Betrayal (24 page)

It had happened a year ago wednesday, But she should not consider it an anniversary. One commemorated an anniversary. This wednesday was not a commemoration. It was… a moment to remember, And then she needed to move on.

Yet nothing convinced her that when the day came, she wouldn’t crumple. She didn’t want to face the heartache that lay in wait. She didn’t believe that this was just a week, just a day, an hour, a moment… because that moment had changed her forever, broken her on the rack of grief.

She needed to remember where she was, find a way to stop the parade of painful memories, practice self-control and tranquillity, because… through the screen door, she heard the sound of running footsteps.

The screen door swung open. Bao dashed out of the house. The door slammed behind her.

Penelope watched in astonishment as Bao hit two of
the steps on the way off the porch and raced down the driveway.

What was happening?

Penelope waited.

Nothing more occurred.

She relaxed back into the chair.
Self-control… Tranquillity…

Then—more footsteps running down the hall. Rafe blasted out of the house. He cleared the steps in one leap and raced after Bao.

Penelope stood and stared after them.

What
was
happening?

The shadows were lengthening; evening threw its first shadows across the yard. Penelope saw two men walking up the driveway. She saw Bao and Rafe meet them. They stopped and talked; then Rafe and Bao ran on.

The men continued toward her.

One was an older man. She couldn’t see him well, but he seemed somehow familiar.

The other… was Noah.

She didn’t want him to see her like this. She didn’t want him prying into her past. This pain did not need to be shared. And if she could recognize his anguish, he might recognize hers.

The people inside would surely be more concerned about whatever emergency had sent Bao and Rafe flying out of the house than with Penelope’s tearstained face. And any angst she felt about facing them was nothing compared to facing Noah.

She reached for the screen door.

Once again it swung open, and DuPey stepped through, looking stern and talking on his phone. He
barely glanced at her, but headed down the stairs toward the police cruiser.

The word
murder
floated unbidden through her mind, and she glanced behind her again.

Noah and the older man strode toward her like men on a mission.

She caught the screen door and hurried through it.

She rushed past the living room, where Chloë and Annie were tensely pretending to watch the ball game, past the dining room, where Eli was setting the table and watching the hall, past the bathroom, where Penelope met Brooke coming out.

“What happened?” Brooke asked in a low voice.

“I don’t know, but I guess it’s not good.” Penelope stepped into the kitchen.

Sarah and June greeted her calmly enough, but Sarah pulled food out of the refrigerator and handed it to June, and June carried it into the dining room and put it on the table in silence. They seemed to be straining to listen for voices, for shots outside, for a calming voice. Like everyone in the house, they were doing one thing while anxious about another.

Sarah focused on Penelope. “Are you all right, dear?”

“I’m fine.”

Penelope must not have sounded too convincing, for Brooke patted her shoulder. “Don’t let Noah get to you,” she said absently; then with sharpened apprehension she asked Sarah, “What happened?”

Sarah said, “Bao was right. There’s an intruder on the grounds. They’re searching now.”

“There’s a stranger walking up with Noah,” Penelope told them.

The front screen door slammed. Footsteps traveled toward the kitchen.

“Anyone who’s with Noah is surely not the intruder,” June said.

They heard the rumble of voices from the living room, then from the dining room.

Sarah and June, Brooke and Penelope faced the entrance.

Penelope continued. “He’s an older man, blue golf shirt, khakis, tall, great physique, dark hair streaked with gray…” Again some hint of memory niggled at her. “I really feel like I should know him.…”

Noah and the older man stepped into the kitchen.

Sarah’s face lit up.

Brooke gasped.

Penelope wanted to sink through the floor.

She felt like she knew him?

Of course she did. She had paid money to see him in movie theaters and watched him on television.

He was famous. He was a movie star. He was Gavino Di Luca, handsome, gracefully aging, much-sought-after Gavino Di Luca, son of Sarah, father of Eli, Rafe, and Noah, and possibly the sexiest man alive.

Chapter 36

N
onna’s eyes lit up. She opened her arms. “My darling boy!”

She and Gavino met in the middle of the kitchen and shared a hug that seemed genuinely full of affection.

