Page 43 of Under A Sicilian Sky
‘Hey, there’s nothing wrong with you,’ Kitty insisted. ‘You’re lovely. It’s everyone else that are the wazzocks. I want this to be over for you, honey. I wish you could just come home.’ Her voice wobbled.
Ruby’s eyes stung. ‘Don’t you start. I had my mum sobbing on me earlier, begging me to come home. If only it was that easy. I have to say, though, this place, as pretty as is it, it’s a bit tainted now. It’s lost its shine.’
‘No bloody wonder, Roo. Look, you must be knackered. I’ll let you go. Just promise to keep me posted, eh? Especially if they catch Hamilton Horse’s Arse.’
Ruby giggled. ‘And that is how he shall from henceforth be known.’
Kitty laughed too, and Ruby was relieved that the tone was lighter.
‘I’ll let you know what happens. Love you.’
‘Love you squillions, chick. Bye.’
When everything had calmed down, Ruby lay in bed wondering how the hell she could have made a complicated and shitty situation even worse. She stroked Nero and said, ‘It’s a definite talent I seem to have acquired, lad, eh? One I need to rid myself of as soon as bloody possible.’ The little dog wagged his tail and pawed at her hand.
Despite the million and one thoughts buzzing around her head, she drifted off into a nightmare-filled sleep, where she was locked in a room, surrounded by photographs of herself kissing ‘Clark’. The door to the room was bolted and she couldn’t escape the images. Her stomach turned and her heart pounded as she found a bathroom and locked the door behind her. Clark banged on the door, demanding to be let in and shouting that he was going to ruin her if she didn’t come out. She curled up in a corner crying and begging him to let her go, but no one came to her rescue this time.
She was startled awake and sprang to a sitting position when someone began hammering on her room door and calling her name. Nero let out a series of yips and jumped down to stand guard as Ruby grabbed her robe and wrapped it around herself. Her heart skipped and her breathing rate increased. ‘H-hello?’
‘Ruby! It’s me, Mitch.’
She dashed to open the door and sure enough, Mitch stood there, one hand scrunched in his dark mop of hair, the other over his mouth. ‘Thank feck for that. You were crying out and I was getting worried, but you’d locked the door. Pack your stuff. You’re leaving,’ he informed her before turning to walk away.
Her heart dropped and panic set in. ‘Whoa! Hang on! Why are you making me leave? I thought we’d sorted everything and—’
‘Look out of your window.’ She crumpled her brow and went to the double doors that led to the balcony. Before she could open the curtains, Mitch interjected, ‘No! Don’t open the curtains or the door! Just peep out.’
Doing as he had suggested, she made a gap between the drapes and stared down towards the main gate. Jacopo and Luca were both pacing back and forth, weapons drawn, and beyond the gate a huge crowd had gathered. Once again, there were banners with slogans painted on, this time in Italian but no doubt insulting, she could just tell. A couple in particular stood out, in vivid, blood red; one saying, ‘Cagna maledetta!’and the other, ‘Vai a casa puttana!!’ She didn’t know what they meant, but, from the angry way in which they were cast onto the placards, she could easily guess.
In addition to the baying throng, paparazzi were interspersed among them, like ravenous vultures waiting for a feast, cameras poised at the ready. The polizia had arrived and were trying to disperse the crowd, but Ruby could hear the chants and catcalls from inside the house.
She covered her mouth with her hand. ‘Oh, my word. How…’ She knew the answer to the unfinished question, however. Hamilton Harlow, aka Clark, had released details of her whereabouts. And he had no doubt published his blog post, which, because of the front-page news piece, had probably gone viral. She thanked her lucky stars she couldn’t get online. She knew there was a very good chance that Mitch’s property did have access to the internet, but fear had stopped her from asking for confirmation, and at that moment, as she stared at the antagonists below, she was relieved about that fact. She turned to face her host. ‘I see,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t blame you for kicking me out. I’m just so sorry about all this.’
Shoulders hunched, she walked towards the wardrobe, intent on retrieving her bags.
Mitch stepped inside the room until he was only inches away from her and held up his hands, his eyes wide with concern. ‘No, you’ve totally misunderstood me. I’m not kicking you out. We’re just… relocating.’
Facing him once more, she shook her head, her brow furrowed in confusion. ‘Relocating? What do you mean?’
‘I mean, I’ve been speaking to both your agent and the security firm, and there have been death threats now. They’re no doubt fake and just made by idiots jumping on the bandwagon, but we can’t risk it. There’s been a private plane chartered and it’s ready to get us out of here. Jacopo and Luca are being replaced when we arrive at our destination, just in case crazy Clark makes a reappearance, and Valerie is sending Shelby over to assist you, so you have someone from your agency close by in case anything else happens. But, to be honest, it’s not somewhere anyone will expect you to be.’
Her heart skipped as relief flooded her veins. ‘And you’re coming too?’
He nodded. ‘Aye, it’s another one of my properties we’re going to. My favourite one in fact. The one I call my real home. I didn’t want to desert you. You won’t know anyone there, but the locals will be intrigued and full of questions, so I figured I would come along and be a buffer. And I was going to return to the island in April anyway to see my folks.’
This time she nodded. ‘Oh… okay. And where is it?’
He smiled. ‘A beautiful wee village on the Isle of Skye called Glentorrin.’
18
Ruby contacted Kitty and her parents to tell them she was UK-bound but that she had to be careful because of the whole stalker issue. She didn’t mention the newly announced death threats for fear of scaring them half to death. Her dad’s heart couldn’t take it and Kitty was heavily pregnant and could do without the added stress. The police had been in touch that morning with an update. They had tracked Clark’s phone to a rubbish bin on the outskirts of Palermo where it had been dumped, so he was potentially in the wind now. That was until he made another mistake. The worry of him, or any other vigilantes, locating her on Skye was real, but she had to trust that she would be fine, otherwise she’d become a paranoid recluse, afraid of everyone and everything.
Mitch and Ruby—with Nero on her lap—sat in the back of the black car as the gates of Villa Vista Mare opened, and Jacopo slowly pulled the vehicle forward. Cameras flashed, rather pointlessly, at the blacked-out rear windows and Luca chuntered under his breath in the front passenger seat; his Italian grumblings were something Ruby had become accustomed to during her stay. Angry faces loomed through the glass and Ruby closed her eyes, leaned her head back on the headrest, stroked Nero’s soft fur and tried to block out the sound of the raging protests. It was a relief to be leaving, but only because of the horrible events that had taken place with Hamilton Harlow. Other than that, she’d been grateful to have such a beautiful sanctuary, even if it was short-lived.
‘Jeez, is this something you have to put up with regularly?’ Mitch asked as they inched out of the safety of the enclosure.
She opened her eyes and turned her head slightly towards him. ‘Occupational hazard. Although there are usually less angry faces and more professions of love.’ She laughed lightly.
