Page 15 of Playing the Sicilian's Game of Revenge

She didn’t even falter. “Yes, indeed.”

“If I am seen at Lorenzo’s home with you, people will talk. And they will talk in a direction that helps my plans.”

“How shortsighted of you to think so,” she returned. “You can either meet me there or not.” She shrugged, jerked the car door out of his grip and slid into the driver’s seat. She half expected him to try to keep her from closing the door, but he didn’t.

Perhaps her threat to call the police was enough to keep him in line, but she doubted it. As she drove back the Parisi estate, she noted Teo followed in his own car very closely.

When she pulled through the gates, she clicked the button to keep them open for Teo’s car, then drove around the twisting lane toward the garden—rather than the main house or her private entrance in the back.

No one would see his car here, and even if they did, they would not tell anyone except maybe Lorenzo. She wanted to keep as much of this from Lorenzo as possible, but if she had to tell her brother a version of events, she would.

She parked and slid out of the car. The moon and stars shone above. The smell of earth and flowers in the cool night air should have made this all a very romantic setting. She almost regretted never sneaking Teo in here back when...

When what? When he’d been lying to her? Talking her into his bed even though he had no feelings for her whatsoever? She had to breathe through her fury to keep herself from slamming her car door. Instead, she closed it quietly and moved over to the little bench among the plants and statuary.

Teo followed suit, though he did not sit with her on the bench—smart man. He stood before her, hands in his pockets, studying her like he’d never seen her before.

“I’ll admit, the idea of destroying Dante Marino has me intrigued,” she said, copying what she’d always called Lorenzo’s boardroom voice. Not complimentarily, of course. Usually she was poking fun at him.

But the cold, detached way her brother spoke in business meetings would certainly help her conduct this one. Because that was all it was now. Business. The business of revenge.

“I cannot understand how tricking me into an engagement is part of such a plot, though. So why don’t you enlighten me?” She looked up at him, hoping all the aching hurts swirling inside of her were hidden behind the wall of fury.

She half expected him to argue with her use of the word tricking. When he did not, she had to admit to herself that she’d hoped he’d argue with the word. It hurt that he didn’t. That he launched into an explanation instead.

“I have spent the years since my mother’s death perfecting my plan. And it is perfect. This is what we will do.” He spoke as if there was no question that she would hop into this we. But he kept on, so clearly impassioned she couldn’t even interrupt to correct him.

“We will announce our engagement. We will enjoy that attention for a short period of time before the rest begins to leak. People digging into my past. Into who I am. And slowly but surely, an image of a Dante Marino will emerge. A new image. A man who refused to acknowledge the son he created after coercing an employee. Who threatened her with his considerable power and privilege to never reveal a thing. He did everything he claims to stand against. Not just in the past, but now, when he refused to even see me.”

“So... I’m just a plant to get people interested in you, Teo?” Had she really expected this to not make her feel worse and worse? Had she really expected this to ease things? She was a fool, but she’d never let him know she thought so. “How sad for you that you are that boring without me.”

He didn’t even spare her a quelling glance. “Expand your imagination, Saverina. While people are digging into my past—regardless of you and having everything to do with our impending union—it will be made quite clear through my many media contacts that while Dante ignored me, threatened my mother, made our lives hell—Parisi welcomed me with open arms. A job. A family. So much so that when I fell in love with the youngest Parisi, nothing but approval, welcoming, and acceptance was given to me. And everyone, finally, will see that Parisi is everything Marino isn’t.”

Too many emotions battered her then. She couldn’t believe a heart could feel this bruised over someone she’d been involved with for a short time. How stupid she’d been to let him in there in the first place. How stupid she was to let her next words slip out. “That is the first time you’ve used that word. Love.”

He had no quick response to that. She didn’t dare look at him, too afraid she would feel his pity. Too afraid this failure would swallow her whole. Because it was a failure on her part. To believe a liar. To fall in love with one.

Her chest got tight, not just in pain but in that telltale sign she was heading for a panic attack. If anyone ever found out she’d been so fooled, if her siblings found out she’d been so stupid. That she’d failed so spectacularly. That...

She took in a breath through her nose, counted to three. She used all the tools her university therapist had taught her for dealing with her panic. She would not lose her composure in front of this man.

“Why do you care about Parisi?” she managed to ask him, though she felt her tight throat and heard the strangled way she spoke a bit like she was floating up above herself.

“Because Dante cares. And wishes to see your family destroyed. Destroying him isn’t enough for what he did to my mother. I will see his enemies lauded, his business ruined and handed over to his rival, while his reputation is ruined beyond the telling. I want everyone he hates dancing on the grave of the Marino name.”

She breathed deep a few more times, stemming the tide. For now. It made a strange kind of sense, she supposed. How did you hurt someone irreparably? Not just take away everything he held dear—for Dante, his reputation—but also give his enemies everything he wanted. That positive media attention. That lauding. Any clients Marino lost would go to Parisi, no doubt.

The engagement to Teo wouldn’t be real anymore—not that it ever had been, but now it would be an act for her as well as him. Could she go through with it? Was she that good an actress? Could she set her curdled feelings about Teo aside if it meant Dante Marino would get what he deserved? Perhaps he had not hurt Lorenzo the way he’d hurt Teo’s mother, but he had tried to ruin Lorenzo’s reputation, Lorenzo’s business. All because Lorenzo had stood up to him.

Saverina breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth. Counted. Calmed. She didn’t know if she could do this, but she knew she wanted to try. But first, she had to know... “Tell me one thing. What was the plan if I never found out?”

Teo had lies. Contingency plans for everything that was happening. Yet looking at her now, he struggled to voice them. He realized he wasn’t quite as sure as he once had been that she would believe them.

He knew she was quick and sharp, but he supposed he’d still underestimated just how much. He wanted to find it annoying. A speed bump. But mostly he was impressed.

And other things he didn’t want to acknowledge. Other things that reminded him too much of the days around his mother’s death. Helplessness and failure and grief.

No, those feelings didn’t belong here. “There was no plan. I would have been a husband to you. A good one at that. We would have had a perfectly nice life together. I have no need for a real marriage, no belief in things like love. So why not have it be a business arrangement?”

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