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Chapter Six
- Dante -
ALOOK OF HORROR PASSEDover Noemi’s face when she saw me across the banquet hall. My first inclination was to fix her with my stare, scare her because sheneededto be scared. She needed to know how veryunhappyI was that she was back in Bridgeport.
But one look at her in that green gown – the way it hugged every inch of every curve of her body; the way it highlighted the green in her startled eyes. My body tensed, anticipating satisfying a need it had been denied for years as I was momentarily lost in the spell she wove from across the room. Her hair was just as I’d always liked it, loose and wavy, not over-styled and pretentious.
A wave of lust tore through me. This wasn’t the woman who’d moved to England years ago. In a room filled with family and friends, she was the only one I saw. The girl next door had another side that called out to me and made my blood boil.
After I devoured her with my eyes, our gazes collided, and I turned away. I couldn’t let her see my reaction to her, even from twenty feet away. Once I found out Noemi was home, I worked my masking process through the remainder of the drive to the venue. Now that I was in the same room with her, I wasn’t sure how successful I was. Temptation was hard to resist when temptation looked like Noemi Petrafuso.
The ache in my temple started after seeing her and steadily increased throughout the evening. It was a farce. We danced around each other all night. If I went to the right of the room, she went to the left. If I was at the head table with my family, she was in the back at the bar. It was a well-choreographed tango of “you go this way, I go that.” I ignored her yet, my eyes seldom left her. I watched as she tried to hide in the shadows. Noemi had never been an outgoing person. She didn’t enjoy parties. I knew that much about her which made me wonder why the hell she was even there. Lilly must have used every guilt trip tactic she knew to convince Noemi to attend the party and risk seeing me. Either that, or Noemi no longer cared what I thought.
I knew that was wrong. The game of cat and mouse we played all evening told me so. I thought about the look on her face when my presence registered in her brain. Her large eyes had widened even further and the smile that I can only assume was meant for my mother fell from her face as quickly as if a monster had entered the room.
And one had. But she didn’t know the half of it. If she thought I was a monster after the goodbye we shared five years ago, then she didn’t know what a monster was. How could she? Noemi was the quintessential girl next door. Shy and quiet. Reserved.
I watched Noemi through the years, watched her grow from my sister’s playmate into an intelligent, poised young woman. She wasn’t mousy, not in that unattractive, immature way, but she stayed to herself unless she felt safe. Comfortable. She must have felt that way at the party. I watched her steadily work the crowd while continuously avoiding me. Some members of my family recognized her and immediately welcomed her into the fold. She had genuine smiles for each familiar face that approached her.
She made them all come to her. She stayed on the outskirts of the room, never venturing past the safety net of the circle of tables that had been cleared for dancing. Even my brother and a few of his crew sought her out; Gabriel taking her arm and guiding her to the table where my mother sat.
I needed to have a few words with my brother. He obviously knew Noemi was home and hadn’t bothered to mention it. Then again, why should he have? Noemi was Lilly’s friend. Noemi and Gabriel had always gotten along. I was the cold-hearted bastard who didn’t give a fuck about anyone so why would they have worried that Noemi’s return would matter in the least damned bit to me?
My raging headache showed me just how much it mattered. I’d had enough of being social and polite. I made excuses to my mother. Told her I was tired after traveling all day, which was more truth than lie.
I pulled out my cell and called Gabriel’s henchman. “Bring me my car. Any one of them. I don’t care.”
Ma, Gabriel, and Lilly could stay and enjoy the rest of the party. It was nearing ten. The celebration would go on for hours. They could take the SUV home, but I wanted to get the fuck out of there. It was my turn to lurk in the shadows, to get into that familiar darkness where I belonged. I was a fish out of water, one that could put up a good front when he had to, but it was time to call it a night.
I had about thirty minutes before the car would be delivered. I hadn’t drunk that much during the evening and I wanted one last Scotch for the road. I wasn’t much of a drinker, never exceeding my personal limits. I needed all my senses on alert to be successful in my line of work. I could never lower my guard. My life was carefully controlled and orchestrated. Intoxication led to chaos. I couldn’t afford chaos.
I made my way around the perimeter of the banquet room, avoiding anyone who might want to stop for a chat. I shook a few hands, patted a few backs, but I never stopped moving. That is, I never stopped moving until I reached the corner of the bar.
I saw her, slouching in a barstool with another glass of wine in her hand. Either she’d been carrying around the same full glass all evening or she was on at least her fourth or fifth Pinot Grigio.
That may not seem like much for some people, but the Noemi I knew could get tipsy after just one glass if she drank it fast enough. She also never had more than one glass. It was her “rule” and tonight, she broke it.
It was another point of satisfaction to think that I may have influenced her drinking. I fucking got to her and that made me feel... what? The fact that it made me feelanythingpissed me off. I didn’t have to label it. I wanted to reach out, wrap my hand around her neck and demand that she explain herself, but I stayed in the corner, covered by the darkness, watching and listening.
“No, it’s okay. I’m not driving,” she told the bartender as she pushed her now empty glass across the bar.
I didn’t have to worry about how she’d get home. That was good.
Fuck good. I didn’t care how she got home.
“Do you want me to call you a taxi?” the young man asked her.
She rested her head on her hand and turned to him.
“Thank you, but no. I have a ride, one of those car thingies. He’s going to come to pick me up.”
My eyes narrowed at her exhausted expression and her slurred words. Noemi was drunk. Maybe in control of herself, but still more inebriated than I’ve ever seen her and I’ve known her for fifteen years. She’d made it through college without becoming a party-girl, but had England changed her that much? The sweet, quiet girl I put on that plane five years ago had morphed into a hot, drunken mess.
If that were the case, I was fine with it. Ignoring her would be that much easier. I planned to continue deluding myself into pretending that Noemi didn’t exist – until she tried to get off the bar stool and nearly fell.
If I were a gentleman of any sort, I would have intervened at that point, but I wasn’t. When the bartender asked her for her ticket so he could claim her coat from the coat check and bring it to her, I didn’t move a muscle.
When he returned promptly, having left the bar unattended to wait on her, I didn’t blink.
When he groped her as he “helped” her put her coat on and then laughed about it, my fist clenched at my side. I didn’t know if the guy worked for the hotel or if he was one of Gabriel’s special hires, bartender slash bodyguard, but either way, he’d be dealt with very soon. The fucker even told her he’d leave the bar and go with her outside to wait for her car.
No, I didn’t care. Not one bone in my body gave a damn, but my mother and sister would never forgive me if I let her go outside with that pervert and something happened to her. And if it weren’t at that fuck’s hands, what about the driver who was going to take her home? Could that person be trusted to ensure her safety when she clearly was in no position to do so herself?
I heaved an irritated, exasperated sigh then my phone vibrated with a text message. My car had been dropped off in the back lot. Keys were left in the ignition. The men who dropped it off would stay with it until I came out to get the keys. I texted back that I’d be out soon. From the corner of my eye, I saw Noemi grab her purse from the bar and leave with the bartender.
I changed my text. “Bring the keys and meet me at the back door.”
I didn’t wait for an answer. Snapping my phone shut, I bent to tie my shoe, ensuring that the blade I kept strapped to my calf was exactly where I wanted it.
