Page 96 of Where Wild Hearts Dance
As my eyes get used to the light again, I feel some relief to see Trilby settled on the bench.
“How long have you been sitting there?”
“Couple minutes.” She strokes a hand down my back. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s nothing,” I say but a taut sigh follows the words. “Headache, that’s all.”
Her brow dips into a small frown. “Sera said you swallowed a fly back there. Are the two connected?” She arches a brow like she knows neither of those excuses are authentic.
I exhale slowly and turn to look out toward the ocean. When I don’t speak again, she continues. “You haven’t been to the house in a while. Does it have anything to do with Benny?”
A shiver curls its way down my spine and I’m sure she notices, but she doesn’t say anything.
“No. Why would it?”
She clicks her tongue. “Because he’s looked like shit for the last three weeks, which is roughly when I last saw you at Cristiano’s place.”
I turn slowly back to face her.
“Cristiano told me Benny was getting a little touchy about you. Has something been going on? I won’t judge you, Tess. I know you hated him—and for good reason—but I also know that feelings can change.”
I drop my gaze to the ground and notice my hands are shaking. Just talking about Benito has whipped me up into a frenzy.
“Has he really been looking like shit?” I ask in barely a whisper.
“Yeah. Well, as shit as someone blessed with the skin of a supermodel and the jawline of a steak knife can look, sure.”
A smile pulls at my lips but I’m too shaken to give in to it.
She breathes out and rests her hand on mine. “You don’t have to tell me, but if you’re worried about seeing him, I can ask Cristiano to give him stuff to do that keeps him out of your way for the next few days. Obviously, the day of the wedding won’t be easy—you’ll be in the same room all day, but?—”
“He tied me up in a basement, Tril.”
Trilby sucks in a breath, removes her hand from mine and clamps it over her mouth. I don’t bother looking up. I see enough judgement in the mirror—I don’t need to see it from my sister too.
From what I can tell, she may in fact havestoppedbreathing, so I figure she deserves the full story.
“We’ve been having a thing since… well, since the day you gave me the music box.”
I eventually glance across to see her eyes widen further.
“But things got a little more serious when I went to Arena with my friend Paige.”
Trilby nods. So she knows about Arena.
“Benito was there. We went to a hotel, we stayed there for three days. He called me his girlfriend…”
A choke begins to work its way up my throat but I swallow it down because I refuse to cry any more tears over a man. Federico had my tears three years ago and look at what came of that…
“I was going to tell you at the lunch Cristiano hosted at his house, but…”
Trilby’s hand slides from her face and concern shrouds her features. “But what?”
“He found a note Federico had sent me. It arrived completely out of the blue and Bambi had only given it to me that day. But in it Fed talked about wanting to get his revenge on Benito for sending his family away. He said something about knowing his Achilles Heel and working with the Marchesi’s?—”
“The Marchesi’s? Are you serious?” She says, a little too loudly.
“Sshhh,” I hiss, knowing the patio is filling up not far behind us. “They’re empty threats, Trilby. I know Federico, and he isn’t like that. The note was written a few months ago. If he was going to appear and cause trouble, I’m confident he would have done so by now. That’s if he was going to do it, anyway, but he was always good at talking the talk—not so good at putting his words into action.”
