It took every ounce of self-control for Nicolò to hold his fury in check. At his appearance, Kiley and her mother both spun to face him, identical expressions of consternation on faces that bore a startling similarity. Or they would if Kiley ever acquired the bitter cunning that marked the older woman’s features.
Here was the avarice he’d sought in Kiley’s face during their visit to Dantes Exclusive. The slyness. The self-indulgence. Finally, he could see what she had worked so hard to keep from him. He only had to meet the mother to uncover it. Beside him, Brutus checked out the newcomer and released a soft growl, one that had her taking a hasty step backward.
“You asked for the truth, Kiley.” He stripped off his suit jacket and tossed it over a nearby chair. “I didn’t realize you were the one who would be providing it for me.”
“No, Nicolò.” Her cheeks turned every bit as waxen as they’d been during her hospital stay, a realization that gave him an unwanted pang of concern. “You misunderstood what we were saying.”
He cut her off with a slice of his hand. “Drop the act, Kiley. I’m neither deaf nor a fool. I understood every word your…mother?” He lifted an eyebrow in the older woman’s direction, prompting her to confirm his assumption.
“Lacey O’Dell,” she offered coolly. She took a step in his direction, hand outstretched, but stopped dead in her tracks when Brutus bristled. She cautiously lowered her arm to her side, and Nicolò couldn’t help noting with some satisfaction that it took her a few seconds to recover her aplomb. “Call me Lacey.”
He continued to address Kiley, tearing at the tie knotted at his throat. “I understood every word Lacey said. You’ve been faking amnesia in order to pull off a scam meant to garner you a share of the Dante fire diamond mine.”
“I did warn you,” Lacey said to Kiley, before fixing him with an assessing gaze.
The pale blue color struck him as ice-cold and lacked the humor and kindness—not to mention the fiery passion—so often reflected in her daughter’s. Maybe the difference between the two came from Lacey’s additional years of running scams. Maybe this was how Kiley would appear a few years down such a rough and unforgiving road.
“I assume you’re Nicolò Dante, Kiley’s husband?” she asked.
“Is that what she told you?”
Lacey hesitated, disappointment flashing across her face. “Another lie?”
He stripped away his loosened tie and released the first few buttons of his shirt before it strangled him. “My lie, this time. Conning a con, I guess you’d call it.”
Kiley caught her breath in a soft, disbelieving gasp. “No. No, that can’t be. Tell me you didn’t lie about that, Nicolò.” She stared at him, her pleading look one of utter devastation. “Anything but that.”
He met her gaze without saying a word. He simply waited. She knew the truth. She’d known from day one, minute one that they weren’t married. And she’d chosen to play along every step of the way. No doubt her current performance was for her mother’s benefit. Eventually she’d explain why she’d set this particular game in motion and what she hoped to gain from it. In the meantime, he was done playing.
At his continued silence, Kiley closed her eyes in abject surrender. The expression on her face absolutely gutted him, even though it had to be an act. It took her several seconds to regain her equilibrium and confront him again. When she did, her eyes were black with pain.
“We’re not married? All those romantic dates you told me about, the seaside wedding, none of it ever happened?” When he didn’t respond, she lifted a trembling hand to her mouth. “It’s all a lie? All of it? Touring the city. Dantes Exclusive. Oh, God. Deseos. Those incredible, beautiful, romantic nights on Deseos. It was just a game to you?”
He didn’t spare either of them. “It would seem we both lied, didn’t we, Kiley?” But even that wasn’t the complete truth. Because there had been times when he could have sworn there’d been nothing but honesty between them. “No doubt we each have our own special place reserved in hell.”
“No! I don’t believe you. Some of it had to be real.”
Painfully aware of Lacey’s keen interest, he cut Kiley off. He didn’t want to remember any of it, remember what a fool he’d been. He especially refused to think about Deseos. “Enough. Just can the dramatics, will you? You’ve won your Oscar. I actually believed you had amnesia, if only for a few weeks.”
