“I’m not rich like you!” she snarled. “I don’t have men giving me rings worth millions which I carelessly throw across restaurant tables. I have to work for every cent I get.”
“Money? You did it for money?”
“I’m sorry, okay. I really didn’t know they were going to kidnap you. All they wanted me to do was put a tracker into my purse. They said they just wanted to know where you were.”
“And you believed that?” I asked incredulously.
Tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry, Sienna. Really I am. You don’t know how much I’ve regretted it since then. I just—they just didn’t look rough. They were polite and they were nicely dressed. It was so much money for so little effort. And I promise you I didn’t drive into that neighborhood on purpose. I really did get lost, but they had the tracker, so they knew which way I was heading.”
“Have you got a tracker on you now?” I demanded fiercely.
She shook her head violently. “No, of course not.”
Without a word, I stood, and turned to walk away.
She called to me, “Sienna.” Her voice was full of desperation and fear.
I turned to look at her face with disbelief. Even though the truth had come from her own mouth, I still found it hard to believe she had betrayed me. I’d never believed Angelo and I never let his accusation stay even one second in my head. I’d been that confident of her loyalty and friendship. I thought because I would never do something like that to her, she wouldn’t either.
Christine stared back at me with pleading eyes. “Are you going to tell your father?”
I shook my head … she was worried about … herself. “Unlike you, I don’t want to see you hurt,” I said, and stormed away.
I knew Angelo would catch up in no time. From the corner of my eye, I could see him throwing money on the table. Even before I had reached the entrance he was walking next to me. His cap sat low on his head, hiding his eyes from view. I saw his hand snake out and hit the button of the elevator. The doors switched open immediately. I walked in and waited stiffly for him. It was a small space, but he managed to keep a generous distance away from me, just as I had known he would. And I hated it.
A wave of loneliness suddenly overwhelmed me. At Christine’s betrayal.
“You can stop investigating who gave my location away to the kidnapers,” I said bitterly. “It was just like you said. Christine let herself be bought by some smooth-talking guys. They persuaded her to put a tracker in her purse.”
“I’m sorry,” he said softly.
“Yeah, so am I.”
For a while, neither of us said anything as we crossed the deserted underground car park. Then I stopped and looked at him. “Are you going to tell my father?”
He shrugged. “She’s young. She made a mistake. If you are not going to see her again or reveal important things about yourself to people who are friends with her, I guess it won’t be necessary.”
“Thank you,” I said softly. “Thank you. I know it sounds like I’m being silly, but I know her parents. They are good people and it will break their hearts if anything bad happens to her. She is everything to them. They even sold their home to send her to the university in England and they live in rented accommodation in a horrible part of town now.”
Angelo just shook his head. “That’s a real shame.”
“That’s what I thought too. I was planning to buy them a nice house, because I thought it would eventually go to Christine, but now I’ll just move them into a nice house and let them live out their days there.”
His sharp gaze softened. “That would be a really nice thing to do.”
“Can I drive?” I asked. “I don’t want to stay still. I need something to distract me.”
“Okay,” he agreed, and passed the car key to me.
We walked to the car in silence.
Once in the driver’s seat, I turned on the engine. Then I couldn’t wait a second longer. I switched off the engine and turned to him. “Why are you still here? You said you couldn’t protect me after being so intimate with me. So why are you still here?”
He folded his arms across his chest ... his gaze straight ahead. “I’ll leave,” he said, “when I can convince myself you’ll