Mylos took my hand in his. “It isn’t gratitude. That’s far too small a word for how I feel. What you did for me, it was everything, Pia. Everything. Do you understand?”
“And still, it wasn’t enough.”
“Why do you say that?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t spell it out for him. That was the whole point. He didn’t get it, because I didn’t matter to him in the same way he mattered to me. I loved him. I’d known it for years, pushed it away, but it always came back.
Even if this would be the last time, I wanted us to make love. Tomorrow, I would get on a plane and return to Val d’Orcia to stay. The Valentini name would end with me, and maybe then, so would the curse.
Our lovemaking was soft and sweet, as though we both knew it was goodbye. We didn’t speak, and when it was over, I rolled on my side and pretended to sleep. I was still awake over an hour later when he crept from the bed and quietly left.
16
Grinder
“Forgive me, my friend. If it was not a true emergency, I would not have bothered you,” Rile said when I met him downstairs in the lobby after receiving the SOS alert.
Thankfully, Pia was asleep when I left. I wedged a stop in the lock and hoped to be back in her bed before she woke and realized I was gone.
“What is it?”
“A possible kidnapping.”
I scrubbed my face with my hand. “Who?”
“Someone with close ties to the monarchy.”
Instead of returning to Pia’s bed, I spent the next several days traveling with Rile from London to Budapest and finally to America. We’d been forced to go deep undercover; if word had gotten out that the woman was kidnapped, the media attention alone would’ve ensured we never would’ve found her—alive anyway.
Now that she was safely ensconced back with her family, Rile and I were in Texas, awaiting Edge’s arrival.
I’d been trying to reach Pia for several days to explain, but was unsuccessful. I could only imagine what she was thinking, particularly given the conversation we’d had earlier that evening. My intention was to leave in the next couple of days and travel directly to Italy. If all else failed, I’d show up on her doorstep and beg her forgiveness.
Instead, when Edge and his brother arrived at the King-Alexander Ranch late this evening, I found myself thrust into yet another mission. This time, on behalf of my best friend.
A member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas was murdered shortly after we left for Beijing. The woman charged with the crime was someone Edge had met the night before we left, and having come face to face with the dead bloke, he felt responsible.
The ABT was a nasty bunch of fuckers with a slew of enemies. The hard part, though, was figuring out which of those enemies had executed the hit, and then proving it. With any gang-related crime, that was the ultimate challenge.
I knew immediately that this investigation was personal for Edge. “What do you see happening with this woman?” I asked a few days into it. It took him a long time to answer.
“I don’t know.”
“Not good, mate.”
“Rebel doesn’t have anyone else who can help her.”
I nodded. “So you’re the white knight.”
“I can’t explain it, Grind. When I met her, something just clicked. It’s more than that she’s hot as fuck.”
“You’re arse over elbows.”
He smiled. “That, I am.”
He wasn’t the only one. The raw vulnerability Pia had revealed to me when we were last together, struck me square in the heart. I too wanted to be her white knight, even though I was the one from whom she needed saving. The things I said to her still rolled around in my gut, shaming me.
And then, while she slept, I left. It didn’t occur to me I wouldn’t be back. If it had, I would’ve woken her. Instead, I’d had to go completely dark. I shook my head. What she must think. I needed to call Lily. Asking my sister to intervene on my behalf was going to cost me, both in pride and also in the jabs my sister would inflict on me. It would be worth it, though, considering I had no idea how long our current investigation might take.