Gambler's Folly (Bookstrand Publishing Romance) (12 page)

“But now we’re even farther away,” she said.

“Not for long.” Pulling a communicator from his jacket pocket, he spoke to someone in Italian. “Now we wait for a few minutes and catch our breath.”

Blue-gray boulders, like giant marbles, littered the roadside, so they sat down to wait. Soon, Damiano’s car came up the road, with Paolo driving.

“Did you have a good time?” he asked as they got into the car.

“Ah, yes,” Damiano answered. “It’s nice to get out once in a while, into the fresh air.”

Seeing the smug look on his face, Karianna shook her head and said, “That’s cheating.”

“Why is it cheating? In a resort, you would take the lift back up the mountain. Here I have a private car. There’s no difference.”

She was sure there was a difference, but she couldn’t figure out how to win this argument.

Her skills were returning quickly with three days of practice behind her. Of course her muscles were complaining at the unaccustomed work.

“So, this is what you get from not working out, cara,” he teased.

“Not working out? I’ve been working out since I met you,” she countered.

“But it is not the same, the treadmill. Now this is real exercise, cara.”

He proved to be an excellent chef. Karianna was pretty much a soup-and-sandwich cook, and she’d warned him about her skills. So he had pitched in and done most of the cooking for their ski holiday. She’d even had breakfast in bed one morning, with perfectly poached eggs and crespelle filled with preserved fruits and cream cheese. It was a really good thing she was getting so much exercise.

To cap off their trip, they went into the village for dinner for their last evening. Damiano knew of a nice little place which served the best alpine-type food she’d ever had.

“This place is one of the reasons I bought the lodge,” he told her. “If I’m going to be away from home, I must be able to have decent food.”

After dinner they took a walk around the village. “Cara, we haven’t taken the time to look at the stars. And I promised,” he apologized. “Once we are back to the lodge, we’ll dress warmly and go back out to watch them, bene?”

And so they had, only not quite the way she’d thought. “But I’ve never skied at night, Dam,” she tried to explain.

“It’s the same thing, Kari, only not so much light.” He laughed at the look she gave him. “No, it is, and we’ll go slowly. You know the mountain pretty well now, so just enjoy.”

The world was a very quiet place at night, she decided. The whisper of their skis on the snow seemed to echo off every boulder, lending an eerie feeling to the night. The cold air tickled inside her nose, nearly making her sneeze. After a few minutes, they reached a little clearing with a good view of the sky.

“Here we are, cara. We can sit on the rocks and watch the stars march across heaven. It’s really very beautiful. Much better than from Earth, I think.”

They must have watched and snuggled for an hour before the chill got to be too much. “And how do we get back from here?” she asked. “Do you have another car waiting down a little road, just around the bend?”

“No, cara. No car, no road.”

“Then how do we get back?”

“If we take it easy, we can walk back up without too much work.”

“Walk?” she asked, incredulous. “You must be kidding.”

“No really, we can walk. Come, follow me.”

Instead of turning up the mountain, he started around it, just slightly uphill. After walking for a few minutes, he doubled back, still slightly uphill.

“We’re going to be at this all night, Dam,” she complained.

“You have no faith, Karianna,” he said, shaking his head. “But me, I know this place.”

About five minutes further along, just around a small stand of trees, they came to a cute little cabin. He unlocked the door and motioned her inside. While it wasn’t warm inside, it was out of the wind. The lantern he lit cast a warm, yellow light on the tidy interior, where she saw, among other things, a neatly made bed.

“Is this really on the way back to the cabin, or do you simply have ulterior motives?” she asked.

“Well, there may have been other motives,” he said as he began to remove his coat and hat, “but the cabin isn’t too far from here, if you want to go back up tonight.”

“What’s the alternative?”

“We can light a fire and simply stay here. It is late, and you may be too tired to finish climbing back to the lodge.” He quickly built a fire in the fireplace while she undressed. The bed proved comfortable enough for two, and he had been right. It was way too late, and they were too tired, after evening’s exercises, to make it back to the lodge before morning.

