Deception of the Heart (23 page)

‘No, let’s call it a day.’ To her immense relief, Pete shook his blond head and smiled again, his eyes merry. ‘
You look totally poleaxed, Mel.’ He looked down at her hands, his brows snapping together in surprise. ‘What happened to your hand?’

‘Got cut with a knife
.’ She decided that truth was the best answer. Keeping lying to a bare minimum would make the ordeal a bit easier. ‘We got into a tussle with some locals trying to rob us, I think. Four of them. Very annoying.’

Pete whistled, his expression serious. ‘
And you got hurt? What on earth did Jon do? I thought he was braver than that, to be honest.’

‘He did scare them off
.’ She was surprised by her overwhelming need to protect Jon, even after all that happened. ‘There were so many of them, I decided to help. One of them dropped a knife when Jon knocked him down, so I grabbed it without really thinking it through.’ She was glad she was telling the truth. Making up a story like that would be difficult enough, and her straightforward nature would have tripped her up and made the lie obvious. Her words rang true, even to her own ears, and she saw him nod, satisfied with her explanation.

‘Are you
okay?’ He seemed worried. She didn’t want him to be worried. She needed him to be evil and void of humane reflexes if she was to live through this nightmare. For one horrible second, she wondered if Bernard and Jon had lied to her. Maybe there was some perfectly plausible explanation why Pete owned a gun and lied about Giovanni. Maybe the tables were actually turned, and everything she’d heard was made up to manipulate her into something horrible.

‘
I had a long day too. Just got back from the Spitieris’.’ His words made it clear she was wasting her time. Pete was lying again, probably confident she had no way to verify his words. What would he do if he knew she’d been at the Spitieris’ only half an hour ago? She didn’t want to think about that, too afraid of the possibilities.

‘Tomorrow I’ll need you
.’ He seemed unaware of her discomfort, his blue eyes cheerful. ‘The holiday is over, Melanie. We need to spend as much time as possible with our host. He’ll be very busy the next day with his presentation. From what I heard, it will make the whole day a total circus with little time for our session.’

‘Well, it’s not every day someone has a lecture at Casa del
L’Arte.’ She shrugged, annoyed with his tone. ‘Plus, imagine all the press and fans that will want to hear him speak. I would be totally stressed out if it was me.’

‘You’re right, it should be a rather busy day
.’ A little smile played around his mouth, making her utterly uncomfortable because she knew what he was thinking.

‘So tomorrow we’ll need to put in extra hours,’
he continued, the smile disappearing. ‘I overheard that his wife and the kids are planning to throw him a party after the lecture, as a surprise. Sophia even asked me to keep him extra busy so they have time to get everything ready.’

She smiled with stiff lips,
hoping she looked convincing. If it were up to Pete, there would be no party afterward, that much was sure. She found it blood chillingly frightening how easily he chatted about Daniel and his family while planning his demise. Was he really the same man who’d hired her and proven to be an excellent boss in the three months they have spent together?

‘I’ll do all I can,’ she agreed, realizing he was waiting for her reaction. ‘
After all, that’s why I am here, right?’

Pete’s good mood worried
her. He finally bid her good night and left for his room. She’d have enjoyed his jokes and anecdotes any other time, but knowing what she did, it was impossible. Laughing at his jokes had proved the hardest task of all, her shallow response worrisomely transparent. Thank goodness he didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, satisfied with her fake merriment.

Her cheeks hurt from the false smiles and her chest hurt from
keeping in the words that struggled to get out, demanding to be heard. She wanted to yell at him that she knew what a son of a bitch he really was if only to wipe his superior smirk off his face each time he mentioned Daniel. She finally knew what he really thought of his gracious host, and his incredible falsehood took away her breath.

Once alone
, she lay on the sofa, pulling a blanket over her still dressed frame. She couldn’t care less if she wrinkled her dress. She was way past caring about anything but her desperate need to fall asleep and forget everything. Of course, she didn’t fall asleep until the early morning hours, her thoughts running in circles as she lay wide awake, her heart drumming like a sledgehammer.

Two more days
, she told herself silently when she finally got up, the greyish light of dawn painting the room into mysterious shades of slate, charcoal, and silver. Her eyes burned and her throat hurt from the tears she’d cried.

It was time to move on, she demanded of her tired, desperate body, refusing to wallow in her misery any longer. She’d dress and put on
makeup and go with Pete to Daniel’s house. She’d remain strong and calm, playing her part and hopefully helping to save the pleasant older man who didn’t deserve any of the commotion in the first place. After it was all done, she’d walk away, her head held high and not one thought wasted on the man who’d used her like an accessory. She was as ready as she would ever get.

Easier said than done. Forty hours later, she watched Daniel and Pete chat at the table, her body tense. She’d done her best to act normal and keep Pete happy over the last day and a half, forcing herself to escape into the world she knew best: her work. Taking notes, editing, compiling, and discussing her progress with Pete offered a small, blessed window of escape from the constant strain. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Daniel, with his life on the line. He was holding up very bravely, not one slip marring his brilliant performance. Her respect for the old Italian grew with each passing hour that she spent in his and Pete’s company.

As for Jon, she was glad to barely see him
. Her eyes went to the door yet again. He had kept his distance, his presence a shadow she was aware of only for the briefest of moments. Coming and going on his errands, his breezy explanation of having to spend some time at the city’s extensive archives greeted with no reaction from either Daniel or Pete. He didn’t really try talking to her, probably realizing she might respond in a way that would alert Pete that their relationship wasn’t exactly what he’d expect from the edited version of their outings. He couldn’t do anything to jeopardize the mission. After all, hadn’t he made it absolutely clear where his priorities lay? She was aware of her own lack of logic as she fought the bitterness Jon’s attitude caused. She didn’t want him anywhere near her and yet couldn’t stop waiting for him to try.

