster. Once upon a time she knew every inch of this car. She and Tommy were constantly here, cajoling the cooks into giving them treats. Their favorite was Stella, who made a mean fried chicken and the best sticky buns on Earth. Anna could devour one in three bites.

She thinks of Stella as she opens the breadbox and pulls out a loaf for Dante. He claps in delight and grabs a nearby knife.

“Would you like a sandwich?”

“I refuse to eat anything you prepare,” Anna says. “Or have you forgotten what happened in the lounge?”

Dante pushes the knife through the loaf, cutting off two thick slices. “Come on, Annie. You know I had nothing to do with that. But at least you got your wish. Everyone’s definitely squirming now.”

“If you think I’m happy that Judd Dodge is dead, then you’re quite mistaken. I didn’t want any of this.”

“Maybe not consciously,” Dante says. “But deep down, hidden in a dark place you don’t like to think about, part of you wanted this to happen. And that same dark part of you wishes it would happen to all of them. That’s why I think you planned this trip. You were secretly hoping it would end this way.”

“I told you why I planned it.”

“And I don’t buy that excuse one bit. If you wanted to watch my father and the others squirm, you could have done it in court.”

Anna knows it would have been easier—not to mention far less expensive—to give the FBI the evidence and let them arrest everyone. It also would have been deeply unsatisfying.

“Seeing them in court isn’t enough,” she says. “I wanted to see their faces when they realized they were cornered on this train. I wanted them to know they’d been trapped—by me.”

“What did you think would happen then?” Dante asks. “That they’d all confess and tell you why they did it?”

Yes, Anna had indeed hoped for that, and still plans to get at least some of them to admit what they’d done—and why. Sal. Edith. Even Herb Pulaski. Even though learning the reasons for their betrayal won’t bring her family back, Anna suspects it might bring some closure.

Still, that’s not the main reason she planned this trip. For her, it’s not about the journey but the destination.

“I had to watch my father be handcuffed and dragged from our home,” Anna says. “Now I need to see the same thing happen to all of them. I need to be there when they’re taken into custody. I need to witness their public disgrace. I need to see, with my own eyes, the moment their lives and reputations are ruined. Then they can have their day in court, which my father was never given, and rot in prison for the rest of their lives.”

“Including my father,” Dante says.

“Especially him. Which is why I’m still mad at you for taking his place.”

“I remember when you were happy to see me.”

“That was a long time ago,” Anna says.

Not so long, though, that she forgets every moment spent with Dante. She remembers everything, especially when he showed upwith those roses to her final performance as Juliet. Even then, she resisted, likely for the same reason he pursued her. It was forbidden. So Dante pushed harder, making it a point to show up at events where he knew Anna would be. Parties and picnics and debutante balls. Even when he wasn’t invited, he found a way in. In Philadelphia society, the Wentworth name opened many doors.

Each encounter was a dance, the steps of which included flirtation, banter, some light verbal sparring. Eventually, Anna’s defenses lowered bit by bit, while at the same time his boldness grew. A brief touch of her hand. A featherlight kiss on her cheek. Finally, after one such occasion, he offered to walk her home. Instead of answering yes, all Anna said was, “Our parents can never know.”

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