The next morning they finished their walk to the lodge. Marco and Paolo were there, coffee ready, and breakfast on the table when they got back.

“After we eat, cara, pack what you want to take back with you. Anything you might want here later, you can leave. Nobody else uses the lodge.”

The trip back was uneventful, though it took all day. In Speranza, they gave the gaming rooms a miss. It had been a long day after an energetic evening. Though she’d slept in and slept most of the way back, she was still tired.

“I think the fresh air agrees with you, Karianna,” he said. “You’ve been sleeping well, and you look alert and alive like I’ve never seen you. We’ll have to ski more often.”

“I do feel good,” she agreed. “I’ve always loved winter. Maybe that’s what it is. Plus some really great fun and exercise in the fresh air. It was marvelous, Damiano. Thank you for indulging me.”

“What is to indulge? You are my wife and you’ve been very patient with me. You deserve some special treatment.”

“You won’t have to be away again, will you?” she asked him.

“Not for a little while, cara. In maybe two weeks, but not for too long,
Dio vuole
. After last week, I don’t like for you to be alone.” Frowning slightly, he shook his head.

“Dam, can I ask what is going on? You seem troubled,” she ventured.

“It is nothing to worry you, cara. Just some business competitors who don’t understand the word ‘no.’ It will be alright soon.”

“If you say so,” she told him.

“Trust me, cara. I will keep you safe.”

The next two weeks were fairly relaxed. They’d got everything sorted out with the kitchen, with Dante still on the job. Karianna got back to her workouts with Carl, and Damiano to his daily meetings. Evenings were spent together watching the gaming tables and eating fabulous food at various of his establishments. Karianna was getting used to being the center of attention wherever they went, and this pleased Damiano to no end.

“I knew you would enjoy being a celebrity,” he teased one evening. “You just had to get used to the idea. Me? I have always loved it. Besides, you can have your public image for when you are out, and then, when you are with friends, you can relax and enjoy life. It can be a secret kind of life, if you want.”

“Why would I want that?” she asked.

“Cara, don’t you have a secret side to your life here? You are still an unknown to everyone. Where did you come from? How did we really meet? What is the attraction which brought us together?”

“Well, I suppose. But I thought you answered those questions.” She was still unconvinced.

“I did answer them, yes, as vaguely as possible. And just as I planned, nobody believed a word of it. It makes you an item, a bit of a mystery. It is fun.”

Eventually, Damiano had to leave town again. While she was upset at having him away, Karianna wasn’t worried.

“I just miss you when you go,” she told him. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, especially with Marco and Dante here. I’ll be fine, as long as you come home soon.” And she really did mean that, she’d discovered. He was so loving and attentive to her, how could she have resisted him?

Yes, he was the head of his house, and about half the world apparently, but he was also a true romantic at heart. Part of the attraction was his strength, she decided. There could be no doubt about who was in charge, no matter where they were.

“I know, cara, but I will still be a little worried about you, after last time. And then, when you are actually fine, I will feel a little silly, perhaps, to have worried about you.”

He left fairly early in the morning for his trip and planned to be gone five days, as the meeting was off-world again.

“About a day and a half to get there, two, maybe three days of meetings, and then a day and a half back,” he’d told her. “I’ll be home before you realize I’m gone, cara,” he teased.

“I know. It’s just lonely, Dam.”

She had some coffee and then went to work out. Since their trip, she’d asked Carl if they could design some workouts specifically for skiing. Her muscles had been sore for days, even after they got home. He had done as she’d asked, and the new workouts were absolutely sadistic, but would prove effective for their next trip to the slopes.

Showered and dressed, she called Dante and ordered some lunch. Karianna had discovered this wonderful bocconcini salad, which was really a meal all by itself. The marvelous flavors of the tomatoes, cheese, and basil were exciting, and topped off with a slice of crusty bread, it was filling as well.

She watched a news program on the viewer after lunch, practiced her recorders a little bit, and then caught a nap. The rest of the day was uneventful until her call from Damiano came through. They talked for nearly half an hour before he had to go, leaving her sad and lonely, all by herself in the huge suite.