Lacey blew out a sigh. “That’s my daughter for you,” she said with exaggerated sympathy. “Just one deception after another.”
He turned on her next. “Like mother, like daughter?”
She stiffened, lifting her chin in defiance. “Not at all. Since you listened in on our conversation, you must have heard me say that I wanted no part in whatever scam Kiley’s running.”
“Very self-righteous of you,” he said dryly. “I’d be a bit more impressed if I also hadn’t heard you say that you know better than to take on the Dantes. Still, I applaud your intelligence, as well as your keen sense of self-preservation.”
She had the unmitigated gall to wink at him. “Thank you.”
He removed his cufflinks and pocketed them before rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. Throughout the process, he continued to scrutinize her. “Just out of curiosity, what about the others?”
“What others?” Her movements slowed, stuttering to stillness, and she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. The “tell,” the unconscious movement that warned him whenever she lied was painfully similar to the one he’d noticed Kiley use in the suite at Le Premier all those weeks ago. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about the other men you’ve scammed over the years.”
Lacey’s eyes went flat and, if possible, even colder than before. “Hmm. I don’t think I care for the direction this conversation has taken. So, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll opt out of it.” She crossed to the sofa with a hip-swinging walk and gathered up her purse before confronting Kiley. “I believe you have something to give me.”
The odd quality in her tone caused Brutus to leap to Kiley’s defense. He muscled his way between the two women, appearing more ferocious and intimidating than Nicolò had ever seen him. With a muffled cry, Lacey stumbled back a few paces.
Kiley reached out and soothed the dog. “I have nothing for you. Do I, Brutus?”
He gave a sharp bark of agreement, one that had Lacey making a beeline for the doorway. Once she was satisfied that she stood a safe distance from the dog, she opened her mouth to argue. Sparing a swift glance toward Nicolò, she thought better of it. Apparently, he looked every bit as intimidating as his dog. It was a comforting thought.
“This isn’t over,” she warned. “Not by a long shot.”
With that, she swept from the room escorted by Brutus, which no doubt explained why her heels tapped a frantic dance across the foyer. A few seconds later, the front door opened and slammed shut again. The silence hung in the air, thick and heavy. Nicolò could see Kiley struggling to find the right words to use on him. The best tack to explain away what he’d heard. He didn’t give her the opportunity to settle on a strategy.
He approached, watching the wariness flare in her eyes. “When did you get your memory back? Or did you ever lose it in the first place?”
Her chin shot upward. “I lost it. I still don’t remember anything before the accident, despite what you and my mother may think.”
He couldn’t help himself. He laughed, the sound harsh and ripe with disbelief. “Yeah, right.”
She searched his face, no doubt looking for the chink in his armor, a chink he’d make very certain she never found. “There’s nothing I can say to convince you I’m not faking amnesia, is there?”
“Not a thing.”
Exhaustion settled over her, a visible blanket of weariness. “All right, fine, Nicolò. Have it your way. I’m lying about everything. I faked amnesia. Tell me what I’ve won. What’s my consolation prize?”
He hesitated. “What are you talking about?”
“I must have faked amnesia for some reason.” She spread her hands. “Tell me what I could possibly gain by such a pretense.”
“Will half of Dantes’ fire diamond mine do? I mean, when we first met at Le Premier that was your original scam, wasn’t it?”
“For the sake of argument, let’s say it was. Did it work?”
“You know it didn’t.”
“Why?”
His eyes narrowed in speculation. “What game are you playing now, Kiley?”
“Just answer the question. Why didn’t it work?”
“Because your argument that day wasn’t logical. You had all the documentation lined up, but it didn’t make sense that your family would have waited so many years before coming forward with the claim.”
“Huh. Good point.” It almost felt as though she were tiptoeing through her analysis, though he couldn’t figure out why she bothered. “Okay, so I tried the con on you when we first met at Le Premier and it didn’t work. Logically, what would I have done next?”
“Slipped away before I took legal action or involved the police.”
“Then why didn’t I? How would an amnesia scam work to my advantage? What do I gain by it?”
“You’d inveigle yourself into my life.”
