The Italian's Final Redemption - Jackie Ashenden Page 0,63
in the centre of his chest. It hurt. He’d never been shot in all the years he’d spent destroying organised crime, but perhaps it felt something a little like this, a bright, pure agony reaching every part of him.
He ignored it. Because she was wrong. Justice would cure this pain. He just had to be more focused, concentrate solely on his mission. He had to work harder.
There could not be any more distractions.
He could hear the rotors spinning faster now, faster and faster, and his whole body tightened with the urge to go to the windows and watch the helicopter take off, watch her fly away from him. But he didn’t move. Because he didn’t care. He wanted her, yes. Needed her, maybe. Love her? No.
She’d told him she loved him as if love was a truth, but she was wrong.
Love was the greatest lie of all.
Love had controlled and manipulated him. Love had blinded him. Duped him. Love had betrayed him.
He would never allow love to have that kind of dominion over him again.
The noise of the helicopter became deafening now as he heard it lift off from the garden, heading into the sky.
Vincenzo closed his eyes as the sound became more and more distant, listening until, at last, it faded away. And there was nothing but silence in his house.
Silence in his heart.
She was gone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
HE ENDED UP waiting a month. Just until the people he had keeping an eye on Lucy told him she was settled. Her father, naturally, thought she was still with him and had contacted him a number of times, offering all kinds of things for her return.
Vincenzo had ignored all of them.
Once he had confirmation she was safe, he contacted Scotland Yard and gave them everything they needed to bring in Armstrong. And put him away for life.
The news of Armstrong’s arrest came swiftly after that, and afterwards Vincenzo sat on the terrace, staring out over the sea, a glass of wine in his hand and the peace of the evening closing in.
It should have been satisfying, but it wasn’t.
All he could think about was how empty his villa was. How quiet.
How he wanted to look across this table and meet a direct hazel gaze, large and dark behind the lenses of her glasses. How he wanted a pair of warm arms to welcome him, and a curvy, silky little body to press itself against him.
How he wanted her smile. Her honesty. Her understanding. Her bluntness and her direct manner.
He wanted her and she wasn’t here.
‘All the justice in the world won’t change the feeling inside you...’
His fingers tightened on his wine glass, the memory of her voice playing in his head.
Over the past month he’d thrown himself into his work, spending hours holed up in his office, sifting through information, looking for his next target.
It should have made him feel better. It should have cleaned the memory of her right out of his head. But it didn’t matter how hard he worked, the ache inside him wouldn’t go away.
If only that ache was guilt, because that was easier to deal with. But it wasn’t. It was her and her absence, the silence around him not one of peace, but of loss.
You made her happy and you sent her away.
Pain deepened in his chest. Happiness. What was that anyway? He didn’t need it himself. He didn’t want it. He had a vocation, a calling, and that fulfilled him. It brought him all the satisfaction he required.
‘You can let yourself be happy...’
No, he couldn’t. Happiness and peace weren’t for men like him and she was a fool if she thought they were.
He raised his glass and took a sip, wanting to savour it, but it tasted of nothing. Even the food he ate these days had lost its flavour, just as the world had lost its colour. The sun its warmth...
She’d taken even those small pleasures left to him.
Anger began to burn in his gut, unexpected and fierce, an anger that he’d thought he’d put behind him. And the more he tried to force it away, the more it grew.
She’d done this to him. She’d taken all the little things that had made his life bearable. She’d shown him what peace felt like, what it was to be free of guilt, what it meant to be able to smile at something amusing. She’d shown him how to take a moment and enjoy every second of it.
You made her happy, but she also showed you