Page 40 of His Sweet Torment
Enver sighed and rubbed his hands on his face. “Because I know what you’ll say.”
“We have to go back.”
He shook his head. “No.”
Padme leaned forward in her chair, her eyes softening. “We have tofinishthis, Enver. I won’t live like this – I won’t have our child brought into a world where he or she could lose us in a split second or worse, be murdered themselves. Lisa,” she looked to the other woman, sitting silently at their side. “You must see this, too?”
Lisa sighed. “I hate to agree but yes, I think it’s the only way for you both to have a happy life.”
Enver made a noise and felt both irritated and terrified. “And you don’t think putting yourself back in Ingle’s sights will be riskier? Do you remember what he did to Julia? It won’t matter to him that you’re pregnant, he’ll cut our child right out of you.”
Padme winced, but Enver wasn’t sorry. She had to know the risks. “What are you suggesting, Pad? We kill Ingles?”
She looked at him steadily without saying anything, and suddenly he knew exactly what she was saying.Yes. Kill Frederick Ingles.Without him, his family business would crumble, and they would be free.
“Pad, even if we kill Ingles, don’t you think they’ll seek revenge?”
“That’s why you reach out first to Ingle’s enemies. You told me yourself that there are so many families waiting to take over from Ingles that it won’t matter about the rest of his family, what’s left of it. They’ll be so grateful we got rid of him, we’ll have a worldwide network of protection.”
Enver stared at his lover. “You really want to get into bed with these people?”
“Of course not and I’m not saying do business with them, just make it clear that if we do this, then they owe us a life free from danger.”
Lisa shrugged. “It could work. It’s certainly no worse than hiding out here forever, waiting to be found.”
“What about the men loyal to Ingles?” Enver was starting to feel ganged-up-on by the women, and he didn’t want to admit they might be right.
Lisa scoffed. “They’re loyal to a paycheck, Enver, not Ingles. He treats them like shit.”
Enver got up and paced around thinking. “How would this work initially?”
“I call Henry, get them to ease our passage back to Seattle, get protection. Then we proceed with our ‘comeback,’ carefully stage-managed public areas where Frederick Ingles thinks he can get to us.”
Enver half-smiled at Padme. “You’ve really thought this through, huh?”
She nodded. “Ever since I found out I was pregnant. This has to end, Enver. I want Severin to know her grandchild, for him or her to play with Cosima’s kids. It’s not just about you and me anymore.”
Enver felt a wave of certainty come over him. They could do this – they could fight for the life they wanted. Padme was watching him.
“That house, that little house on the Italian coast,” she said softly, and he nodded.
“I want that too,cara mia.Okay. Okay, then. Let’s hash this out, before you call Henry and we’ll get things moving. Let’s go home, Pad. Let’s start our real lives together.”
Three hours later, Padme waited nervously as she listened to the phone ring at the other end of the line, then smiled when she heard his warm voice. “Henry…it’s me.”
A week later…
Dale was hovering at the very edge of consciousness, having climbed from a chasm of darkness. He could hear the voices around him, the doctors and nurses so he knew he wasn’t dead, but still, so tired. His head throbbed with pain. He had felt a soft hand holding his, a gentle voice calling him out of the dark. Severin.
She wasn’t in the room with him now, but as Dale thought about opening his eyes for the first time, he heard the door creak open. Someone came into the room, but didn’t say anything. He heard the faint dial tone as whoever it was placed a call.
“Ingles, it’s Henry. Yeah, he’s still in a coma. Listen, I thought you said you were going to end him? I can’t have him waking up and interfering now, we’re so close. Yeah. I know, but…fuck, Ingles, she’s coming back. She’s coming back, and I’m giving you exactly what you wanted. She and Toscano aredeliveringthemselves to me in an hour. They’re yours as soon as the money hits my account. Fine. Do it.”
Dale was rigid with shock and horror. He was glad now he hadn’t opened his eyes; he didn’t want Henry to know he had just discovered his duplicity. Henry would kill him without a second thought.
God…Henry?Kind, generous, grandfather-like Henry? And now he was delivering Padme into the arms of her killer. Dale couldn’t believe it.
He felt Henry lean over him and kept very still, not even moving his eyes under his closed lids.
