Page 90 of Love Among the Ruins
She eyed a duster, then some more cleaning materials. An apron or two. She reached for them all, pulling the apron on and tying it around at the back. Then she hobbled out, forcing herself to walk as normally as was possible, towards the noises. Thank goodness she’d popped a couple of pills.
She could so do this.
The key turned in the lock, ratcheting her already frayed nerves. She focused on the dusting and prayed for an easy exit. More loud noises followed and she heard the sound of two men talking, then they stopped.
She spun around, made an exclamation of surprise then rambled something in Greek. The other guy looked like Dominic’s bodyguard in height and stature. They might as well have been twins. While the dim recesses of her mind tried to answer the question of why each brother had a bodyguard, her nerves were on alert.
“Who are you?” The brother’s voice had tones of Dominic, interweaved with a touch of sharp, crisp and condescending. In answer, she waved her duster. “Ah, you speak English?” As if she had no idea who he was. “You are?” She stared at the man, forming an opinion of Dominic’s brother in an instant. He looked at her as if she were a lump of shit on his shoe.
“I asked you first. “Who the hell are you?” Alexander repeated.
“The housekeeper. Again, I askyou, who are you?” She didn’t like that man one bit.
“You’rethe housekeeper?” His eyes went up and down her, making her skin bristle. “What the hell happened to Basilia?”
“She is not well. I am helping for now, but I am finished now, so I must go.” She put the duster up against the wall, and started to undo her apron as she tried to walk, as best as she could, back to the utility room to get her bag.
She could feel his eyes burning through her back.
“What’s wrong with your foot?” he shouted out after her.
“I hurt it.”
The man snorted in shock. “And my brother still made you come in and clean the place? What an asshole.”
She returned with her bag over her shoulder, and hobbled past them in pain so excruciating, she was sure she’d faint.
Dominic’s brother whistled as he stared at her foot. She presumed it was his brother because he still hadn’t answered her question, but he so fit the description she’d been given, and he resembled the nicer Steele brother, that she no longer needed his confirmation.
“It looks painful.”
“It is.” As painful as talking to this asshole.
