Page 78 of Royally Roma
Niccolo had been responsible for cleaning up enough royal messes to have the process down to an art form, the only difference being that those messes had been Cassian’s doing. Not his own. Never his own.
Until now.
After a series of quick movements of his rapid-fire thumb, Piero set the phone down. “Youdoknow there could be copies elsewhere. It might be too late. Even after I’ve deleted it, she could still do you great harm.”
“Let her try.” Niccolo buttoned his suit jacket and stalked toward the door. He had no reason to stick around and wait for Julia’s return. Not anymore. In fact, he much preferred not to see her again. Ever. Piero could stay behind and handle the dirty work. “If she does, I will ruin her.”
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
The second Julia walked back inside her apartment, she knew something had gone horribly wrong even before she saw the grim look on Piero’s face. The air felt thick, tragic.
Empty.
Valentina strained at the end of her leash, ears pricked forward, tail tucked between her legs. Even the dog knew that things weren’t right.
“Where’s Nico?” Julia asked, hoping she didn’t sound as panicked as she felt.
Calm down. He would never leave without saying good-bye.
Of course he wouldn’t.
Would he?
Piero rose from the chair where he’d been sitting at her kitchen table. The same table where the olives and wine from the night before were still arranged, abandoned in favor of delicious passion.
“I’m afraid thatNico...” Piero cleared his throat. It so obviously pained him to use his employer’s nickname. “... is gone.”
“Gone,” she echoed, as her heart sank to her ballerina flats.
So it was true. No good-bye. No tender words of parting or regret. He’d simply gotten dressed and left the moment that the opportunity had arisen.
The first sign of trouble had been the two men in dark suits she’d seen standing outside the door to her apartment building. They’d looked awfully familiar. She could have sworn they were the same men she’d seen at the café yesterday morning.
But never in her wildest dreams would she have guessed Nico would leave without saying good-bye.
What a jerk!
“Yes. He had urgent business to attend to.” Piero’s smile was a tad too disingenuous. Everything about this felt wrong.
She had half a mind to release her hold on the leash and let Valentina lay waste to his pant leg. “Of course. I understand.”
But she didn’t understand. Not at all. What could be sourgentthat that Niccolo would sneak away without saying good-bye? Did his crown need an emergency polishing?
Mi manchi,il tesoro.
I miss you, my darling.
She should have been prepared. She’d known this moment was coming. She just hadn’t expected it to be like this, to feel so easily discarded.
She felt brittle all of a sudden, like if Piero said another word, she might crack into a million pieces. She needed him to leave. Now. Before the sob that was rising up within her made its way to the surface.
Or before she told this horrible Piero exactly what she thought of his boss. Prince Charming? She’d never heard a bigger oxymoron. She didn’t know whether to cry or scream. She refused to do either, especially cry.
The only thing that would make this one-sided good-bye any more humiliating was if she allowed herself to weep in front of this person who looked at her as if she were abaldracca.A whore. Like a fallen Vestal Virgin being paraded through the streets on her way to being buried alive.
She aimed her fiercest death-glare at him.