Noah supposed it was. Certainly Nonna loved her son. And Gavino was as shallow as a kiddie pool, but as much as he could love, he loved his mother.

Gavino kissed her cheeks, smiled, and said, “Did I surprise you?”

“So much! Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?”

“I didn’t want you to go to any extra trouble. You’ve barely recovered.” His face sobered. “You are recovered, yes?”

“I’m fine,” she said.

Gavino cocked his head inquiringly.

“Really,” she said. “I’m fine. Don’t worry, Gavino.”

Eli wandered in from the dining room, scowling. He
seemed to consider their father’s arrival as suspicious as Noah did.

Chloë tagged along behind, her eyes as big as saucers and fixed on Gavino.

Penelope hadn’t taken her gaze off him since he walked in the room.

Because Gavino was everything a woman wanted a movie star to be: handsome, personable, charming.

Even Noah had to admit Gavino had cornered the market on charming.

On the screen, Gavino projected charisma.

Yet film muted the range of his personality. In person, when he smiled, the air around him grew warm. When he frowned, the clouds covered the sun. When he hugged his mother, all the women sighed at the evidence of his filial devotion—and never mind that he stayed on location while Nonna recuperated from a broken arm and a concussion, too dedicated to his career to abandon his current film to stand vigil at his mother’s bedside.

“I should have come home when you were attacked.” Gavino frowned and put on his best guilty expression.

Noah and Eli nodded in agreement.

Nonna frowned fiercely. “Nonsense. What could you have done? You’re not a doctor. And you had a movie to finish. It would have cost the production a fortune if you’d come home. Did you finish your film?”

“It’s in the can,” Gavino said with apparent satisfaction. “Number thirty-eight, and I’ve been the top talent in thirty of them. It’s a body of work to be proud of!”

Noah slumped against the wall and rolled his eyes. Thank heavens his father didn’t spend
too
much time inquiring after Nonna’s health. Obviously, it was more important to boast of his worldly accomplishments.

“We are all proud of you.” Nonna turned Gavino to face the rest of the people in the kitchen. “Look, you came home at the right time. Your aunt Annie and aunt June are visiting!”

Gavino released Nonna and hugged his aunts, then went around the room to greet the others.

He met Chloë and hugged her, exclaiming about his new young daughter-in-law. He promised he would bring her mysteries to the attention of important people in the movie business; then he poked Eli in the ribs and teased him about his hurried marriage.

As usual, Eli did not crack a smile.

But then, none of Gavino’s sons ever thought he was funny.

He met Brooke, and when she told him she was having a baby, he pretended to be delighted by the idea of being a grandfather. He insisted she sit at the table, telling her he knew from experience that she needed to sit while she could, because after the baby arrived rest would be in short supply.

Like he’d ever done a damned thing to care for any of his children.

And he met Penelope.

Noah watched her fall in love with Gavino Di Luca.

She blushed. She smiled. She fluttered her lashes.

Every female always did.

When Gavino looked into Penelope’s eyes and listened to her stammer out her favorites of his roles, he acted as if he were hearing it for the first time. And he didn’t seem to notice her tense jaw and stiff smile.

She was upset. Over Noah? And the way he had swept her off her feet and into a colossal orgasm, then walked away?

He hated to admit it, but he had one thing in common with his father: He was a jerk.

When Gavino had met everyone, and charmed the ones who didn’t know him for the jerk-off he really was, Eli asked, “What are you really doing here, Dad?”

“Weren’t you listening? I told you. I finished my movie. I came to see that my darling mother was okay.” Gavino took Sarah’s hand and kissed it.

Sarah beamed.

Penelope watched, hand on her chest as if trying to contain her sentiment.

Usually Noah managed not to care what his father said or did or where he said or did it.

But today… by God, today he wanted to shake Gavino until his teeth rattled.

“Don’t have another role lined up? Getting a little too old for the screen?” Eli projected hostility and impatience in a way he saved for lazy farmhands—and Gavino.

“Dear.” One word, one look from Sarah, and Eli subsided.

