But he hadn’t been able to resist glancing at the attachments she’d sent. The second he’d seen Benito’s name and the date, his brain had exploded. He’d gone after Cami only to see her skiing away on one leg. He hadn’t realized she’d cut down the beginner run until he was on the steepest one and couldn’t see her. He’d caught up to her at the bottom, but he’d been worried—sickly worried—when she took so long to show up.
The effect she was having on him was as disturbing as all the rest. Part of him still wanted to walk away from all she was stirring up, but he couldn’t. Not just because of this new twist with Benito, either. He resented feeling this compelled by her. Ensnared. How was she even doing it?
He let his fist land on the arm of his chair as he made himself focus on the external facts, rather than trying to unravel the internal.
“Are these all the letters you’ve received from Benito?”
“Just the most recent. Did you see the one where I asked for a phone call with you a year ago?”
“Why? What did you want to say to me?”
“That—” She struggled a moment. “I know you don’t care, but this has been difficult. Finding the money.” Her tone grew raw enough to scrape at his conscience. “I was trying to help Reeve with school. I wanted to work out a different payment scheme. He said you wouldn’t negotiate. That I had to stick to what was agreed or go to court.”
“Agreed by whom? Your father?”
“I don’t know.” She looked conflicted. Afflicted. “I didn’t know anything concrete about what Dad had done until I was out of the system and moved to Calgary. Some government-appointed something-or-other handled the probate on my parents’ estate while I was still in hospital. The only records I ever saw were the papers that Benito forwarded. All I knew was that my parents had been broke. There was nothing to come to us, but the will stipulated that once I turned legal age, I could be Reeve’s guardian, so I made that happen. He’d been with me a few months when the letters started arriving.”
“From Benito.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I was really scared. I couldn’t afford a lawyer, especially for an international crime. He sent Dad’s confession and that said it all. Dad was guilty and had promised to pay you back a ridiculous sum.” She looked to the ceiling, as if trying to keep the moisture in her eyes contained. “I’m not you. I don’t have a family corporation behind me with properties all over the world. I have a used anchor of a laptop and my mother’s wedding band. There was nowhere for me to even begin finding that money. But I know I’m on the hook for it, since I’m pretty sure Dad took it to pay for my training. I’m not trying to dodge it, Dante. I’m just saying, you can’t get blood from a stone. I’ve been doing the best I can.”
He thought of the tiny apartment with the well-used furniture. The relic of a mobile phone and the fact she had taken over-the-counter medication, not prescription opiates.
But she was also very protective of her brother’s aspirations.
“What happened after you started sending the payments?”
“I wound up overextended and got us evicted because I missed rent.” Her voice was heavy with culpability. “I lost Reeve for a couple of months until I got on my feet again. He’s never forgiven me for that.” She sighed heavily. “Life lessons, right? The social worker was actually really helpful. Got me a grant so I could take the hospitality program and that led to my jobs with hotels and the transfer here when Reeve started going to school in Vancouver. Rent in this town is killing me, though. That’s why I thought the job at the Tabor was a good move. I would finally have some breathing space, but...”
He had pressed the detonator on that.
He set the side of his finger along his lips, trying to work out whether she was the victim of a con or trying to make him into one. Again.
“What happened to Benito?” she asked.
“He was murdered over gambling debts, if the rumors are true.”
“Oh, my God!”
“Yes, it was quite a shock. Especially as he hadn’t yet filed my patents. I turned to one of his colleagues, but there wasn’t much they could do except offer advice. The evidence against your father was circumstantial. They advised me I could spend years and a fortune trying to prove his guilt, and probably never get restitution, or I could settle for a confession and a promise of a settlement. Which is what I did, keeping the whole thing as confidential as possible, so as not to damage the viability of Gallo Proprietà. We were in rough shape. I had to be careful.”
“I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and stop my auto withdrawals, ask them to dig up what they can about who owns the account where the payments have been going and switch them to you.” She touched two fingers between her brows. “I just feel like such an idiot. It never once occurred to me to check he was a legitimate lawyer. Or that he was alive.”
Dante belatedly picked up his phone and forwarded the attachments from her brother to his own lawyer, requesting an investigation.
“Stopping payment should flush out another communication from the fake Benito, right?” she asked.
He tilted his head, agreeing with her logic, even if he still had reservations about whether the fake Benito had been created in Italy or on her brother’s laptop.
A shadow passed behind her eyes. “You’re still suspicious of me. I guess I can’t blame you, but... I don’t know how to convince you. I don’t know how to fix this. This theft has been an awful cloud that has hovered over me for years. I look back and feel so selfish. So single-minded and stubborn. So responsible.”
She swallowed, looking ill.
He ought to revel in her self-recrimination, but he couldn’t help thinking her drive was the quality a champion needed. Her lack of fear and love of speed would have taken her only so far. True achievement took grit. In fact, she probably wouldn’t have recovered from her injuries if she hadn’t had that blind will to overcome obstacles.
A strange regret hit him that he hadn’t paid more attention when her father had spoken about her. He vaguely recalled an invitation to visit their chalet and watch a race. Dante had been caught up in his own goals and self-interest, but wished now he’d seen her when she’d been coming into her own as an athlete. They’d been well-matched today. He could only imagine how much better she would have been if she hadn’t been injured. She would have been on podiums; he had no doubt.
“You were eighteen when the letters started coming?”
She nodded mutely.
A gullible age. She’d been in a vulnerable position, playing parent to her brother. He could see how easy it would have been for someone to take advantage of her. But who would know enough of the circumstances to do it? Only the main players, most of whom were dead. One of Benito’s colleagues, perhaps? The criminals to whom he’d owed debts?
Was this a confession of youthful ignorance? Or a well-honed ability to manipulate?
That face of hers was the problem. She projected innocence with those earnest eyes and delicate features. Skin he already knew was soft as down. Lips like flower petals. He only had to look at her and he ceased to care what she may or may not have done. He only wanted to devour her.
Heat began to pool in his lap. He shifted restlessly.
“I really do want to compensate you, Dante. I’d do anything to have this paid off and pushed into the past.”
“Would you?” He couldn’t help it. The haze of sexual need was coming over him, thickening his voice.
She flashed him a stunned look, then her hands went into her lap. She stared out the windows a moment, lips pressed into a flat line, eyes holding a sheen. “Why do you keep treating me like that? I’ve never slept with anyone for money or clothes or jewelry. I’ve never slept with anyone. Period.”
“Ha!” Now he knew she was lying, and there was something terribly disappointing in that.
She glared at him. “Why is that so impossible to believe?”
“You’re twenty-four.”
“Don’t judge me by your standards.”
“You honestly expect me to believe you’re a virgin?”
“When have I had time to date? What man wants to sleep with a woman with the kind of baggage I cart around?” She flung her hand through the air. “I don’t care if you believe me or not! It’s really none of your business, is it? Oh, wait. That’s what you keep accusing me of, isn’t it? Trying to make a business transaction of trading my body for the debt my father owes you. First of all, wow. Wish I’d thought of that sooner. So much easier than working three minimum wage jobs. Second, exactly what is a woman’s virginity worth these days, anyway? Maybe I am interested.”
* * *
Cami spat out the words, hot with insult, adding bitterly, “Times have changed, by the way. It’s not the woman selling herself who is reviled. It’s the man who takes advantage of her.”
His cheeks went hollow before he stood abruptly. She threw herself into the sofa back. He barely leaned toward her, but intimidated all the same. She held her breath.
“I don’t think either of us is vile. That is the problem.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I keep thinking I want to sleep with you regardless of what your father did. That makes me a stupid man. I cannot let you take advantage of me the way your father did.”