‘I asked you a question. That’s all.’
Frustration needled under his skin. He grabbed a towel, dried himself off and sat down beside her. He stared moodily out at the sea. ‘I don’t talk about my wife with other people.’
A pause. ‘Is that what I am to you?’ she asked quietly. ‘“Other people”?’
He turned his head to look at her. ‘No,’ he conceded gruffly—because she wasn’t. She was different—the only person he’d let get this close to him in ten years.
Hell. He pushed his hands through his hair, closed his eyes for a moment. Then he stretched out on his back beside her and took a deep, slow breath.
‘Her name was Julia,’ he began, ‘and we met at a resort in Mexico when I was twenty-four.’
He could feel Marietta’s gaze on him but he kept his own pinned on the blue and white stripes of the awning above them.
‘She was vacationing with girlfriends and I was blowing off steam with some guys I had just completed a private security contract with.’
It had been a classic case of ‘opposites attract’.He’d been a big, rough-around-the-edges foreigner and she’d been a pretty polished blonde from a privileged background. But Julia had been so much more than that. She had been sweetness and light—everything Nico had missed from his life since his mother had died.
Within six months they’d been married, despite her parents’ protestations.
‘It should never have worked,’ he said. ‘Our backgrounds were too different. And her father was running for the state senate.’ He grimaced at the memory of Jack Lewisham’s reaction to the man his daughter had declared she was marrying. ‘I wasn’t exactly desirable son-in-law material.’
He paused. Marietta was silent, but he sensed her listening intently.
‘Things were rocky with her parents at the start, but eventually they accepted me.’
Nico had been determined to prove to Jack Lewisham that he was worthy of the man’s daughter. He’d worked multiple day jobs and studied for a business degree at night, with the intention of starting his own company. In the end Jack had been impressed. He’d even loaned Nico a substantial chunk of capital to get the business started.
He closed his eyes and swallowed, his mouth going dry.
‘Julia was kidnapped.’
Marietta gasped. ‘Mio Dio...’ she breathed. ‘By whom?’
‘Opportunists. Criminals.’ His jaw hardened. ‘Her parents were extremely wealthy and high-profile.’
‘Oh, Nico...’
He could hear the horror in her voice, blocked it out.
‘Her father and I argued over whether or not to involve the authorities. The kidnappers had warned against it and Jack was terrified. He believed that his willingness to hand over the ransom combined with my military experience and resources would be sufficient to get Julia home safely.’ He clenched his jaw. ‘The man practically got on his knees and begged me to agree.’
‘And you did?’
‘Reluctantly.’
The absolute worst decision of his life. His biggest, most horrific failure.
She touched his arm. ‘What happened?’
‘Julia was shot.’
Marietta’s hand tightened on his arm, communicating her shock, and somehow her touch grounded him. Kept him from sliding back to that dark place in his head where there was only that filthy ditch and Julia’s cold, lifeless body.
‘Were the kidnappers caught?’ she asked gently.
‘Eventually.’
He hadn’t rested—not until every member of the gang responsible had been caught, prosecuted and imprisoned.