Page 16 of Under Her Skin
That floored her…and frightened her. “Arturo…a marriage is more than greatsex.”
“I know. Or rather, I don’t, but I hope to find out.” He held her gaze steadily. Hero felt her heart beating way too hard against her ribs, and she gotup.
“Don’t make fun ofme.”
Arturo caught her as she moved away and made her look into his eyes. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life, Hero. I’m in this…are you in this withme?”
She had no idea how to answerhim.
Back in Como,he took her back to her hotel. Kissing her goodbye, he cupped her face in his hands. “Tonight?Dinner?”
Hero hesitated. “Can I take a rain check tonight? I just have some stuff I need to figureout.”
Arturo didn’t seem fazed. “Of course, my darling. You have my cell phone number if you change yourmind.”
Hero took the stairs to her room, wanting to take her time. God, what was she going to do? She had fallen for him so entirely that even the thought of him finding out about the apartment made her feel sick. Should she put it back up for auction and take a hit on the price? She could sell it to him anonymously,maybe.
The thing was…she loved the apartment. Ever since she’d walked into it that first day—was it really only four days ago?—she had known it was her haven. Her heart was telling her that Arturo was worth giving it up; her head was telling her not to be foolish. Stick to her plan. A gorgeous man wasn’t worth giving it upfor.
Washe?
Shoot. Hero sighed as she opened the door to her room, then froze. Three more envelopes on the floor. She grabbed them and ran back down to the reception. She asked to see the security guard after the receptionist denied that any of her staff delivered theletters.
“Do you haveCCTV?”
“I’m afraid it is currently out of order, Signorina.” He looked at the envelopes in her hand curiously. “What is in thenotes?”
Hero stared at him and then shook her head. “Nevermind.”
She stalked back upstairs, but before she locked herself in, she checked in every part of the room. She was alone. She double-locked the door and sat on the bed, the envelopes laid out in front of her. After a moment, she ripped the first oneopen.
Whore.
“Charming.” She steeled herself for the nextone.
Dead womanwalking.
“Oh, fuck off.” It helped a little to ridicule the note. She opened the third. There was no note, but two photographs fell out. Hero frowned, but she bent to pick them up. As she studied them, she gave a gasp ofhorror.
The first showed a woman: cowed, terrified, and screaming. Her dark hair was covering most of her face, but Hero could see the resemblance to herself immediately. The second photo was even more horrifying. The same woman was obviously dead, covered in blood, the hilt of a knife protruding from herstomach.
“Jesus.”Hero didn’t know how long she sat there, staring at the horror in front of her, but eventually, uncurling her stiff legs, she went back down to reception, feeling as if all her blood had frozen in her veins. She asked them to call thepolice.
When two officers arrived at the hotel, she calmly handed them the notes and simply said, “Someone wants to kill me. And I have no ideawhy.”
ChapterNine
The next morning, Hero got another message, this time phoned through to reception and of an altogether more pleasant kind. George Galiano was inviting her to have lunch withhim.
Hero considered. She didn’t want to get into the middle of anything between Arturo and George, but the more allies she had in this town, thebetter.
She called him back and agreed to meet him at the restaurant. “I can’t wait,” he said in a warm voice. Hero promised herself she could make it clear that it was just lunch asfriends.
Until then, she had a few hours to kill, and she spent it arranging furniture for her apartment to be delivered by the end of the week. Now that it was officially hers, she was antsy to move in and be less vulnerable. She arranged for locks to be fitted to the windows, even as unlikely as it was that anyone could scale up to that height, and a deadbolt fixed to the door. It would be her little fortress. She noticed that the other apartments had just started getting renovated for individual sale, and Hero was glad that there would be plenty of construction workers around should anythinghappen.
God, you sound paranoid.But the vicious, utterly random threats had affected her more than she wanted to admit. The polizia had been sympathetic, but they told her there was nothing much they could do unless she were actuallyharmed.
“Do you know who that womanis?”
