Too Cold To Love (19 page)

"Like pretending to be you and getting this
job, putting Mimi in danger and then making you take over to cover her tracks
to go off with her boyfriend, that sort of a prank is it? Wake up,
pasticcino
.
She's not a child anymore. Her actions have consequences, and this time she got
involved with the wrong people. You cannot bail her out of this, even if I was
to let you, which I'm
not.
"

The urgency in his gravelly voice increased
Elise's rising panic.

"What do you mean the wrong people,
Marco?"

"I hate to be the one to have to tell you,
but her boyfriend was stabbed in his prison cell last night."

Elise gasped. Spots danced in front of her eyes.
She was dimly aware of Marco grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Easy,
cara mia
, but it gets worse.
They left a note pinned to the body.
Jemima, you're next!"

****

Marco shot another worried glance towards Elise
before he turned his attention back to the rush hour traffic.
Merda,
she
was so pale. He was surprised she was still upright. She'd had one hell of a
shock, and he should have known that she would insist on seeing her sister
there and then. She all but screamed at him that she didn't care; she had to
see Jem, and he couldn't stop her. So he did the only thing he could do and
bundled her into his car.

The only time she talked to him was to urge him
to drive faster. When they finally made it to her old flat, she jumped out of
the car, almost before it stopped moving. He double parked and dashed after
her. He almost broke the door down in his desperation to get in, and he didn't
dare examine his relief at seeing her opening the door to him too closely. Only
it wasn't her, it was Jemima. He realized that, the minute he stepped close
enough to her. She didn't call to him like Elise did. Once he took a closer
look, he noticed the haunted, frightened look in the younger twin's eyes as
well as the different clothes that hung off her frame. She had lost at least
two stone since he'd seen her last.

"Mr. Giovanni, before you say anything I'm
really sorry I got Elise involved in all of this. I just wanted to have some
fun. I had no idea it would turn out like this. Elise, really I'm sorry, but
you have to help me. They're gonna kill me if they don't get their money back,
and I haven't got it. He, he spent it all. It wasn't even that much. It's the
principle they said. And he told them that I had the money, but I haven't. I
swear it was all him."

"Do I look stupid to you, Jemima
Donovan?"

He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets,
lest he was tempted to strangle the woman in front of him. She swallowed nervously
and took a step away from him. Elise moved in front of her, putting herself
between him and her sister. Her expressive eyes full of steel had him taking a
step back. She reminded him of a lioness defending her young, and he had to
admire her loyalty, however misguided it was. What wouldn't he give to have her
fighting his corner like this?

"Leave her alone, Marco. She's suffered
enough. She didn't mean for any of this to happen, and we've got to help
her."

"Really,
we
do, do we? Is that the
royal we, or are you expecting me to help, wife?"

Her voice dropped to a low whisper, the barely
concealed hurt making him want to draw her into him and, God help him, make it
all better for her. If only it was that easy.

"Please, Marco, I'll do anything, anything.
Just please help her. She's the only family I've got. I know she doesn't
deserve it."

He barely recognized the rough imitation of his
own voice.

"How much do you owe them? And what makes
you think, that paying them off will make them stop? There's is only one
solution. You need to go to the authorities and tell them all you know."

Jemima's high pitched screech went straight
through him. "I can't! I don't bloody know anything. Please, Elise, you've
got to believe me. It was all him. I never touched the drugs, I never... "

"I should bloody well hope not, Jemima, but
that's really neither here nor there, is it? How could you, Jem? Really, any of
this? Why take the job with Marco in the first place?"

"I had to disappear. I did some things… it
was the easiest way. I'm sorry, Elise, it was meant to be a fresh start."

"At my daughter's and my expense."
Marco said.

Once again Elise moved herself between him and
her sister. Tears shimmered in her eyes. Her hands burned against his skin when
she rested them on his chest. She shook her head at him and whispered,
"Please, Marco."

He couldn't refuse her.

"If I give you that money you need to
disappear. I don't want you near my wife or my daughter ever again, do you hear
me? If I ever hear of you using Elise's name again, so help me, I'll have you
hauled up for fraud before you can blink." He threw Robert's card at her.
"That's my solicitor. Tell him how much, and he'll arrange for what you
need. I want you out of here by the end of tomorrow. Do we understand each
other?"

Jemima nodded and rung her hands. Her eyes so
like Elise's now showed a glimmer of hope.

"Say your goodbyes, wife. We're
going."

****

Again Marco glanced across at Elise. She looked
even paler then she had five minutes ago. She looked up, her gaze seeking his.

"Stop the car, Marco, please."

He did so just in time for her to be violently
sick by the side of the road. Damn it all to hell, he shouldn't be surprised.
She'd had one hell of a shock to her system. The heaving stopped, and the way
she collapsed into his arms, told him more than anything how emotionally
overwrought she was. It was the closest she had allowed him to be for over a
week.

They made it home in record time, and after one
look at her face, he simply bundled her up and carried her up to her room. He
smiled to soothe Mimi's worry and bellowed for Agnes to take Mimi to the
kitchen.

He tucked her up in bed, and then sent Agnes up
with instructions to run her a bath and look after her, whilst he did his best
to entertain Mimi and allay her worries over 'Lisss'.

Elise was asleep when Mimi and he tip-toed into
her room to kiss her goodnight. Once Mimi had joined the land of nod, his legs
carried him back to Elise without any conscious effort on his part. He just
knew he needed to see her. She was sleeping fitfully, her beautiful face drawn
together in a frown. But it was the silent tears rolling down her cheeks that
completely undid him.