The next day began the same way. Coffee, workout, lunch. About halfway through the afternoon, she called down for a pot of tea and some mineral water. While the water in the hotel was potable, she preferred the bottled water for drinking.

Dante came up with her tray, made sure she was fine, and then went back to the kitchen. She sipped at the tea while she read a book she’d been meaning to get to. It was supposed to be all the rage, and she was soon engrossed.

Nearly two hours later, the tea had been gone for some time, and she poured some bottled water over ice, in a tumbler from the kitchen. Even though most people here drank their water at room temperature, she preferred hers icy cold. She sipped as she read, still glued to the book, until she noticed her stomach starting to cramp a little.

Well, it was probably nothing, she thought. The water had been really cold and she’d drunk it too fast, that’s all. But a few minutes later, the cramping was back and worse. As she tried to decide if it was worth calling the doctor, another wave struck which left her doubled over, her book fallen to the floor. Straining to reach her communicator, she was able to dial the emergency number and waited, curled up on the floor, and scared half to death.

A trip to the hospital was not in her plans, but the doctor said otherwise. Marco and Dante went with her for safety. Safe from what she couldn’t tell, since obviously something had happened in spite of their vigilance. The medics had started an IV as soon as they arrived, and the drugs were beginning to help by the time they arrived at the emergency entrance.

After her IV was started and her stomach pumped, Karianna was admitted to a private suite, which Marco and Dante guarded in shifts. Of course, they had called Damiano immediately and told him of the incident.

“No, Damiano. There’s nothing you could do if you were here,” she insisted. “I’ll only be here overnight and then I’ll be home. There is no need for you to worry. I’m sure they’ll find out what it is and take care of things.”

Damiano wasn’t convinced, but he relented eventually, after some very terse instructions to her bodyguards.

The remnants of the tea and water had gone to the lab and, by morning, the report was in. Someone had tampered with the bottled water before sending it up. What it had contained would not have killed her, but it did make her violently ill.

“Why are they doing this?” she asked Marco. “What do they hope to gain by making me sick every time Damiano leaves?”

“I’m not sure, Signora, but we will find out. Rest assured, we will find out.”

The limousine came to take her back to the suite. Apparently the ambulance the afternoon before had alerted the media. Reporters with cameras lined the sidewalk in front of the hotel, trying to get a glimpse of her.

“What should we do, Marco?” she asked.

“Let me take care of it, once you’re inside. I know how Damiano would like it handled.”

Tucked up in bed by a private nurse, Karianna was going crazy before too long. “No, really I’m fine,” she tried to tell everyone. “I just need a little rest this afternoon. Honest. I’ll take care.”

Not that it did any good. The nurse stayed, Marco camped out by the door, and Dante went to raise hell in the kitchen. Karianna did finally go to sleep, in spite of the crowd, and felt much better when she woke.

“No, really, Damiano, I’m fine,” she complained again. “Send the nurse home. Marco and Dante are doing a fine job.”

The nurse stayed for the rest of the week before Damiano finally allowed her to leave. He would be home the next day anyway. Marco and Dante were fidgety waiting for him to get back so they could plan their course of action.

* * * *

“I don’t care how it happened, Dante. It happened right under your nose.” Damiano was furious over the situation and was being unreasonable.

“Signor, I watched the food, I watched the preparations for the tea. I watched the tea while it was steeping. I never thought about bottled water,” Dante countered.

“Well maybe you’ll think about it next time!”

Enough is enough, Karianna decided. “Dam, leave him alone. It wasn’t his fault. Nobody sane would even consider the water. It comes purified, bottled, and sealed. Why would he look at it?”

“Stay out of it, Karianna. It’s none of your affair,” he countered.

“Actually, it is my affair, Damiano Leone. I’m the one who got sick. Or doesn’t that count?”

He strode over to her in a fury and she thought he might slap her. “Go ahead and hit me, if it’ll make you feel better. But if you don’t calm down and lay off Dante and Marco, I’ll slap the living shit out of you.”