“It’s no big deal, Mama. I know my boys have issues.” Gavino kept his arm around Sarah and said to Eli, “I’ve auditioned for a couple of roles. Nothing’s come through yet. But don’t worry. I’ve saved my money. I won’t have to move in with you and Chloë… yet.”

Eli couldn’t have hidden his horror if he tried.

Gavino laughed out loud. “Don’t worry, boy. If I never work again, I’ve got enough money to support myself.” His amusement subsided only a little. “Of course, if I never worked again, I’d want to move back to Bella Terra.”

Now Noah felt himself turn pale. Just what he needed
was another parent from hell in town. His mother and his father, here together…

Gavino had a lot to answer for—and as always, he would escape unscathed, because when the going got tough, Gavino pulled a magician’s trick and vanished every time.

The sooner, the better.

Noah’s eyes narrowed at the thought.

“You’re such a wonderful actor, Mr. Di Luca,” Penelope said.

“Acting’s not hard. You know what Spencer Tracy said—‘Just memorize your lines, And don’t bump into the furniture.’ ” Gavino laughed heartily.

So did everyone else… except Eli and Noah. They’d heard it before.

“What kind of roles are you up for, Mr. Di Luca?” Chloë asked.

“One for a forty-year-old with a family. One for a seventy-year-old estranged from his family.” Gavino took a breath that expanded his impressive chest. “I have a broad range I can play. The trick is convincing the directors.”

“I think you could play ‘Estranged from your family’ like you were born to it,” Noah said.

Annie rolled her wheelchair past him.

He jumped. “Ow!”

“I’m sorry, dear.” Annie looked meaningfully at him. “Did I run over your foot?”

Stop upsetting your grandmother
, she meant.

Penelope glared at him as if he were a hardened criminal. Because she was already infatuated with his father. He wanted to tell her,
You would be better off in love with me.

But probably not, because… He touched his tightly buttoned shirt collar.

Gavino’s gaze followed his gesture. “Auditioning for a role as the Amish farmer?” he asked.

Noah smiled tightly and took his hand away. The death he carried gnawed at his mind. He couldn’t forget; every moment he was edgy, as if the silver studs of the dog collar were stealing bits of his sanity.

His gaze sliced to Penelope.

Every moment his need to live one last, grand celebration of life grew greater, his scruples less firm.

She must have felt his eyes on her, for she looked at him, and for a long moment, her gaze clung.

Then she looked away.

And he remembered her offer again. A quickie…

No, never. Long, slow, desperate hours of lovemaking, on a bed, on a chair, on a desk, in a tree. Wherever they were, that was the place they should love… but never quickly. He wanted to spend days getting to know her body again.

He
had
to think of something else.

“Gavino, I didn’t hear your car pull up,” Nonna said.

“I had the driver drop me off at the end of the driveway so I could walk up. I’ve been on a plane all day. I needed my exercise”—he patted his flat belly—“and I wanted to see the place. I almost didn’t get to. Since when do we have guards stopping visitors and demanding ID?” Apparently that rankled; Gavino didn’t like not being recognized.

“Since Nonna was attacked and people in Bella Terra started getting murdered,” Eli answered.

“Murder.” Gavino’s eyes narrowed the way they did when he played a police detective. “Really. No wonder the guard ran after that guy who was talking to Noah.”

That did it. The tension in the house rose to break-a-sweat level.

“The intruder was talking to you?” Eli asked. “Who is he? What was he doing here?”

Noah heard voices from outside. He held up his hand and listened.

Every head turned toward the back door.

Rafe and Bao came in, both covered with dirt, both scowling.

Brooke sighed in relief and went to hug her husband.

As Rafe hugged her back, Nonna asked, “Are you both all right?”

“We’re fine.” Bao wiped furiously at her face. “But we didn’t get him. The bastard disappeared like a rat down a hole.”

Rafe looked over the top of Brooke’s head. “Bao was right. Someone was watching. Someone with impressive professional skills. He used them to get onto the property, and when he was sighted, he used those skills to get off the property without a trace.” Whipping his head around, he glared at Noah. “You were talking to him. Shoemaker said you two were
talking
like you knew each other. Shoemaker said this thug raised his fist to you. Is this it? Is this what you know?”