Page 72 of His Beautiful Revenge
She was lost in thought, waiting for Giacomo to show up, when the maître d’ appeared by her side. “Miss Hubert? I have a call at the front desk for you.”
Really? “Who is it?”
“Mr. Conti, I believe.”
Why hadn’t he called her cell phone? Tara sighed, got up, and followed the maître d’ out to the reception. He indicated a phone just inside the office. Tara walked in and picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Boo, bitch.” Norah ‘s voice was hard.
Shocked, Tara didn’t have time to respond before someone grabbed her from behind and a needle was stuck into her neck.
Zulika had kissed Orlando before he left the house, on his way to meet Giacomo, Norah, and the very captive Tara. Zulika looked up at him. “Don’t do anything …I mean, if she tries to …” She couldn’t get the words out and he gave her a half-smile.
“Just say it plain, kiddo.”
Zulika drew in a deep breath. “Stay …you. You are better than her.”
He kissed her cheek. “I promise. Even if she acts up.” His face got serious then. “But I can’t tell Giacomo or Norah what to do. If they want Tara dead …”
“Then it’s their decision …but I cannot imagine Norah going for it.”
Orlando studied her. “Tara killed your brother. You have as much to say to her as anyone. I could get a sitter for Ferma.”
Zulika shook her head. “Lucian was dead to me the minute he raped Norah. I want Ferma to feel safe in her bed.”
Orlando kissed her softly. “I love you, you know?”
Zulika smiled up at him. “I do know. Ditto.”
Orlando laughed. “Girl, you’ve been watchingGhostagain. Ever get sick of it?”
“Hell, no. Hurry home to me.”
“I will.”
Tara opened her eyes. Tied tightly to a hard wood chair, she blinked in the cold light of the hanger. The air was cold and the private jet stood silently in the huge building. She recognized it immediately.Conti-One.She’d flown on it many times. She wasn’t surprised to see who her captors were. Her eyes fixed on the woman who sat on the desk opposite her.
“You just won’t fuckingdie, will you?” Tara’s speech was slurred and, humiliatingly, she felt a gob of drool spill from the side of her mouth.
Norah smiled coldly. “Oh, I will. Just at the end of a long, happy life with Giacomo, instead of when a spoiled, bratty, little bitch like you decides it’s time.”
Tara smirked. “I swear you must have a magical vagina. Lucian wouldn’t kill you when I told him too. Giacomo is like a dog on a leash. I should have gotten …”
She trailed off when she saw Orlando step into her field of vision. “Should have gotten …the same man you hired to kill my wife to kill Norah?”
Tara was silent. She glanced around to see Giacomo watching her, his fury all too evident and his green eyes dark with anger. She studied him, this man she used to love …wait …did she really ever love him?
Yes. God, he was beautiful. All that glowering menace, that hard body, and his huge, masterful cock.Fuck …why had she cheated on him with that skid-mark Lucian?
She looked back at Norah. Tara knew, in her heart, that she would never match up to Norah Reddy in any department; beauty, brains …courage.
She looked away from Norah’s steady glance. “I suppose this is where you kill me and dispose of my body? You,” she nodded at Orlando, “I can see it in your eyes. The rage. The need for vengeance.”
Orlando’s expression was like stone. “So, that’s an admission, then? You had my wife, mypregnantwife, murdered?”
Tara clamped her mouth shut. Giacomo walked over to her, and despite her bravado, she shrank back in the chair.
