Page 37 of Dark Masquerade
“Indio …I know you didn’t kill Yvetta. I know you just feel guilty about her.”
Indio, his eyes sad, nodded. “I’m sorry I told you I did, but Iamresponsible for her death.”
She stroked his curl away from his face. God, he was so handsome, it almost hurt to look at him. It was like staring at the sun. “Indio, was it Aldo? Did he kill her?”
Indio looked at her with unhappy eyes, but nodded. “And, Elli, what scares me most is that ever since her death …he has focused his malevolence on someone else. The love of my life.”
Elli knew he was talking about her, but she needed to hear him say it. “You mean …?”
Indio smiled little and kissed her gently. “You, you damn frustrating, beautiful wonderful girl …woman,sorry. You are the love of my life. You always have been. Every cliché in the book, that’s what I feel for you, Elliana Moretti.” But his smile faded. “Aldo Constanza targeted you, Elli, and I don’t mean that to sound insulting. Any man would want you, but Aldo sought you out. He knew any new relationship would make the papers, and that I would see you together wherever I was in the world.”
He sighed and leaned his forehead against hers. “He killed Yvetta, and now he’s going to try to kill you, Elli. If you break it off with him, hewillkill you. I hate, hate, the thought of you being with him, but can I ask something repulsive? I need you to stay with him while I gather more evidence against him.”
Elli opened her eyes. “You’re behind those reports in the paper.”
He nodded, and then looked a little shame-faced. “I also wrote the article about you.”
That stung her hard. “Why?”
“I’m sorry, Elli. It was all bullshit. None of it was true, but I wanted to get a reaction from you. I hoped being labeled a gold-digger would make you think twice about dating him. I should have known you wouldn’t back down, you crazy woman. I’m sorry if it hurt you.”
She gave a hollow laugh. “What does it matter now? Look, Indio, I can help. If you want me to stay with him longer, I will. He works from home. There are files in his study we may find useful, but I need to get to them. It’ll be easier if I’m already in the house and …trusted. Although I’m not sure Aldo trusts me much anymore. We’ve been having problems.”
“You have?”
Her mouth hitched up in a lop-sided smile. “Something about me being desperately in love with this gorgeous guy I once knew.”
Indio laughed softly and looked at the door. “Will he miss you?”
“Well, he told me to go fuck some strangers, so I don’t give a crap. I’ll just tell him I got upset and went to the bathroom.” She wound her arms around his neck. “Indio, we can make this work, can’t we?”
“I’m going to do everything to make sure you’re safe and that we’re together. We just have to bring Aldo down first—or you’ll never be safe. I hate, hate,hatethat I’ll be sending you home with him tonight.”
The very thought made her cringe in disgust and fear, even though she knew that until she had a plan, it would never be safe to try and just walk away from Aldo’s insane obsession.
“Indio, were you watching me?”
He nodded. “Only for protection.” He chuckled softly. “You might want to get rid of the little bug in the plant on your desk.”
Elli burst out laughing. “I should be mad, but I don’t care. I love that you’ve been close all this time.”
His eyes were soft with love. “It killed me to send you away, but Constanza told me after he killed Yvetta that, and I quote,‘next time, my knife will be gutting the girl you’ve really been in love with all this time’if I didn’t leave Italy and stay away from you. He knew about you years ago. I think he’s been manipulating your career too. I think Yvetta must have told him about you—I was not the lover she deserved because I was already in love. There were times when it got too much for her. Aldo wore her down.”
“What was she like?”
“Lovely. You would have liked her. But I was wrong to be with her when I loved you. She deserved so much better. When Aldo started to harass her, I didn’t take it seriously. Thinking back now, if it had been you, I would have gone ballistic. Instead, I treated it as a joke until Aldo got way too physical with her and she came to me. She told me she had tried to make friends and let him down gently, but he had assaulted her, tying her up, blindfolding her, and threatening her with a knife.”
Elli swallowed hard, remembering the times Aldo had blindfolded her. Indio brushed his lips on hers before continuing. “I reacted badly. I beat him, and he fired me, only to hire me back the next day with an apology and a huge hike in pay. He also apologized to Yvetta, and afterward, he did leave her alone. I felt badly that I hadn’t taken her seriously, and I knew I could never come back to you, so I proposed.”
Elli’s eyes filled with tears again. “You could have come to me. I waited and waited. Enzo died. Whatever happened between you two was over and you knew that. I thought you didn’t want me anymore. I carried you in my heart. Every day I missed you and it felt like I was dying. And you were going to marry a woman you didn’t love.”
“I was going to marry her out of a false sense of responsibility, Elli. It was my fault she died. Because of my own damn stupid pride …I forced his hand, and he killed her. He stabbed her to death on our wedding day. A day that should never have been because I knew—and she knew—that my heart belonged, and will always belong, to you.”
Elli was crying now—sobbing—the tears just never ending, and Indio took her in his arms. “I’m sorry, Elli Bella,scuzi, scuzi ...ti amo.”
She pressed her lips to his and pulled his jacket from his shoulders. Indio shrugged out of it and his hands were at the straps of her dress, pulling them down her shoulders. “I always love this color on you,” he murmured, and Elli smiled.
“I know. I’ve been wearing a lot of lilac lately …it makes me feel close to you.”
