A Ring for Vincenzo's Heir(20)

She told herself to relax. Whatever was bothering Vin, they had hours to  work it out before they left for Rome tonight. He would close the deal  with Mediterranean Airlines tomorrow morning. Vin wanted to check them  into a suite at the best hotel in Rome tonight, their wedding night.  While he was signing the papers, she could meet her new doctor and  prepare for their baby's imminent birth. She was trying to convince him  that they should skip the hotel and go directly to live in the home he'd  grown up in, but he resisted.

"It's a mess," he'd said shortly.

Now, sitting at the wedding luncheon, Scarlett sighed. Pasting a smile  on her face, she turned away from Vin, who was still glowering silently  at nothing, and turned to chat with Giuseppe and Joanne and Maria and  her fiancé, Luca. She laughed and applauded as their friends and  neighbors offered champagne toasts, half of which she couldn't  understand, as they were in Italian, but they were lovely all the same.  She just wished her parents could have been here to see her wedding day.

Tears rose to her eyes as her new father-in-law and mother-in-law and  sister-in-law all hugged her and teased her and constantly asked if they  could get her anything.

She had a family again. After all her years alone, she hated to leave them.

Rome was only three hours away, she comforted herself. She glanced at  her handsome new husband. Maybe Rome would be even more amazing. The  city where their baby would be born. Their first real home. It would be  where their life together would begin.

Tears filled her eyes as she listened to Giuseppe's emotional toast, as  he praised his son and expressed his gratitude that he'd returned to the  Borgia family after so many years apart. She was still wiping her eyes  and applauding at the end of his speech when Vin suddenly growled in her  ear, "We need to go."

"Go?" Scarlett blinked. "But you said we could stay the entire day-"

"I changed my mind." He tossed his napkin over his empty plate. "I want  to be in Rome before dark. I still have a lot of work to do. We've  wasted enough time here."

Wasted? The best days of her life?

Scarlett took a deep breath, struggling not to take it personally. "All  right. I understand." She was trying to understand, but her heart felt  mutinous. She bit her lip, looking around. "We'll need a little time to  say goodbye-"

"You have two minutes." Rising to his feet, he stalked toward the table  where his bodyguards were busily flirting with two of the local girls.

Scarlett stared after him, shocked and hurt. The muscles around her  pregnant belly clenched and she felt a sharp tinge in her lower back  that made her leap to her feet.

"What is it?" Giuseppe said.

"I'm afraid we have to go," Scarlett said. "Vin is anxious to get to  Rome. You know he has the big business deal in the morning..."   





 

"That is a pity," Giuseppe said, rising to his feet. "You can't stay the rest of the day?"

"Thank you." Vin was suddenly beside her. He held out his hand to Giuseppe and said coldly, "It was a very nice wedding."

"You're welcome?" His father looked bemused as Vin shook his hand, then Joanne's in turn.

"You can't leave, Vin!" cried his sister. "You haven't even cut the  wedding cake! I've planned activities for the rest of the day. There's a  dance floor, and..."

"I'm sorry. As I told you from the beginning, I have an unbreakable appointment in Rome."

"Oh. Right." Maria looked crestfallen. Her fiancé, Luca, put his arm  around her encouragingly. She bit her lip, tried to smile. "Of course,  I...I understand."

Scarlett didn't understand. Why did they have to leave so soon, cutting  off their wedding celebration? It seemed not just rude, but nonsensical.  But she forced herself to hold her tongue.

Vin held out his hand to his sister, but the young brunette just brushed  his hand aside and threw her arms around him in a hug. He stiffened,  but she drew back with a smile. "We will see you soon, brother. Luca's  family lives in Rome. He's trying to convince me to have our wedding  there!"

"Oh?" His voice was cool.

"But we will see you sooner than that, I hope." Looking at Scarlett, she said, "Call us when the baby comes."

"Of course," she replied warmly, trying to make up for her husband's rudeness. "We will never forget all your kindness."