“Again…For what end? Money? I haven’t asked and you haven’t given me any. For the sex? Pretty damn good, I’ll admit, but not worth the consequences when you found out about the scam. So, why would I assume such a risk? I had to know you’d take the precise steps you have and hire a P.I. to look into my background. If I were faking amnesia.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “You tell me. What could you possibly get out of pretending to lose your memory?”
“And there’s the rub.” For just an instant, humor lit her eyes before fading into something heartbreakingly bittersweet. “I haven’t a clue. Maybe I fell in love with you when we first touched. Blame it on The Inferno, if that helps. Maybe I wanted a few days, a few precious weeks, to experience normalcy. No cons. No angle. Just a woman in love with a man with no strings attached.”
He steeled himself not to reveal how her words had affected him. “And now?”
She lowered her head as though considering her options. Her hand slipped into her pocket, wrapping around something that crinkled. She froze, so still and silent, while conflict battled across her expression. And that’s when it happened. She slowly looked up and he watched a hint of avarice grow in her eyes, watched them take on that hard, knowing look that had been so apparent in Lacey’s gaze. She even managed to imitate her mother’s flirtatious smile, the tip of her tongue tracing a tantalizing path along her lush mouth.
“I guess my little vacation from reality is over,” she purred. “It’s been fun. I got some designer clothes out of it, not to mention a trip to an island paradise. Of course, it didn’t end as well as I’d hoped. But we’ll just chalk that up to misfortune and move on.”
“Kiley, what—”
“Don’t,” she said sharply, her breezy expression shattering for a telling moment. “It would never have worked, Nicolò. You must have known that as soon as you read my file. If we’d tried for anything more than a fling, my reputation would have ruined the Dante name. Just let me go. It’s long past time I got back to my old life.”
She was right and he knew it. “Fine. No point in dragging this out.”
Without another word she headed for the foyer, picking up her purse from off the small hallway table where she’d left it. She hesitated with her hand on the front doorknob. “I appreciate you taking care of me after my accident.”
Nicolò leaned against the archway between the living room and foyer. “Before you go, answer one question.”
She shrugged without turning around. “Sure.”
“Was any of it real?”
She swiveled to face him, but all he could see was Lacey staring at him through Kiley’s eyes. “You mean…did I love you?”
“Did you?”
Her movements slowed, fluttering to stillness like a bird settling to its nest and she moistened her lips. “Sorry, Dante. I guess there was some sort of glitch in The Inferno that day at Le Premier. Our bond never took, at least not on my end of things. It may have been fun. But it wasn’t true love.” And with that, she walked out the door.
The instant it closed behind her, Brutus howled in anguish. “I’m right there with you, buddy,” Nicolò whispered. “Right there with you.”
Kiley never remembered the hours immediately following her flight from Nicolò’s, where she went or what she did. She didn’t awake to her surroundings until dusk had settled over the city and she found herself standing in front of a seedy little hotel somewhere in the Mission District.
A quick check of her wallet elicited five hundred dollars and a couple of credit cards. One was maxed out, so she used her precious cash, holding the second credit card in reserve. At least she now had a roof over her head. She huddled in the depressing little room she’d rented, her locket clutched in her hands, determined to come up with a game plan. The silver heart seemed to burn within her grasp, the lacey strips of silver pressing ridges into her palm, as though trying to imprint a message there.
But all she could think about was Nicolò. The expression on his face when he’d walked into the living room after overhearing her moth—No, not her mother—Lacey. That flash of emotion she’d seen in his eyes when he’d asked if any part of what they’d experienced over the past few weeks had been real. His shock when she’d shoved out the one lie she could ever remember telling him.
She opened her hand and studied the locket, pushing absently at the intertwining strips of silver. But she’d had to do it, had to lie to him. Once she’d had time to absorb that damning information from the file, she realized she couldn’t stay. Couldn’t allow her relationship with Nicolò to continue, assuming he’d have wanted such a thing. There’d been no other choice but to sever all remaining ties between them.
