Page 21 of Don't Bite The Boss
“I see,” I reply quietly, studying him.
‘What about the Summer wedding?’
“So, if you wouldn’t mind shifting your focus to the public open spaces, get onto that artist you were talking about, organise the fountains. I’ve hired extra security for all your work sites. I’m going to be at sea for a few weeks, a month perhaps.”
“Consider it done,” I murmur.
‘Something has happened with Fleur? Surely not. But he goes to sea to think, he told me so.’
He nods and, rising, pockets his mobile phone before walking around from behind his desk, clearly planning on leaving the room.
“Tristan.”
He stops, mid-step, his back still to me.
“I wasn’t going to bite you in the pool area.”
“I know,” he says quietly, before taking the next few steps and leaving the room.
I sit for a long, long time staring at the map of the villa grounds in my hand, before rising and following him out.
8
Tess sounds unusually subdued, and it soon becomes clear why. My anger, and sense of betrayal when I find out the reason is magnified by Tristan’s absence, even though it has only been a week, and I scream at her before hanging up.
I phone back a few minutes later though, to apologise.
“I’m sorry too,” she says gently, “but she asked me specifically not to tell you.”
“Tess,” I sigh, “it’s not you that has to answer for being a duplicitous mole, it’s Charlotte. Serena has been in Italy for more than a fortnight searching for Valerie, and she never told me. I knew Char cancelled her holiday for a reason, she side-tracked me with some bullshit answer, and I’ve hardly seen her over the past few days. I thought it was because she was setting up her new business in Naples, now that Tristan has stalled work on the villa, when all along it was because she was hosting Serena and helping search for Christopher’s little monster. I want to rip her throat out, all three of their throats out.”
I think back over all the excuses Charlotte had made in recent days, ever since Tristan had left and I had stayed, refusing to stop work on his villa, despite his directive. I’d still worked on the township’s landscaping, of course, but in my spare time, the villa was my little project. Well, my second project, because ever since the mafia attack, I’d had another little thing I liked to do each night, right before dawn and my bedtime – I hunted. I’m pretty sure I’m cutting a generous swathe through the local Cosa Nostra. In fact, I’m confident the populous would give me a medal if they knew how well I was doing.
Charlotte though had stopped visiting the villa altogether, stopped visiting me, too.
Now I know why.
“Charlotte had as much choice as I did,” Tess says gently, “we are both caught in the middle of this ridiculous feud, Pru. Honestly, I just think Serena has taken it too far. You made a mistake, you rectified it, Christopher is still in one piece. Serena needs to forgive you. You can help with her search, and she needs all the help she can get, if she will just swallow her pride and accept your apology.”
“It’s more than that,” I sigh, “I betrayed her trust. I betrayed the pact we all made never to turn anyone.”
“Mmmm,” Tess says quietly.
“Tess?”
“About that,” she murmurs.
“About what?”
“Well…”
“Tess, you’re driving me crazy. What aren’t you telling me?”
“Serena is in Italy alone for a reason, I know she’ll kill me for telling you this. But she and Christopher are fighting. He wants her to turn him, and she won’t. They’ve been going on and on and around in circles over it for weeks.”
“Holy shit,” I breathe.
“So, um, between that, and Valerie, and the argument with you, I guess Serena has a lot on her mind.”
