Saved by the CEO(9)

"Dani called me. She saw the news on television."

"Let me guess, she's horrified to find out who she's been friends with  and wants me to stay away so I won't drag the restaurant into it."  Seeing the same darkness on Nico's face that she'd seen a few moments  ago, it would seem her neighbor felt the same way.
                       
       
           



       
"What? No. She and Rafe are trying to figure out what's going on. A  reporter came to the restaurant asking questions." He paused while he  pulled a dust-covered bottle from the cabinet. "She said she tried  calling you a half dozen times."

That explained some of the phone calls then. "I wasn't answering the phone."

"Obviously. They asked if I would come over and make sure you were okay.  Good thing, too, considering you were about to have an unwanted  visitor."

He filled his glass and drank the contents in one swallow. "This is the  point in our conversation where you suggest that I'm an unwanted  visitor."

"What can I say? I'm off my game today." She sank into her corner and  watched as Nico drank a second glass. When he finished, he sat the empty  glass on a shelf and turned around. He wore a much calmer expression  now. Back in control once again.

"Why didn't you say anything about your former husband?" he asked.

And say what? My ex is Steven Clark. You know, the guy who ran the  billion-dollar investment scam. I'm the wife who turned him in. Maybe  you've read about me? They call me Luscious Louisa? She plucked at the  piping on one of the throw pillows. "The idea was to make a fresh start  where no one knew anything about me," she replied."

"You know how unrealistic that is in this day and age?"

"I managed it for nine months, didn't I?" She offered up what she hoped  passed for a smile. Nine wonderful months. Almost to the point where  she'd stopped looking over her shoulder.

When he didn't smile back, she changed the subject. "You said a reporter came into the restaurant?"

"This morning. That's how Dani knew to turn on the television."

She could just imagine the questions he'd asked, too. "Tell them I'm  sorry. Things will die down once they realize I'm not in Monte Calanetti  anymore."

Nico's features darkened again. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm catching the bus to Florence tonight."

"You're running away?"

He made it sound like a bad thing. "I certainly can't stay. Not anymore."

"But the palazzo... What about all your plans for restoring the property  and turning it into a hotel? Surely, you're not planning to abandon  Palazzo di Comparino again?"

His voice grew harsh on the last word, causing Louisa to cringe. His  feelings regarding the palazzo were no secret; to him, the fact she  allowed the property to sit unclaimed for so long was as big a crime as  anything Steven had done. Of course, she had good reason for the delay,  but he didn't know that.

"Have you seen what they are writing about me?" she asked him. The  stories would only get worse. "That guy you threw off my terrace is  probably down in the village right now trying to dig up dirt. And what  he can't find, he'll make up. Whatever he can do to sell papers."

"So?"

"So, I'm doing Monte Calanetti a favor by leaving. The town is on an  economic high. I don't want to do anything to take that away." Unable to  stand the way his eyes were bearing down on her, Louisa pushed herself  to her feet and walked toward the rear corner of the room, as far from  the windows-and Nico-as possible. A tapestry hung on the wall there, and  she focused on the intricate weave of brown thread. "Better I leave the  palazzo empty than stay and let the town become branded as the home of  Luscious Louisa," she said.

"How noble of you, running away without saying goodbye to your friends. I  mean, that's what you were going to do, no? Leave without saying  goodbye?"

"Like people would care." Rejection hurt enough when it was people you  didn't like. The idea of walking down the street and seeing disdain in  the eyes of people she cared about made her sick to her stomach. "Trust  me, everyone will be more than happy to see me gone."

"Happy? Did you say we would be happy?" There was the sound of  footsteps, and suddenly a hand was on her shoulder, yanking her around  and bringing her face-to-face with a pair of flashing brown eyes. So  angry; so ready to correct her.

It was instinctive. The corner of her vision caught his hand starting to rise, and she couldn't help it.

She flinched.

* * *

Madonna mia, did she think he was going to strike her? As he raked his  fingers through his hair-completing the motion he'd started before  Louisa recoiled-Nico felt his hand shaking. What scared him was that he  did want to hit something. Not Louisa. Never Louisa. But something. The  wall. That miserable paparazzo's face. So much for the liquor calming  his nerves. The swell of anger that he'd been fighting since seeing the  news was pushing hard against his self-control. Mixing with another  emotion, one he couldn't identify but that squeezed his chest like a  steel band, the feelings threatened to turn him into someone he didn't  recognize.                       
       
           



       

How could she just leave Monte Calanetti? For nine months they'd treated  her as one of their own, made her part of their family, and she didn't  think they cared? Did she truly think so little of them?

He felt betrayed. "If you think so little of us that you believe we  would let a few gossip articles sway our opinion, then perhaps you  should go somewhere else," he said. "After all these months, you should  now have realized that people in Monte Calanetti are smarter than that."

"That include Dominic Merloni?"

The banker? What did he have to do with anything?

"He canceled our meeting as soon as the news broke. He won't be the only person to cut me off. Just the first."

"Dominic Merloni is an arrogant bastard who thinks everyone in the  village should worship him because he once played football for Genoa."

"That's not what you said about him this morning."

"This morning I was being polite." But if she was going to be  irrational, then there was no need to keep up the pretense. "I'm talking  about the people who matter. Like Dani, your supposed best friend. You  think she is so petty?"

"Of course not," she replied. "But Dani loves everybody."

"Yes, she does, but you were going to leave her without saying goodbye anyway."

"I already told you, I'm-"

"Yes, yes, doing the village a favor. Let us start organizing the  benediction. Saint Louisa the martyr. Abandoning Palazzo di Comparino  for the good of the people."

Louisa stood with her arms wrapped around her as though they were the  only thing holding her up. As far from the woman he'd come to know as  could be. Where was the haughty American who challenged him on every  turn? The hornet who threatened every time he poked her nest? "I don't  know why you care so much," she muttered.

Nico didn't know either, beyond the emotions that continued squeezing  his chest. He shouldn't care at all. He should accept the change in  circumstance as another one of life's upheavals and move on.

He couldn't, though. All he could think about was how the more he  watched her retreat into herself, the more he wanted to grab her by the  shoulders and shake the fight back into her. He wanted to...to...

He stalked back to the bookshelf. Grabbing a clean glass from the bar,  he poured two more glasses of fernet and walked back to her. "Here," he  said, holding one of the glasses out. "Drink. Maybe you'll start  thinking more clearly." Maybe he would, too.

"I don't need to think clearly," she replied. Nonetheless, she took the drink. "I need to leave town."

"And go where?"

"I don't know. Africa. New Zealand. Someplace where they can't find me. I'll figure something out. I just know I have to leave.

"No, damn it!" he said, slamming the bottle on the shelf. "You can't!"

The air between them crackled with tension. Nico looked at Louisa  cradling her glass with trembling hands and grew ashamed. Since when did  he yell and slam objects?

Taking a deep breath, he began again, this time making sure his voice  remained low and level. "Leaving town is the worst thing you can do."

"How can you say that?"

Again, Nico wasn't entirely sure. Several answers came to mind, but none  of them felt completely whole or honest. The true, complete answer  remained stuck in the shadows, unformed.

"Because the town needs you," he said, grabbing the first reason that  made sense. "You've become an important part of our community. Whether  you believe in them or not-" she turned away at his pointed dig "-the  people here believe in you."