Even if Nicolò had been willing to overlook her past, she couldn’t take the risk that one day her memory would come back and she’d turn into a younger version of Lacey. Couldn’t risk the possibility that she’d turn on him and use his wealth and position for her own personal gain. It didn’t matter that walking away had broken her heart. After all she’d done to hurt others, it was a small price to pay.
And, regardless of what cost the sacrifice, she’d continue to pay until she put right all she’d set wrong in the past.
The instant she reached her decision one of the small strips of silver slid to one side and the locket clicked open. She stared in wonder at the small key she found nestled inside. If Lacey were right, it was the key to a safety deposit box, as well as the solution to her problem.
Because in that safety deposit box was the means for her to make amends to all those she’d injured over the years.
“Have you lost your mind?”
Nicolò glared at his brother, Lazz. “Why do you keep asking me that same question?”
“Because it bears repeating.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I mean, get serious. Did you not read her file?”
“Yes, I read her file.”
“Did you not see the part that said scam artist in big red letters? Hell, it was hard to miss since Rufio also put it in bolded caps.”
“I saw it,” Nicolò stated between gritted teeth.
“So…what? She scammed every man she ever met, but she’s not going to do the same to you because she’s your Inferno soul mate?”
“That’s part of it.”
“And the other?”
“She’s changed. She’s not that person anymore.”
Lazz’s mouth dropped open and he floundered a moment before he could speak again. “You have got to be kidding me. You did not just say that.”
Nicolò swore beneath his breath. He didn’t know why it had taken him a full three hours after Kiley had left before he caught the mistake within the lie. Maybe he’d been so focused on her claiming she didn’t love him—and the “tell” that had given lie to that statement—that he hadn’t fully processed her comment. But the instant it sank in, he realized that she hadn’t regained her memory at all, or she’d have known that they never bonded at Le Premier.
As soon as he’d realized the truth, he’d gone charging out of the house. With Brutus at his side, he’d spent the entire night combing the city for her, but she’d disappeared as though she’d never existed. It was the first time in his entire life he hadn’t been able to find a way out of a predicament. He was good at solving problems. The best. But this time he hit a brick wall and it was a wall he couldn’t find a way over, under, or around, let alone through.
“She doesn’t remember, Lazz,” Nicolò insisted. “She still has amnesia.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Lazz argued.
“Because she slipped up right before she left. She said we first bonded at Le Premier. But we never did. We just spat sparks at each other. We weren’t ‘Infernoed’ until I took her hand at the hospital.”
“Hello. She’s. A. Con. Artist. She hasn’t changed. And it wasn’t a slipup. It was an ‘on purpose.’ She was hoping you’d catch the mistake. Hoping you’d buy right back into the con. And damn it, Nicolò, you have, haven’t you?”
“If that woman’s still a con artist, then yeah, I’m buying it. And I’m going to keep buying it until I’m old and gray and we’ve been married for as many decades as Primo and Nonna.” He leaned in, jaw set. “I’m going to find her, Lazz. And then I’m going to marry her. She’s going to have my sons—and I say sons because, with the exception of our cousin, Gianna, the men in our family seem incapable of producing daughters. We’re going to have four of them, in case you’re interested. And anyone who has a problem with that can discuss it first with my right fist and then with my left hook.”
He looked around with a hint of defiance, stunned when he caught Sev and Marco’s nod of approval. Even better was the expression Primo wore, one that offered unconditional support. “Everyone should receive a second chance,” he stated.
Nicolò turned on Lazz again, his determination rock-solid. “So, are you going to help me find her, or are you going to fight me over this?”
“You know I don’t believe in the family curse,” Lazz muttered.
“Blessing,” the others chorused in unison.
Nicolò barked out a laugh, the first one since Kiley left him. “You better start believing in The Inferno, Lazz. So far it’s three down. You’re the only one of us left.”
“And that’s the way it’s going to stay.” Lazz held up his hands before anyone could argue the point. “Fine. You want her, you got her.”
Nicolò nodded. “Let’s just hope it’s that easy.”