Shrugging out of his clothes he climbed into her
bed and pulled her flush against him. He kissed the tears off her face, and her
eyes flew open with a startled gasp of, "Marco?" He tucked her into
the crook of his arm.

"Shhh,
cara mia
, you're safe. Go
back to sleep. Just sleep. I'm not going anywhere."

And he realized with a start that he meant every
word.
Si
, he was definitively screwed.

Chapter Twenty

Every muscle hurt as though she had been hit by
a ten ton truck. Elise struggled to open her eyes and make sense of her
surroundings, and the turbulent emotions that grabbed her the minute the fog
cleared from her brain.

Oh hell, Jemima! A fresh wave of tears forced
itself out of her swollen eyelids, and somehow she made it to her en-suite
bathroom before the nausea hit with full force. The retching brought with it
another set of memories. Strong arms holding her by the side of the road,
Marco's warm soothing voice in her ear, to be replaced by Agnes, fussing over
her until exhaustion claimed her.

The nightmares had been vivid and terrifying,
but every time she jerked awake, Marco had been there. He'd held her, murmured
in her ear, and made her feel safe, until she'd drifted off again. Marco?
Unsteady legs carried her back to her bed where his side still showed the
indent his head had left on the pillow. Cripes, it hadn't been a figment of her
imagination, but why would he do that?

He'd been so angry at the flat, his tense body
coiled tight, she'd put herself between him and Jem, her only thought to
protect her sister. When he'd agreed to help her twin, her relief had been so
immense, she wasn't sure how she managed to refrain from throwing herself at
him. It had been the look in his eyes, full of confusion, anger and hurt that
stopped her, she remembered now. A look so raw of wistful longing, it had taken
her breath away before he threw that card at Jemima, and waited outside for
them to say their goodbyes.

Elise sat down heavily when it dawned on her
that she might never see her twin again. Marco had been deadly serious in his
threat towards Jemima, and in all truth, could she blame him?

Jem had been so painfully thin when they'd
hugged. They'd clung to each other, their tears mingling.

"Elise, I'm so sorry, truly I am. I never
meant for any of this to happen. You've got to believe me. At least you've got
Marco now. He'll look after you!"

Elise had taken a step back and shook her
head." I haven't got Marco, Jem, and I never will, thanks to you and your
stupidity. For heaven's sake you need to grow up. You're on your own now, truly
on your own, do you get that? He'll never allow any contact from now on, not
for as long as we're married anyway. Thanks to all this, I'll be paying him
back until I'm old and grey."

"I don't understand, Elise. What do you
mean?"

"Never mind, Jem, that's my problem. Just
for heaven's sake stay out of trouble, will you? Please, Jem, you're the only
family I've got."

Marco had interrupted them, his expression
unreadable.

"Time to go, wife." With one last
menacing look at a trembling Jemima he'd dragged Elise away.

Damn, damn, damn what am I going to do?
And more importantly what was Marco going to do? Had she really
promised to do anything if he helped her sister? Elise hugged herself in dread.
But then again, if he was going to be nasty about it, would he have stayed with
her last night looking after her? Oh hell, if only she knew what was going on
his mind and if only her foolish heart would stop doing a two-step, remembering
the tender way he held her the previous night. Only one way to find out. She
was going to shower, make herself presentable and confront him.

****

Marco had the mother of all headaches. He rubbed
his temples, waiting for Giorgio to ring him back. A quick glance at the clock
showed it to be almost midday. He checked on Elise earlier, but she'd still
been fast asleep, deep shadows under her eyes, curled up into a ball on her side.
Thank heavens Mimi went out with Agnes. His housekeeper had suggested taking
Mimi out for the day as Elise was indisposed. They were going to Mamma G's, all
previously arranged by Elise.

"Urprise, Papa," was the only
explanation he got from a giggling Mimi before she disappeared with Agnes, who
was carrying several cake containers.

Interesting to say the least, and if he wasn't
so preoccupied with his wife's evil twin, he would investigate that further.

The phone rang.
Finally
, what had taken
his cousin so long?

The intense conversation that followed only
increased the pounding in his temples.
Dannazioni
, why was life never
simple?

"Si, Giorgio, grazie
," he hung up with a small sigh, having sensed her presence
some time ago. Elise looked very young and vulnerable, stood at the entrance to
his study.
 
Her teeth once again worried
her bottom lip, and her wary expression roused his protective instincts. He
hated himself for being the cause of all that worry.

"Come in, and sit down before you fall
down, Elise. You don't look too good."

She took a tentative step towards him before he
took matters in his own hands and pulled her into a tight embrace. She
stiffened for just an instance before she relaxed into him. The dampness of his
shirt told him that she was crying again.
Fuck!
That was all he needed.
He sat down, pulled her onto his lap, and waited for the storm to pass.

When she finally stopped crying and raised
tear-stained eyes to his face, he had to grab the side of the chair to stop
himself from acting on the need to plunder her trembling lips. One kiss would
never be enough, and she didn't need sex right now, no matter how much his dick
may think otherwise. He shifted slightly, mindful to not lodge her off his lap.
This may be torture, but he'd rather have her ass teasing his hardening cock,
than have her glare at him from afar.

"Marco, why were you talking to Giorgio
about Jemima?" She asked.

"He has connections,
cara mia
. I was
asking him to look out for her, that's all."

"What sort of connections?"

"You're an intelligent woman. Figure it
out; everyone enjoys a good wine after all."

Her soft gasp as the truth dawned on her made
him smile grimly.