Very slowly his arms came up to wrap tight around her. He didn’t say anything at all, but he nearly broke her in half tightening his hold on her, locking her to him so hard he clearly wanted to share the same skin. They stood there, just holding each other, and then he finally dropped his head over hers, his lips in her hair.
He drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “You have to go to Luigi. Can you do it? Can you play out this charade? The cops will want to question him about Arturo. We can’t kill him now. Not and have it look like an accident. Someone will be suspicious.” He loosened his hold on her to catch her chin in his palm, lifting her face to his. “Can you do this, Giacinta? Because if you can’t, we’ll leave. We can disappear and come back in a few weeks or I will, and finish this.”
“I’ll finish it.”
“It might be best if you go to the States and wait for me there.”
She shook her head. “You can’t get close to the Sorbacovs and you have no chance at all without me. With me, with both of us acting together, we can eliminate them and come out of this alive. I’m not about to let Luigi and his plan to rule Italy as head of two families ruin our chances to ensure your brothers and my sisters a peaceful, happy life.”
His gaze moved over her face. Possessive. Still angry. Still upset, but loving her. She felt that. Loving her. He didn’t say it, but she felt it.
“Kiss me, Casimir. Right now. I need to carry your strength with me when I go down to him. It’s going to be a long night. Tomorrow I have to be the real me and go to the hotel as if none of this has touched me. The world doesn’t know me as Luigi’s niece. I’m the woman who sold him chandeliers. Everyone thinks he gave me my big break here in Italy and that we remained friends.”
He didn’t hesitate. He framed her face with both hands and brought his mouth down on hers. Gently. Tenderly. A haunting, evocative kiss that would stay with her for a long, long time, as he meant it to.
“I’ll be in your bed, malyshka,” he whispered against her lips. He kissed her again. A little harder. A little longer. A lot more aggressively.
A slow somersault started in Lissa’s stomach. Little darts of fire streaked through her bloodstream. It didn’t seem to matter what the circumstances were, his kisses got to her. Claimed her. Took her out of whatever horrible world she was in and brought her into a much better one.
She stepped away from him because she had to. She wasn’t going to cling. If she did, he was in no state to let her go. He’d walk calmly downstairs and put a bullet in Luigi’s head and take her out of there. She was certain of it. She didn’t need that connection between them to know what was in his mind and what he would do if she hesitated.
Lissa walked slowly down the stairs, dread in every step. She’d told Casimir she could do this – and she would – but it wasn’t easy and she didn’t want him to witness her struggle. That definitely would be a disaster. She stood in the doorway of her uncle’s study. He was on the phone, his back to the door, swearing at someone. She caught the name “Angeline” and she closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the doorjamb. Of course he would have to call his wife and tell her Arturo was dead. She would find out sooner or later, and it was better coming from him. He would give her the tale he’d given to Lissa – that Arturo and the widow were lovers and into kinky games.
“Tio.” She didn’t want to eavesdrop on his conversation. He spun around, and she shook her head. “Sorry,” she mouthed. “I didn’t see you on the phone.” She made as if to leave, but he waved her inside.
“I have to go,” Luigi said decisively into the phone, and hung up. “He was up there of course, or you wouldn’t have taken so long.”
“Tomasso liked Arturo. I had to tell him something since I went into his bedroom.”
He nodded. “I called the hotel. He was there and very thorough. He familiarized himself with the layout before he even spoke to the head of security. I had them pull the tapes to see what time he arrived. He couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with Arturo’s death.”
“I know this sounds horrible, Tio, and I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but if the widow was having an affair with Arturo while Cosmos was alive, could she have been carrying on with someone else? Someone who might have been jealous?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t hear any rumors about anyone else. Cosmos was pretty demanding. To get information, I had to become friends with him. I even had dinner at his house occasionally. That’s how Arturo met her. I needed to know the layout of the house and the routine his bodyguards had so I could give it to you. Maybe Aldo thought an Abbracciabene shouldn’t be spending so much time with a Porcelli soldier and he arranged to have Arturo killed in order to send a message. Who else, Gia?”