Page 35 of Dark Masquerade
Why are you so sure?”
“Because all Indio would say is that he failed to protect Yvetta, and he would not risk that happening to ‘her.' I think he meant you.”
There was a strange mix of emotions inside Elli, both an icy fear and a little relief. “Then he couldn’t have been talking about Aldo. Aldo loves me, he …” She broke off, seeing the look on Tandy’s face and knowing she was skeptical. “I won’t believe that he was the one who killed Yvetta and, for chrissakes, he hadn’t even met me then. How the hell would he know about me?”
Something jogged in the back of her mind—something from the day she had met Aldo.Your articles are the reason I subscribe to the magazine.But how would he have known about her and Indio?No.
But hadn’t, just an hour or two ago, she been planning to investigate Aldo? What Jess had told her merely fanned that flame.
Jess sighed. “Look, this is all conjecture, really. What does your gut tell you?”
Elli rubbed her hand over her forehead. “God, Jess, I’m so conflicted right now.”
“I told her to get some space frombothof them.” Tandy was picking off the label of her beer, looking annoyed.
“I concur,” Jess said. “But you’re a big girl, Elli. Just know …you have allies.”
Elli smiled at her. “That means the world.”
The one drawback to the afternoon with her friends, Elli thought, as she walked back to the Four Seasons, was that it had to end and now she had to go back and see Aldo and pretend as if nothing had happened.
He greeted her with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. “Hello, darling. I missed you.”
Elli gave him a half-smile. “You were busy, honey. I didn’t want to interrupt your work.”
He pulled her into his arms. “You can interrupt me anytime.” He kissed her, and she tried to respond, but after a moment, Aldo drew back and studied her. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
His eyes narrowed. “You know I don’t like it when you lie to me.”
Oh god.Her heart began to thump. “You got me. I have a splitting headache,” she said smoothly. “But I don’t want to ruin our dinner plans.”
“Nonsense. We’re not meeting Theo and Jess Storm until tomorrow. Tonight, we can have room service and an early night.”
Elli smiled gratefully at him. “That sounds perfect.”
“You liked Jess, didn’t you? Are you looking forward to seeing her again?”
Was she paranoid to hear accusation in his words? She brushed past it, not wanting to give anything away. “Of course.” And Aldo said nothing else, not through the room service dinner or when Elli faked being asleep to avoid sex. He seemed perfectly happy just to lie next to her.
In the middle of the night, she awoke to find the bed empty. A thin sliver of light underneath the bathroom door led her to open it a crack. Aldo was masturbating furiously, his face red from concentration. She was about to close the door and give him some privacy when she heard the frenzied whisper coming from him. As she focused on the words, her stomach clenched with horror as her lover whispered another woman’s name over and over.
Yvetta. Yvetta. Yvetta.
They arrived back in Italy, and Elli intended to break things off with Aldo immediately. There were any number of reasons, starting with what Jess had whispered in her ear after the dinner that Elli and Aldo had shared with her and Theo.
“Always here. Just say the word and we can come get you.” Elli hated the concern in the other woman’s eyes—was she really in as much danger as everyone seemed to think? She couldn’t be with a man who frightened her. That was one thing.
Then, on the flight back to Italy, a different kind of fear struck Elli—one involving biology. The thought that she could possibly be pregnant with Aldo’s child had left her cold. And then, thinking that it might actually be Indio’s child … Elli had closed her eyes and allowed herself the fantasy that it was and that Indio would welcome her and the child and they would live in his farmhouse, running around, having fun, and making furniture in his workshop.She didn’t even want Aldo’s child.That was another thing.
And then there was the fact that, even if he was as clean as his public persona would suggest, she now knew she didn’t love Aldo and could never love anyone but Indio. She’d rather be alone forever than stay with a man out of convenience. It wouldn’t be fair to Aldo.
For all those reasons, Elli tried to finish things, but he deflected her trying to talk to him with a mention of another party. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one, too, my love,” he had said. “Some of our friends will be there.”
Elli bit her tongue and went along with it, distracting herself with work. She also wanted to get a look at Aldo’s study, see if she could find anything in his files about his business concerns in Uganda. So she went along with the plans, keeping out of his way during the day. She would return to work on Monday, which would give her some breathing space.
She asked Umberto to take her to the small town near Aldo’s mansion, and she ducked into a drugstore and bought a few pregnancy tests, not trusting the results of just one test.
