Page 19 of Dark Masquerade
Tandy glanced at her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I always was waiting for something like this to happen to you.”
Elli was shocked. “Why?”
“Because look at you, Elli. You’re so beautiful, so friendly, and yet when anyone gets close, they’re banging up a brick wall. Someone was always going to get nasty, and I think this is it.”
Elli was silent. “So it’s my fault?”
“Hell, no.” Tandy was vehement. “It’s the fault of a civilization that leads men to believe they’re entitled to any woman they want, and thatmurderis an option open to them if they don’t get what they want.”
“But Ihavelet someone in,” Elli insisted. “I hope you get to meet Aldo …he’s just the sweetest, sexiest guy. And he and I are growing closer every day …ineveryway.” Elli flushed, and Tandy grinned.
“Then he’s probably not the one playing these games.”
“Of course it’s not Aldo,” Elli said in surprise. “He would never do anything to hurt me.”
“Of course, of course.” Tandy waved her hand. “I was being facetious. Elli, I know you won’t want to go down this path, but … do you think it might be Indio?”
Tandy knew everything about Indio and Elli’s love for the man. Elli sighed.
“I would hate to think so. Besides, Indio knows that if he came back …”
“You would dump Aldo in a second if Indio showed up.”
Elli was stung. “I wouldn’t.”
“Hey, I’m not judging—but are you being honest with yourself?”
Elli could feel the tears coming again, and she looked away from her friend. It was a moot thought anyway—Indio was never coming back—so what did it matter if Tandy just might be right? “Please don’t make this harder than it is,” she said in a soft voice. Tandy hugged her.
“Sorry. Now, let’s forget this nonsense and go eat our body weight in front of the television.”
Tandy did a great job of distracting Elli for the evening, but when Tandy fell asleep on the couch just after midnight, Elli put a pillow underneath her head and blanket over her and went to her bedroom, realizing she’d never gotten the promised call from Aldo.
She grabbed her laptop and opened Skype, hoping he would be online. She had been debating with herself all night whether to tell him about the threats, but when she saw his smile as he logged on and greeted her, she demurred.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
“Hi, Aldo. How’s the Big Apple?”
“Lonely without you. I only got in a little while ago. Did you talk to Viv about the article?”
God, the article …she hadn’t thought about that at all since the threats. “It’s all good. We’re not going to respond to it.”
Aldo looked a little surprised. “Wow.”
“What?”
“Well, you were so fired up and now it seems like you’ve let it go.”
Elli nodded, not quite meeting his eye. “Yeah, well.”
“You okay?”
“Absolutely. Actually,” she said, seeing Tandy stumble into the bedroom, bleary-eyed, and using it to change the subject, “I do have to tell you that I’m sharing my bed with someone else tonight.” She grinned as Aldo’s eyebrows shot up and Elli moved the laptop around to where Tandy was crawling into bed. “Say hello to Aldo. Aldo, this is Tandy, a good friend of mine. She’s crashing here for a few nights on her way to India.”
Aldo chuckled and said hello to Tandy, who greeted him, then promptly went back to sleep. Elli grinned at Aldo. “She showed up at the office today. No warning.”
“Serendipitous,” Aldo nodded, “I like you’re not alone.”