"Not kindness," Giuseppe insisted, patting Scarlett's shoulder. "Family."

She swallowed, blinking fast. "You've all been so wonderful..."

"Ciao." Vin grabbed Scarlett's wrist and pulled her away. She waved back  at them, and they waved in return, until Vin and Scarlett were out of  the villa and in the fresh air outside. The bodyguards were packing  their luggage into the SUV.

"That was rude," Scarlett said to Vin as he helped her into the passenger side of the two-seater.

Vin's face was chilly as he climbed in beside her, starting up the  engine. "You asked me to stop here for ten minutes, and we stayed for  five days. What did you want, cara-to live here permanently?"

Without looking back, Vin pressed on the gas, driving around the stone fountain with a squeal of tires.

Twisting her head, Scarlett saw a crowd had poured out of the villa's  front door to wave goodbye and cry out their good wishes. "Vin, wait!"

He ignored her, pressing down harder on the gas pedal until they were on  the cypress-lined road, out of the villa's view, and all she could see  were the bodyguards following in the big SUV behind them.

"What is wrong with you?" Scarlett demanded as she faced forward in her  seat, folding her arms over her belly. "Why are you acting like this?"

"I'm not acting like anything. We stayed for the wedding. I thanked them for their kindness. It's time to go."

"We were rude! After everything they did for us-"

"Send them a thank-you card," he said harshly.

Gripping the wheel of the car, he made record time down the tree-lined  road across the wide Tuscan fields, and they soon returned to the main  road.

Scarlett was fuming. Arms folded tightly, she glared out her window,  lips pressed tightly together. The interior of the car was silent for a  long time, until they were back on the heavily trafficked autostrada  headed south toward Rome.

"Stop pouting," he said coldly.

"I'm not." She continued to glare out the window at the passing Italian  countryside. "I'm mad, which is something else entirely."

"Stop being mad, then." He paused. "I meant to tell you. I got you a wedding present."

Her jaw tightened, but she still refused to look at him.

"It isn't a gift that I could wrap," he continued, obviously counting on  her curiosity to overcome her fury. "It's something I did for you."

"Well?" Wiping her eyes, Scarlett turned her glare on him. "What is it?"

Dodging through the increasing traffic of the highway, he said, "Blaise Falkner."

She frowned. "What about Blaise?"

Vin gave her a triumphant sideways glance. "I've ruined him." His lips  spread into a grin. "He'll never be able to threaten you again. Or  anyone."

Scarlett stared at Vin, feeling hollow. "What do you mean, you ruined him?"

"He's penniless, disgraced, destroyed. Abandoned by his friends. Even  the Falkner mansion is getting repossessed in New York. So he's also  homeless." Vin turned dark eyes on her. "I did it for you."   





 

"I never asked for that!"

His jaw was hard as he focused on the road. "I protect what is mine."

Scarlett shivered, hearing an echo of memory.

What century do you think we're living in?

The century a rich man can do whatever he wants. To whomever he wants.

As the red car sped down the highway, she felt her belly again tighten  painfully. It had been doing that with increasing frequency. Stress  would do that, she told herself. It was stress. Not the early signs of  labor.

She breathed, "What did you do?"

"Falkner wasn't as rich as people thought." Vin changed lanes rapidly,  rather than slow down with the traffic. He gave a smug, masculine smile.  "His inheritance barely covered half his debt. He refused to work and  was spending thousands of dollars every night for bottle service in  clubs. And women. I merely made sure his lines of credit were not  extended and allowed his true financial situation to become public."

"You used your influence with the banks?"

"I'm a very good customer."

"And dropped hints to some aggressive reporter?"

He tilted his head thoughtfully. "I believe in freedom of the press."

"But how did you get his friends to abandon him?"

"Ah, that was the easiest part. Half of them only endured his company  because he always footed the bill. He owed the other half money. Once he  was broke-no more friends."

Scarlett might have felt bad for Blaise Falkner, if she didn't still  remember the terror she'd felt when he'd threatened to take her baby  away and force her into marriage.