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“I know you do. Now go up to your room before things get out of hand.”
I was more than ready to get away from him. “Get out of hand?” I was fool enough to question.
“Before I take you to bed and finish what we’ve started. It’s only a matter of time, no matter how much I try to avoid it, but it’s been a long day and I don’t feel like dealing with you tonight.”
Very calmly, I stepped out of my heels, very calmly, I threw them at him, one after the other, one hitting him square in the face, and then I turned and stalked, barefoot, into the house.
Chapter Fourteen
I woke up early, took a shower, and applied the bare minimum of Bella-disguise. The only way someone was going to stop me from leaving would be to tie me up, and while I had little doubt Ian would enjoy that, he wasn’t about to admit it to either himself or me. Maldonado was nowhere to be seen, but there was coffee in a carafe, and I drank two fortifying cups before he appeared, looking vaguely harassed.
“I thought I might go for a drive today,” I said casually. “It’s been so long since I’ve been here that I thought it would be nice to visit some of the old places.”
He nodded. “I’ll check with Mr. Ian to see if he has the time to spare.”
“Oh, I don’t need a guide,” I said, my voice airy. “I’ve already taken up too much of his time. I’m happy taking one of the farm trucks if need be. Just something that’ll get me around the estate.”
“I’ll need to check with Mr. Ian,” he said stubbornly.
Well, screw that. There were other ways. I gave Maldonado a cheerful smile, then headed back to my bedroom and the brand new iPhone Bella had given me.
Cell service was spotty up at Mariposa, but I’d already found one spot near Granda’s room that had an on-again, off-again one bar of a signal, and while any phone call I’d tried to make had immediately dropped, there was a good chance if I went out on one of the upper terraces I might squeak it to two bars and success. I could always call a taxi from the house phone, but I had little doubt that something or someone would get in the way. They couldn’t keep me here, damn it.
There had to be someone who’d be willing to drive me to the airport. The Whiteheads might own everything, but I had a wad of cash that would choke a horse, thanks to Bella. Surely I could find a taker somewhere.
I was tiptoeing past Granda’s room when I heard him coughing, and I tried to close my ears and my mind to it. But the cough continued, sounding weak, and with a long-suffering sigh I shoved my telephone into my back pocket and opened the door to his bedroom.
There was no sign of his nurse, but then he had a tendency to tell her to go away, and there was just so much abuse a woman could take from a cantankerous, dying old man. He glared at me through his coughing fit, and I pulled the pillows up behind him so he could sit up better, dragging him into a half-upright position.
I was tempted to leave before the coughing stopped, but that would be the coward’s way out, and I was proving that although I was phenomenally stupid to fall for Bella’s blandishments, and incredibly naïve to think an incognito visit would heal my wounded heart, I was definitely brave to the point of foolhardy.
For a brief moment, the memory of the stranger on the dance floor came back to me, his filthy suggestions and his murderous threats, and all my bravery vanished. I needed to get the hell out of there.
Granda finally wheezed to a stop. “Don’t just stand there like a booby, get me some water, girl.”
I’d always hated it when he called me “girl.” I was surprised to hear that Bella was tarred with the same sobriquet. I immediately brought him a glass of water, then helped him drink it.
“Where have you been all day?” he demanded weakly. “You’re supposed to be keeping a deathbed watch, aren’t you? At this rate, I’ll die and no one will find my body for days.”
“It’s not even noon yet.” I tried for a soothing voice. “Hasn’t Ian already been here?”
“He’s as bad as you are, leaving me to breathe my very last all on my own. I don’t know why you bothered to return if you didn’t care whether I lived or died.”
“I’m here now, aren’t I?”
“I heard you sneaking past my door—don’t think I didn’t. Though God knows what you expected to find up here.”
“A decent cell signal,” I replied bluntly. Granda liked to bully, but he didn’t have to win, and I wasn’t going to let him get away with being awful.
“Ha! There’s no decent cell signal in the house—the closest you can get is here in this room, and it’s not enough to make a call. If you want to use your cell phone, you’ll have to go to Pinnacle Point up past the olive groves. Not that you remember where that is.”
“Of course I do. It’s the highest point on the estate. We used to climb up there when we were kids.”
“You didn’t,” he said maliciously. “You didn’t want to ruin your pretty dresses. Ian, Marcus, and Kitty liked it up there, but you made such a fuss about being left behind that the three of them stopped trying.”
Not exactly true. Ian and Marcus had stopped, both beguiled by Bella’s pouts, but I would still climb up the rocky outcropping when I needed to be alone. And I needed to be alone a lot, always feeling like the odd one out, up to and including the day my mother dragged me away.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and watched as the dismal, solitary bar alternated with “no signal.” “You’re right,” I said. “I’m surprised you haven’t had some kind of booster or antenna installed.”
