Passion (In Wilde Country 2)

“Listen,” Matteo said, “I know what you’re thinking.”

“You have no idea what I’m thinking,” his brother growled, “or you would slug me in the jaw.”

“Luca. Calm down.”

“Calm down? Calm down? My brother sets himself up to be taken out by a man who kills people if he doesn’t like the color of their eyes, and I’m supposed to calm down?” He shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in trouble? Why did you think you could handle this yourself? Dammit, Matteo…” The torrent of words stopped. “Cristo,” he said. “I could have lost you.”

The brothers threw their arms around each other, leaned back, grinned, and embraced again.

“You’re okay?” Luca asked.

“I’m fine.”

“And the woman…”

“Ariel.”

“She is…special?”

“She is very special.”

Luca smiled. “Remember that last day we were at El Sueño? You said that love was a joke.”

Matteo remembered. He hadn’t said it, Luca had accused him of believing it, but it came to the same thing.

“Yes,” he said softly.

“And?”

“And, I was wrong.”

The brothers traded smiles. Another bear hug.

Caleb cleared his throat.

“Okay,” he said, “we’re happy you’re happy, but we have some business to do.”

Luca sat on the sofa. Matteo sat next to him. His joyous expression faded.

“I killed a man,” he said. “Two men. What Ariel told Stafford is wrong. She didn’t—”

“You don’t need to cover for her. We know what happened,” Zach said. “She took out Pastore. You took out Jimmy Gavin. They were about to kill you both.”

“You know Gavin’s name?”

Caleb laughed. “Cops in three states know his name. Those murder charges Pastore had somehow evaded? We got the proof we needed. Pastore and Gavin were the killers in all those cases.”

“Pastore was going to kill again tonight.”

“We know. We know exactly what happened here.”

“What do you mean, you know exactly what happened? You haven’t even asked me any questions.”

Caleb and Zach exchanged looks. Then Zach stared at the floor. Caleb took a sudden interest in the fireplace.

“Talk to me,” Matteo said.

Zach sighed. “The thing is, this is a safe house.”

“I know that. And if I hadn’t been such a damn fool and believed there actually had been a power-down…”

“It’s a safe house,” Caleb said flatly. “Meaning, we have some, ah, some special electronics set up.”

Matteo waited for more. “So? What’s that mean? Special electronics.”

“Audio equipment,” Zach mumbled. “Video cameras.”

“Yeah, and so what? Audio? Vid…” Matteo turned white. “Spy cameras?”

“Not in every room.”

“God!” Matteo buried his face in his hands.

“But there’s audio—mikes—in, uh, in lots of places. Meaning—”

“Meaning,” Caleb said bluntly, “we have Pastore’s entire confession on tape. The murder of one of his pals. His knowledge of Ariel’s father’s Ponzi scheme. His intent to kill you both. It’s all there.”

“Along with a lot of other things,” Matteo said. “Goddamn it, man—”

“If it helps,” Zach said, “I’ve, uh, I’ve starred in my own unfortunate tape. Not just audio. Video, too. With, uh, with Jaimie.”

Every head in the room swiveled toward him. Caleb half-rose from his seat.

“Not by plan,” Zach said quickly. “I was guarding her against some yo-yo who was out to hurt her. I set up a camera and—and I forgot it was there, and when things changed, when Jaimie and I got together…”

Nobody said anything. Then Caleb sighed.

“I’ll see to it that your voices are disguised,” he told Matteo. “And nobody has to know your names except a couple of people at The Agency.”

“The Agency,” Matteo said numbly.

“An alphabet soup kind of place. Initials. Acronyms. No titles or names.”

Matteo nodded. “Just don’t tell Ariel, okay?”

“Don’t tell Ariel what?”

He turned around and saw her standing in the entrance to the room. The doctor was right behind her, smiling, offering a thumbs-up.

Matteo got to his feet.

“Don’t tell Ariel that she is, without question, the most brilliant, beautiful, amazing woman in the world, and I adore her.”

She smiled at him. It was the kind of smile that brought Luca, Zach and Caleb to their feet, all of them stumbling over each other in their rush to get out of the room.

Matteo took Ariel in his arms.

“Cara.” He could hear his heart pounding…or was it hers? “I love you. I never thought I’d say those words. I never believed love was real.” He framed her face with his hands. “And then you came into my life.” He shook his head and gave a rueful laugh. “I’m a lawyer, honey, not a poet. I don’t have the words to tell you how much you mean to me, how much I want you, how much happy I want to make—”

She rose toward him and silenced him with a kiss.

“Ask me,” she said. “Please. Ask me.”

“Ariel. My beloved Ariel. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Their eyes met.

She smiled. And kissed him.

And said, “Yes.”

EPILOGUE

They were married at El Sueño, because the ranch had truly become the place Matteo considered home.

The wedding took place on Valentine’s Day.

“Perfect,” Bianca and Alessandra sighed.

Perfect indeed, the Wilde sisters and sisters-in-law all agreed.

The day dawned bright and as warm as a February day in north Texas could possibly be.

The Wildes had invited all their friends and neighbors, from Sheikh Khan bin Zain al Hassad and his wife, Laurel, to folks from Wilde’s Crossing. The Bellinis invited friends from New York and Sicily. Ariel invited some of the dancers from The Electric Dance Theater.

Nobody invited the Wilde patriarch.

Luca was his brother’s best man. Jacob, Caleb and Travis were his groomsmen.

Bianca and Alessandra were Ariel’s maids of honor.

Emily, Jaimie and Lissa were her bridesmaids.

Zach choked with emotion when Ariel asked him to give her away. He tried to say yes, but he couldn’t. Instead, he put his arm around her and dropped a kiss on her temple.

“That’s a yes,” said his wife, Jaimie, who was as teary-eyed as her husband.

Looking at her new family on the day of the wedding, Ariel thought about how lucky she was. She’d gone from being an only child to being part of an enormous family.

But the best thing that happened to her was Matteo.

How she loved him!

She couldn’t wait to be alone with him. She had a special wedding gift for him… at least, she hoped he’d see it as special.

For the first time, she wondered if she’d made a mistake, keeping her gift a secret.

The day was lovely, but long. The wedding. The reception. Everyone wishing them well.

And then, at last, it was over.

She followed what they told her was Wilde tradition and tossed her bridal bouquet from the loft balcony. It headed for Bianca and Alessandra, who squealed and jumped back as if the flowers were radioactive.

“Not yet,” one sister told the other, and all the guests laughed.

Then Ariel changed into jeans, dark red leather boots and a dark red leather jacket.

Twenty minutes later, her groom stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

He was so beautiful, Ariel thought, so masculine and gorgeous in jeans, black leather boots and a black leather jacket.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi yourself,” he said, and she went into his arms.

He kissed her for a long, long time. Then he stepped back.

“Ready to go, Mrs. Bellini?”

“Ready, Mr. Bellini.”

They ran down the stairs to cheers and applause. Outside, a black Lamborghini stood in the driveway for their trip to the airport and their flight to New York. They were going to spend the night at Matteo’s condo—at their condo—before flying to Paris in the morning.

Matteo drove fast, giving the car its head, letting it fly down the mile long, private driveway, but he turned onto the shoulder just before they reached the road, shut off the engine and took his bride in his arms.

“I have something to give you,” he said.

He handed her a long black satin box. She opened it and gasped. It was a necklace of rubies and diamonds.