Page 45 of Dagger in the Sea

“Something like that.”

“Adri—”

“What is going on between you and Gennaro? I heard your voices from the lower deck. Both of you threatening, challenging the other. Was meeting me at Island tonight part of some plan to get to him? Have you been following us? Do you have something to do with whoever shot at us?”

“No, I don’t.”

Her eyes searched mine, and she pressed her lips together. After all the tense game playing of this endless evening I was more than tired, and Adriana looking at me like I was a con man she shouldn’t trust had me ruffled. And something told me I wasn’t the first con man she’d come up against.

Her tight gaze hung on mine, and my heart thudded in my chest. Her opinion of me mattered.

“It’s been a very long night. I’m quite tired, and you must be too.” She pushed back from the table.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, and she let out a gasp. “I know Signor Gennaro. We’ve met before in the United States. He and my boss were about to work together and—”

“Yourboss?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

“Adri—”

“I’ll show you to your cabin,” she said, her tone clipped.

She was annoyed with me, but there was nothing I could do about it now. We were both exhausted. The adrenaline that had hauled us here, to this point, to this boat, had finally drained away, taking us with it.

I followed her down the stairs to an elegant long living room in metal, gray, and black tones complete with an electric fireplace, two sofas and fluffy area rugs and pillows. Quite different from other yacht interiors I’d seen in my time. No nautical prints or bright whites and blues here. It was elegant and sophisticated, uncluttered, calming. Down another dramatically lit hallway, Alessio and his brother stood talking in Italian. Adri stopped in front of a black door marked with a chrome number plate. “5”

She shifted her weight. “Here you are.”

“Here I am,” I murmured. I wanted to say something. Get rid of this tension between us. Explain.Explain what, exactly?“Good night,” I said.

“Yes, good night.” She strode away from me and went to Alessio who put an arm around her shoulders. Luca shot me one last heavy look and strode into his cabin. Alessio pushed open a door to his side, and he and Adri went through, disappearing from view.

Their door closed with a heavy thud.

15

Adriana

Sunlight drenchedthe vast wooden deck of the ship, the sea shimmering, a sparkling veil. The lapping of the waves, the slight rocking of the boat, a sea gull’scaw. I took a last sip of my cappuccino and breathed in the damp morning air.

I loved the early morning, the quiet, the stirrings of life without the interference of human noise. After the insanity of last night, a night that began so beautifully, so glibly, then ended in horror.

My fingers toyed with mymáticharms hanging from a leather cord necklace. It was good to be in comfortable clothes after last night. Yes, last night seemed to have lasted forever. Yet after the shooting, the running off, the keeping it from my parents, and taking off on the boat, something still gnawed at me.

Someone.

Even after I’d gone to bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about Turo. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his eyes, eyes filled with concern for me after he’d covered me with his body, shielding me from bullets. This American tourist who was working with the Alibertis in some way. A man I’d kissed shamelessly. A man I’d had an overwhelming attraction to. And not just physically, but attracted to his way of talking to me, the way he looked at me. It was playful, it was fierce, demanding and challenging. It was sodden with desire and burned a path through my middle. He was a man, not a boy.

“Good morning,” Turo’s deep, smooth voice made my chest constrict. “Sorry, did I startle you?”

He planted himself in the chair beside me, his piercing gaze scouring over me as if he’d never seen a woman dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and trainers before. My skin heated, a furnace setting off in my veins. Even though I was wearing more clothes than last night, I suddenly felt exposed to him, naked. Vulnerable.

“Kallí méra.” I pulled up my legs on the seat, but the barrier did nothing to make me feel less vulnerable to this man.

“No one else up yet?” he asked, his gaze darting to the ancient ruins above us then returning to me.

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