Page 111 of Exotic Affairs: The Mistress Bride\The Spanish Husband\The Bellini Bride

She hoped she was getting through to him. She hoped that she could make him see sense, maybe even turn them around and take her back again!

But he suddenly growled out the kind of curse that said a monster had taken over his soul right now, and with a lurch he threw them round another corner, sending the headlamps scanning out across a terrible nothingness that locked a silent scream into Caroline’s throat.

They hit a deep rut in the road. The scream found full voice as Felipe began to struggle with the wheel. He was cursing and cursing, and she was screaming, and the car was careering all over the place.

They were going to die; she was sure of it! They were going to tumble off the edge of the cliff and never be found! Sheer terror made her grab hold of the handbrake. Sheer terror made her yank it on hard. On a squeal of hot rubber the car gave a lurch, then began skidding sideways while she sat there and watched in open-eyed horror as they slid closer and closer to the edge of the ravine.

Then they hit something solid—a rock on the edge? She didn’t know, but they began lurching back the way they had come. Then, just when she thought the car was going to stop safely, it hit something else, made a terrible groan and toppled very gently onto its side.

Shocked and dizzyingly disorientated, Caroline sat for a few moments, not actually remembering where she was. Then her head began to hurt, and it all came flooding sickeningly back as she lifted her fingers to gently touch the sore area by her temple, realising that she must have hit her head and been knocked out for a while.

Most definitely frightened of what she might find, she turned to look at Felipe. He was at the very least unconscious, sitting hunched over the steering wheel and slightly below her because of the drunken angle of the car.

Carefully, fearfully almost, she reached out and touched her fingers to his neck. She could feel living warmth there and a shimmer of a pulse. ‘Oh, thank God,’ she breathed out shakily. She closed her eyes and said it again. ‘Thank God.’

What now? Where are we? How badly placed are we regarding the ravine? What do I do?

It was then she realised that the car headlights were still burning. With the greatest of care she tried edging herself forward so she could peer out of the car windscreen. It was a miracle it hadn’t shattered, she supposed. Beyond it she could just make out in the lights good solid road and the ravine edge, way over to her right.

They must have keeled over into a ditch near the mountain, she realised. And it was such a relief to know it that she relaxed back in the seat with a sigh and took a few moments to let her heart-rate steady before she attempted to get out.

Felipe had locked the doors, she remembered. But surely there was something somewhere she could pull or push to make them unlock again? With shaky fingers scrambling over pitch black metal and leather, she managed to find something on the door that felt as if it would pull up, tugged it and heard the lock spring free.

Next she had to release the seat belt. Then came the tricky bit, opening the car door and keeping it open while she attempted to scramble out. Her dress snagged on something; she heard it rip and lost her shoes in the struggle. But eventually she landed in a heap on the hard road, then just sat slumped there while she got her breath back.

It was all so quiet, so eerie. She shivered, then suddenly couldn’t stop shivering—though she didn’t think it was because it was that cold up here.

Shock, she presumed. I’m probably shocked. And who wouldn’t be after the ordeal I’ve just had?

The last thought brought a smile to her lips. The smile made her feel better, and she scrambled up on her bare feet and began to take careful stock of the situation.

Felipe obviously needed help; that was her first consideration. But help was either ten miles or so down the mountain or five miles or so back the way they had come. Not much of a choice, really, she mused helplessly. Staying put seemed to make better sense. Someone should have missed her by now, surely?

Never mind merely someone, she then scolded herself. Luiz should have missed her!

It was then that she heard it. It was nothing more at the moment than a very distant growl. But it was a car engine, she recognised, fading in and out as it wound round the mountain.

In sheer relief she simply sank to the ground by the drunken car, folded her now aching head onto her knees and wrapped them in her trembling arms.

It had to be Luiz coming to find her. She didn’t even let herself think that it might be anyone else. In fact, that was the most stupid part of Felipe’s plan of abduction—to actually believe he could just drive away with her without having Luiz hard on his tail. Had he truly believed he would get as far as seduction? The crazy idiot. If she knew Luiz, the road off the mountain towards Los Aminos was probably blocked by now anyway. Felipe would have been stopped before he’d even got started.

The car was coming closer; she could hear the smooth, neat way it was being driven into the bends and corners—could even pick out the gear changes, the braking, the steady increase in speed then the smooth throttling back.

Yet he arrived round the final bend without warning. Odd that, she thought, as she lifted her head and just watched as he brought the strange car to a standstill perhaps ten feet away.

He didn’t get out of the car immediately, either. He just sat there with the headlights trained on her and, she presumed, looked at her looking at him.

Then his doo

r came open. His feet scraped on gravel. And, finally, the full lean length of his body appeared. She couldn’t see his face—well, she could have done if she’d looked at it, but for some unaccountable reason she just didn’t want to.

He walked towards her. Stopped about two feet away and took a look around their remote surroundings. It was so quiet up here you could hear an ant move a leaf. The sky was a navy blue star-studded cloth and the mountains soared like giants standing on guard.

‘Where is he?’ was the first question he asked her, and he did it softly, with no inflexion whatsoever.

‘Unconscious,’ she replied. ‘In the car.’

Luiz nodded. That was all, no further questions. He didn’t even take a look at Felipe. With a flick of his fingers all the other doors flew open on the car he had been driving. Three men got out; one of them was Vito. They came towards them.

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