Chapter 5

I left my wedding band with my husband and put on the ring Dario had given me.

It was tighter after seventeen years. The platinum band caught at the base of my finger like a handcuff slowly closing.

Graham stood in the bedroom doorway.

"If he says anything that makes you uncomfortable, leave."

"I will."

"Don't drink anything he gives you."

"I won't."

"If the tracking signal cuts out—"

"The police will come in."

He wasn't reassured. He came over and fastened the collar of my coat, his fingers brushing the necklace at my throat.

The detective had brought us the recording device hidden behind the pendant. It didn't transmit live; they could retrieve the audio only after I left. If Dario's people scanned for a signal, there would be nothing to find.

"I hate seeing you wear his ring to meet him," Graham said.

"So do I."

"But you cried when you saw it."

I looked up at him. "That's not because I still love him."

"I know." He paused. "It's just the first time I've seen who you were before we met."

I wanted to explain. Instead I squeezed his hand.

"Wait for me to come back."

The villa was more than forty minutes from the city. That part of the lakeshore had once been full of private resort hotels. In winter the roads were quiet, lined with icy trees and the occasional porch light.

The address Dario sent was across the water from the abandoned hotel where Vivian had been found.

He was alone on the porch when I arrived.

He looked at my face, then at my left hand.

"I didn't think you'd kept it."

"I don't like throwing things away."

"Even me?"

"I didn't keep you. You came back on your own."

Dario opened the door for me.

There were no guards or servants inside. A fire burned in the hearth, and two wineglasses sat on the table. When he saw me looking, he took one away and replaced it with an unopened bottle of water.

"You don't even trust me to pour you a drink now."

"Seventeen years ago, I thought you were an ordinary man."

"I never lied to you back then."

"You didn't say anything false. You just never told me you were a Bellandi, or what your family actually did for a living."

He leaned against the table and watched me. In the firelight, I could almost see the young man I'd known.

He used to wait for me outside anatomy class, complaining about the smell of disinfectant but never asking me to hurry. He'd drive two hours to a pancake place that stayed open until dawn. Once, before my exams, he'd unplugged every phone in my apartment so I could get six hours of sleep.

Those things had really happened.

So had Vivian's death.

"Start at the beginning." I sat across from him. "Who was driving the boat?"

"Julian."

"Your brother."

"He was twenty-one. He'd been drinking and taking something he shouldn't have. Vivian took a small boat from the dock behind the hotel. He went after her."

"Why?"

"She'd taken a memory card. There were photographs on it that could have cost the Bellandi family a great deal."

"She called me because she was trying to save me."

Dario shook his head. "She asked for half a million dollars first."

"I don't believe you."

"Because you loved her."

"Because I knew her."

"You knew me once too."

I met his eyes. "I'm only starting to know you now."

He seemed pleased by that. He took the poker and shifted a log. Sparks lifted into the chimney.

"Julian's speedboat hit her boat. The propeller caught her and she went into the water. She'd lost a lot of blood by the time we pulled her out."

"Why didn't you call an ambulance?"

"My father was at the hotel."

"And?"

"He'd seen the photographs. He also knew she'd called you. If the police came, they'd investigate Julian and then the whole family. My father wasn't going to allow it."

"I asked what you did." My voice shook. "What were you doing while this happened?"

"Trying to keep her alive."

"How? By locking her in a water tank?"

Dario looked at me.

His silence was answer enough.

I got to my feet and slapped him. Unlike in the garage, he didn't move or catch my wrist.

"She trusted me," I said. "She found out there was something wrong with you, and the first thing she did was try to warn me. I was trying on a wedding dress. I didn't answer her call."

Seventeen years of tears finally came. I wasn't acting.

When Dario reached for me, every part of me wanted to step back. I made myself stay. His thumb brushed my cheek with the same gentleness I remembered.

"It wasn't your fault," he said.

"Whose fault was it?"

"Julian hit her. My father gave the order. I dealt with what came afterward."

"You always make the worst part sound like a job."

"If I hadn't done it, my father would have sent someone else. Then he would have come for you."

I raised my eyes. "You disappeared to protect me?"

That was the question he'd been waiting for. I saw some of the caution leave his face.

"My father thought you'd heard what Vivian said, and that you might have the pictures. I told him you knew nothing. I left Chicago and promised never to contact you again. That's why he let you live."

The woman I was seventeen years ago would have believed him. She might even have forgiven him for leaving without a word.

I looked down at the old ring. "Why did you keep this?"

"Because I never married anyone else."

"That proves nothing."

"It does to me."

Dario moved closer. He stopped before touching me, close enough that I could still refuse.

Graham was probably watching a dot on the tracking screen right then. The recorder at my throat was capturing every word.

I took half a step forward and rested my forehead on Dario's shoulder.

His breath caught. Then his arms closed around me.

"I'll change the preliminary report," I murmured. "But I need every detail. When did she die? Was the tank where it happened? Was she breathing when you put her in there?"

His hand moved slowly over my back. It could have been comfort. It could have been a way to judge how much I believed.

"You don't need to know that."

"The report has to stand up to review."

He was silent for a long time.

"She was still alive when she came out of the water," he said.

I closed my eyes and gripped his coat.

"For how long?"

"Forty-three minutes."