Page 31 of The Midnight Club
By the time they had finished unpacking all her stuff, it was way after one a.m. Shiloh suddenly felt shy. “Look, I feel bad that I can’t offer you somewhere to sleep,” she said, nodding at the couch which Beau had decided to sleep on. Benoit shook his head, grinning.
“Don’t worry, my place isn’t far.”
“Thank you so much for today. I’d still be doing this next week if you hadn’t helped.”
Benoit smiled at her. “It was no problem. I had fun. Hey...” He grinned as she looked at him askance. “Better than sitting in money meetings all day.”
Shiloh had to concede that. “Well, anyway … look, are you free for dinner tomorrow? I’d like to cook you a meal to say thank you.”
Benoit nodded. “That sounds wonderful.”
She walked him to the door and he kissed her cheek, lingering only a beat too long. “Get some sleep, Shiloh. You look exhausted.”
A few minutes later she was crawling into bed, Beau jumping up to snuggle next to her. She fell asleep almost immediately, but soon the dreams came, and in each and every one of them, Benoit Vaux was making sweet love to her.
Alex had flownover from New York as soon as Maceo had called him about the website. Maceo had already called in the police, who were working with their American counterparts.
“Miss Roy,” they had asked Orianthi again and again. “Do you know who would wish you harm?”
Maceo had barely believed it when she refrained from telling them about her stepfather and it had been the cause of their first and only row to date.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell them about Janek?” Maceo had demanded, his green eyes flashing with disbelief and anger.
Ori had stood her ground. “Because we both know this isn’t him. It can’t be. How the hell would he have known about Viola before I even met you?”
Maceo had no argument for that, but he wasn’t mollified. “They could have at least questioned him.”
“And given him another opportunity to play the concerned stepfather card? No, thank you.”
Ori sighed to herself. But three days later, now it seemed, that Tyson had found out about it anyway. His statement to the press was full of platitudes and nauseating homilies, and Ori pushed away the newspaper in disgust.
Since their row, she and Maceo had hardly spoken, but now she felt his hands on her shoulders and she looked up at him. “Let’s not fight.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just scared.” He came to sit next to her, sliding his arm around her shoulders and kissing her cheek. “Ti amo.”
She nestled into his arms. “I was thinking … whoever is doing this, I don’t think it matters who I am to him. It’s not really me who is the target. You are. Or at least, you and the others. The Club. It’s too obvious.”
“I agree. So does Alex; so do the police. The thing is … we’ve all obviously made bad decisions at one time or another, or had enemies. None of us think we’ve collectively screwed anyone over. So why target us?”
Ori sighed. “Jealousy? The Midnight Club is a well-oiled machine.”
“The Midnight Club is five friends who thought—back in their twenties—that they could rule the world. Some of us still think like that; some of us are happy with what we have.” Maceo smiled at her. “The club isn’t a club, Ori. It’s just us five brothers. There’s nothing to be envious of.” He kissed her gently. “But I can understand someone being jealous of whatIhave….”
Ori smiled, but her mind was still racing. “Is it because I look like Viola?”
Maceo’s smile faded. “I don’t know,bella.”
“But I’m not her,” she said quietly. “Anyone who spent five minutes with me could tell.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Me neither. Hey, look, let’s go meet Alex for dinner and forget all this bullshit. Are we going to let one asshole ruin our happiness? I’ll tell you a secret,mio caro.”
Ori chuckled at his cheeky grin. “And what’s that, Mr. Bartoli?”
“I have a lot of money. A lot. Which means the best protection in the world. No one’s getting near you, or us. So we can go on, live our lives, and enjoy what we have.”