She almost expected
her boss to comment on it when they were alone, pleased to have Jon out of the picture. Pete’s completely impassive reaction, his attention focused exclusively on their work, surprised her.

She glanced at Pete, gathering
his papers, switching off his laptop, and leaning back in the armchair that had become his home in Daniel’s office. They were finishing early, for obvious reasons. Daniel’s lecture was only hours away, the early afternoon sun already warming the walls with its golden glow. Daniel offered both Pete and Melanie a spot next to his podium. Pete’s cheerful acceptance made her shiver. In a way, she almost wished she didn’t know anything about what was really going on. She rose to her feet, her hands cold with stress. Or even better, she wished that things would really be just what they seemed, Daniel and Pete’s collaboration the only link between the two men. She wished they would really just go to see him, her only worry taking notes from the lecture to put into Pete’s publication.

‘I really appreciate you taking time even today
.’ Pete shook Daniel’s hand, his cordial tone raising the hair on the back of Melanie’s neck. How could he be so friendly and so sinister at the same time? ‘I guess we should let you be now, Daniel. Can’t wait for tonight, though. This will be a memorable evening, I am sure.’

She wanted it to be over
! The suspense was killing her, time trickling slowly like grains of sand in an hourglass. Pete’s excellent mood only made things worse. She listened to his cheerful bickering with Sophia, the older woman bravely acting her part and playing along. She was amazing, carrying on with her preparations for the party as if nothing more significant than Daniel’s lecture was about to happen. She had to, if only to let Pete believe that things were under control, of course. But Melanie suspected another part of her was so stressed and worried about her husband, it demanded some kind of preoccupation to save her from losing her mind.

They were leaving when
Spitieri’s gardener came out from the side of the garden. Her heart tightened in response to his tall, muscular frame. By now she knew that the whole household was nothing but a staged façade meant to keep Pete in the dark. The people who worked there, and who were the reason for Pete’s disdainful comments about Spitieri’s lifestyle, were agents, lethal and ready to spring into action if needed. He appeared to be carrying some of the decorations Sophia had ordered for the party.

Melanie and Pete
walked to his car, the sun beating down with merciless heat that would normally make her wish for a bit of shade. Instead, she felt cold and frozen inside, as if an icy ring trapped her chest, making breathing almost impossible.

‘Wow, Sophia really knows how to throw a party,
doesn’t she?’ Pete gestured to two other vans parked in the shade of the chestnut trees. The half-open back doors offered them a glimpse of more boxes stacked all the way to the roofs.

‘Can’t wait to see it all tonight
.’ Pete grinned at her conspiratorially, pointing at the boxes. ‘Looks like today is going to be a real blast, right?’

She
shivered, the innuendo too obvious to be misunderstood. But did she really understand what he meant? She couldn’t shake the uncanny feeling she was overlooking something obvious, something important and right in front of her eyes. Still, she did her best to appear carefree. Pete kept chatting about the progress of his work, filling the silence. She couldn’t really ignore him even though he disturbed her, and she couldn’t really concentrate enough to solve the puzzle, her impatience growing.

She agonized through
out the late lunch Pete insisted they have together in the hotel’s restaurant. It took all the strength she possessed to get down a few bites of the excellent
zuppa di pesci
he had ordered. She caught the waiter’s surprised look that soon turned to indignant disapproval when he noticed her total lack of interest in the dish of the day. She wanted to ask him if he could eat while waiting for a murder to be prevented right under his very nose? Or, even better, if he could manage to swallow even a spoonful while sitting across from the murderer?

Finally it was over, her relief almost
palpable as they sipped on the wine.

‘You seem far away
.’ She looked up to find Pete watching her with a strange expression that was a mix of amusement and challenge. ‘Thinking about our handsome Jonathan?’

She
blushed scarlet, angry with her treacherous body.

‘I didn’t mean to embarrass you,’ Pete continued, his blue gaze pensive. ‘
It’s just that the two of you became really good friends, didn’t you? At least for the first two days. What happened to change that?’

‘Nothing, we just are both busy n
ow.’ She shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. ‘You need me with Daniel, and Jon has his own research.’ She had to turn it around before he probed any further. ‘You asked me to be friendly to him, Pete. To keep him distracted, weren’t those the exact words you used?’

‘Fair enough
.’ He nodded, finishing off his wine and dropping the topic altogether. He reached into his pocket and produced a thick bundle of banknotes, leaving a tip that would certainly make up for her lack of enthusiasm. ‘Ready to go?’ he asked, his eyebrows rising questioningly.

She nodded, her relief mixed with some unexplained feeling that things were off. Suddenly he seemed really impatient to leave,
his previous calm replaced by an urgency she could only interpret as a sign that her wait was over. Things had been set into motion. She followed him to the exit and up the staircase to their rooms. She watched his broad back, her heart aching with each step that brought them closer to the hour when he’d show his true colors. She didn’t want him to be the bad guy. Memories of all the pleasant hours they’d spent together assaulted her at the most inappropriate time.

‘We’ve got a few hours left,’ she started hesitatingly
when they arrived at the door. An insane idea formed in her brain, too compelling to be dismissed without giving it at least a fair shot. What if she managed to change his mind? He wasn’t a bad person. If she had enough time, she might be able to make him see that he was at the edge of a precipice, still able to turn around and take another path… ‘Would you like to go for a walk or something?’

‘Maybe later
.’ He smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. Rather, it was a grimace, an obedient play of his face muscles, having nothing to do with any true feelings. ‘For now, I think we should talk inside.’