Page 58 of His Beautiful Revenge
“Yeah.”
“How long will she be in surgery?”
Giacomo shook his head. “I don’t know. I just know I can’t wait to see her.”
Norah opened her eyes and for a moment, all she could feel was relief that the pain had gone away. Her body felt heavy though, and as she moved, her muscles protested. She sighed and she heard a chair move. Then he was there, her beautiful love, and he was all she could see.
“Il mio prezioso,”Giacomo’s smile was so full of love that Norah felt all the tension in her body leech away.
“Giacomo…ti amo.”
His lips found hers, but it was a gentle kiss—a tender kiss. “Thank you for coming back to me, my beautiful Norah.”
She felt his tears on her cheeks and her fingers stroked his dark curls. “Always, my love, always.”
There didn’t seem a need for words, not for the moment. Norah wrapped her arms around his neck, and Giacomo half-sat, half-lay with her. Neither of them saw Zulika look around the door, smile, and quietly back out, closing the door to give them the privacy they deserved.
Lucian, his head screeching with pain, was on the run. He had stolen his manager’s buddy’s car and headed north, trying to get to Oregon. He almost made it.
Tara and her henchmen caught up with him at the border. He’d risked checking into a cheap motel under a false name, but one of the staff there recognized him, and at dinner at the adjoining diner that night, had mouthed-off to one of her friends that she was going to call the police on him and get a reward. Unluckily for her—and Lucian—one of the detectives Tara had hired was sitting in the next boot.
Lucian stood underneath the shower for a long time, washing away the blood that had turned his hair red and thinking of the moment Norah had knocked him out. When he’d come around, saw the broken window, and realized she was gone, he’d given a howl of rag andpanic. He’d plunged into the forest, knowing she had only one way down the mountain and, for a brief time, thought he had seen her in front of him. He stopped and listened for breaking foliage and heavy breathing. He whispered her name, hoping that if she was hiding nearby it would freak her out enough for her to blow her own cover.
Nothing. Norah was gone. He knew Tara would be even more apoplectic that he’d kept Norah alive and then lost her. Plus, the police would be on his ass.Fuck. How the hell did it get to this?
He finished his shower and dressed in the thrift store fatigues he’d stolen earlier that day. Attempted murder, kidnapping, actual bodily harm, burglary, theft …they were going to throw the goddamn book at him. He had just sat down on the bed and flicked the television on when the door was kicked in.
Tara’s men grabbed Lucian and shoved him against the wall. Tara herself followed them in, her eyes cold, her beauty icy and terrifying.
“You stupid fuck,” she said. “You’ve found every way to fuck up my life, your life, and everyone’s life. You should have killed Norah when I told you to.”
Lucian wasn’t stupid. He knew there was only one way this was going to go down, so he had nothing left to lose. “Fuck you,cunt.”
Her smile was chilly. “You did that, remember? Not that itwasmemorable—ever. Seriously, Lucian, I have to know. How did you ever, ever think Norah would come back to you? She would leave Giacomo Conti foryou?”
He smiled back without humor. “Well, it worked for you.”
Tara paused. “And that was my mistake. Yours was not putting a bullet in Norah. A mistake that I will almost certainly have to rectify myself.”
He sneered at her. “You mean with one of your goons? The great Ms. Tara Hubert would never get her own hands dirty.”
Tara gave a small laugh. “That’s been your problem all along, Lucian. You underestimate women. You underestimated Norah and you underestimated me. I’m almost tempted to give Norah her happy ever after out of sheer admiration …except for the fact that it would mean her winning. And she doesn’t get to do that.”
“Don’t hurt her.”Really? Now you’re concerned about Norah’s health? What does it matter anymore?
Tara held out her hand and one of her men put the gun into it. She pressed the muzzle against Lucian’s forehead. “Sorry, Lucian. I’m going to have to make sure, now, that she dies a really slow, really horrific death. Painful. If you had just done what I said …”
Lucian closed his eyes.Norah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I…
Tara pulled the trigger.
When Norah had recovered enough to talk to the police, she was more than willing to tell them everything. Giacomo was with her for most of it, holding her hand and trying not to wince as she described the horrors of what had happened to her. Norah, though, was determined that both Lucian and Tara would pay for what they did.
“Obviously, I can’t prove it,” she told the detective, a tall, handsome African-American called Hollister Bean, “But I would stake my life on Tara Hubert having something to do with Carmel Price’s murder. If she could just order my murder because I got in the way of her being with Giacomo, she may well have tried to hide her affair with Lucian the same way.”
Det. Bean nodded. “It’s certainly something we should look into. It might explain that bizarre press conference she held. That pinged our radar immediately.”
Giacomo smiled grimly. “I can assure you, detective, nothing she said in that statement was remotely accurate. We were never engaged. She was never Norah’s friend.”
