Page 51 of Under Her Skin
Hero was panting for air but nodded, her eyes large and frightened. “You were dreaming…then you just started to press down on me…I couldn’tbreathe.”
He gathered her to him. “God, I’m so sorry, so sorry…I thought…I saw…” He couldn’t say the words. Hero stroked his damp, dark curls away from his face, herself a lot calmernow.
“Was I dead?” Her voice was steady, and henodded.
“You were dying,” he amended, “and there was so much blood. I couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t stop it.MioDio…”
“Ssh, it’s okay.” She pressed her lips to his temple. “I’m perfectly fine; it was just adream.”
“Anightmare.”
“A nightmare is all it was. Turo, Turo, Turo…” The way she whispered his name to comfort him was a balm on his frazzled nerves. He wrapped his arms aroundher.
“Hero, my love, my wife…we’re going to make this right. I’m going to make this all goaway.”
She smiled at him, so lovely, the moonlight making her skin glow, her lips soft against his. “We’re going to get through this, I swear we will. I loveyou.”
“Ti amo, il mia amore. Tiamo.”
Outside of the hotel,he waited, the blacked-out windows of his car making his surveillance easy. He knew what suite they were in—the penthouse. Arturo would settle for nothing less on his wedding night. So, they were married. It made no difference to his plan. Hero would be dead, and Arturo would be on his knees, utterlydestroyed.
He wondered if they had any inkling that they had less than twenty-four hours left before they were ripped apartforever.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“It’s important that no one here or in Como knows you’re safe and well in Rome,” Arturo told Hero’s adoptive sister the next morning. They were sitting in the American Consulate’s meeting room on a conference call with Imelda, her lawyer, and the people from the Consulate. “If we can use the lie of your kidnapping to lure the killer out, all the better. He’s going to use it, so we should, too. He’ll try and force Hero to go to him to exchange for your safety—and we’re going to let him think he’ssucceeded.”
“That sounds dangerous to me,” Imelda said sharply. “Hero, you’re not going through with this, areyou?”
“Of course I am, but I’ll be perfectly safe. He thinks I’ll be so damn worried about you that I will do whatever he says. Of course, I’ll be wearing a wire and have a weapon of my own, and the police and Arturo will be there as soon as he takesme.”
“I don’t likethis.”
“Neither do I, Melly,” Arturo said, “but it’s the quickest, most efficient way to smoke him—or her—out.”
“By using my baby sister asbait?”
Hero felt a rush of love towards Imelda. “Your babysister?”
Imelda snorted, covering her slip. “You know what Imean.”
“I love you, too,” Hero said softly. “I would have died if anything had happened toyou.”
There was silence for a long moment. “Like I will if anything happens to you,” Imelda said gently. “Please, Hero…there must be anotherway.”
“I can’t go on living like this,” Hero said, “this is the quickest way. I promise you, Melly, I’m going to fight for this life. For mylife.”
There was a strangled sob at the end of the line, and Hero felt her eyes fill with tears. Arturo rubbed her back. “Melly,” he said, his own voice breaking slightly. “I swear to you, in a few months, we’ll all be together, and you’ll be playing with your new nieces and nephews, and all of this will beover.”
“You’renot…?”
“Not yet.” Hero chuckled softly. “Turo was just painting apicture.”
Another silence. “I like thatpicture.”
“We do, too. Now, the consulate is going to send over some people to protect you while this goes down. No, don’t argue,” Arturo told his sister-in-law, “it’s just a precaution in case this psycho isn’t workingalone.”
“Is thatlikely?”
