One Lucky Vampire(24)

“Just not his wife?” he suggested, pouring coffee into her cup and then carrying it back to the table.

“Me, he wouldn’t even have given the time of day,” she assured him dryly and doctored her coffee with sugar and cream, before adding, “I suspect he married the artist, and was disappointed when he found himself shackled to the woman.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “Aren’t they one and the same person?”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” she asked with amusement. Nicole sipped her coffee, swallowed, and then said quietly, “It turns out Rodolfo was all about the surface and appearances. At first he liked going around bragging about marrying a world-renowned artist. That was cool. Unfortunately, actually living with me was less so.” She peered into her coffee and said, “I think he had poor self-esteem, that maybe he thought marrying me would boost it . . . and was terribly disappointed when it didn’t.” Sighing, she met his gaze and added, “And I suspect he thought that being married to me would mean a life that was one long round of cocktail parties and glad-handing with celebrity clients. Instead, it was day-to-day drudgery, a lot of time spent with him twiddling his thumbs and bored while I worked hard, or his standing by listening to my side of phone calls with those celebrities he longed to connect with, or his having to listen to me being complimented and praised by people who thought of him as ‘the husband’ who didn’t work rather than the charming, dashing fellow who bagged the artist.” She breathed out wearily, and shook her head. “But he wouldn’t talk about it, so I’m just guessing and with that and ten cents, you still have ten cents.”

Jake eyed Nicole silently. She had definitely analyzed her husband and the situation thoroughly. He also suspected she was being kind in her assessment of Rodolfo. The guy had more problems than low self-esteem if he was now trying to kill her for her money. “How long were you married?”

“Two years. I met him at twenty-one, married him at twenty-three, left him at twenty-five and now, a year later . . .” She shrugged.

“The divorce is nearly final,” he finished for her.

Nicole nodded and leaned back against the counter with her coffee. “My career was just taking off when we met. I’d just graduated and had my first art show, which was a rousing success . . . thanks to Marguerite.”

His eyebrows rose. “Marguerite?”

Nicole smiled. “Yeah. My cousin, Pierina, and I used to help out Aunt Maria at Marguerite’s several times a year. I was really into art and during breaks, would usually end up sketching while Pierina and I chatted. Marguerite saw and is the first one who encouraged me to pursue art. Well, the first one to encourage me who wasn’t family,” she added with a small smile. “But family have to encourage and support you so her compliments carried a little more weight,” she explained.

When he nodded in understanding, she continued, “Anyway, Marguerite encouraged me and then kept tabs on me. I did a painting of Julius my last year of high school and gave it to her as a sort of thank-you.”

“Her husband, Julius Notte?” Jake asked with surprise. Julius and Marguerite had only reunited and married a few years ago. As far as he knew, Julius hadn’t been around when Nicole was a teenager.

“No, her dog, Julius,” Nicole said with a laugh. “Weird, huh? That she had a dog named Julius before she ever met her husband Julius?”

Jake didn’t comment. Marguerite had caught him up on a lot on their drive here and he knew that while Julius, the man, had only reappeared on the scene recently, he’d been in Marguerite’s life long before she’d named her first dog Julius. However, he didn’t say that.

“Anyway,” Nicole continued, “After I gave her the painting, she asked me to paint a portrait of her daughter, Lissianna, and then one of herself and then her sons: Etienne, Bastien, and Lucern. And when I had my first art show she insisted on making all the arrangements and invited some pretty big names in the art world as well as a lot of people with heavy pockets. The next thing I knew I had commissions coming out of my ears.” She smiled faintly in memory and then her smile faded. “That’s when I met Rodolfo.”

Jake imagined it must have seemed to Nicole like the universe was smiling on her at that point. Her career was taking off and then she met and fell in love with an exotic, foreign man who appeared to love her back. The world had been her oyster, or would have seemed to be. And if she’d met Rodolfo just as her career was taking off, she wouldn’t have had the money she had now. There would have been no reason to think he’d someday try to rob her blind in a divorce . . . and when that failed, try to kill her.