“It’s plausible, but it’s just as likely a ploy of some kind to lull us into a false sense of comfort. Either way, it will make the feast more peaceful. They won’t act so quickly.” I glance at Cristiano. “We should take the boat out once or twice before the race.”
“Tomorrow after work?”
“Only if we can do it early. Daniela’s leaving for London the next morning to pick up Valentina from camp. I promised to be home for dinner before the sun sets.” The moment I say it, my two friends side-eye each other, trying to hide their smirks. I walked right into it—and I don’t even care.
“Camp’s over already?”
“Not until Friday, but she wants to allow herself plenty of time in case there’s a weather front—” I hold up my hand to shush them. “They’re predicting sunny Mediterranean weather for weeks. I know.”
“Is she staying with Samantha and Will?” Cristiano asks.
I shake my head. “With my mother.”
Although, even with all the security, I hate having them together at my mother’s apartment. One small lapse in security, that’s all it would take for someone to send my world crashing down.
68
DANIELA
Iboard the plane with my entourage, right behind Valentina and Alexis, whose parents reluctantly agreed to allow her to come home with us to celebrate the Feast of St. John. It took much pleading and begging and promising from both girls.
Samantha was all for it even without the preteen theatrics, but I’m still waiting for Will to show up and drag his daughter off the plane.
We’re also joined by Santi, Mia, Alvarez, Duarte, another guard Antonio sent with me, and all four—four—of Alexis’s guards. At the last minute, Rafael decided to tag along, with yet more guards. We might have more soldiers on this plane than the Portuguese had when the Moors invaded.
“Girls,” I tell the preteen conspirators, “you need to keep your seat belts on until we get an all clear signal from the pilot.”
“Can we watch a movie?” Valentina asks. “Please?”
She seems to have matured in the last two weeks. Part of me wishes that we were coming back alone, just me and her, where she could fill me in on camp, and all the other details I’m dying to know.
I have an insatiable desire to make up for the lost past. Even though it’s ridiculous, because I didn’t miss out on anything, really. Thanks to Isabel—and even to Jorge—I was there for all of it.
“It’s not a long flight, but of course you can watch a movie. We’ll also have lunch, but not until we’re airborne.”
I strap on my seat belt and gaze at Rafael with his nose in an iPad. His entire nuclear family is essentially gone.Like mine.His father isn’t dead, but he can’t communicate. Any hope for Rafael to forge any kind of relationship with him,or Tomas, is gone.
I don’t think he knows about his brother yet. I suspect Antonio will tell him soon, before he hears it from someone else. Lydia didn’t know either. She might have been entirely preoccupied with all things Valentina, but she wouldn’t have forgotten to mention her nephew’s disappearance.
I’ve had a few days to think about Tomas’s death. Given the state Antonio was in when he came home, I’m sure Tomas didn’t have an easy passing. I haven’t felt an ounce of sympathy for him. I haven’t even been able to pretend. I’m beyond grateful he’s off this earth.
Maybe some of Antonio’s darkness has snaked its way into my heart.“My greedy Princesa. That’s what happens to angels who lay with the devil.”That’s what he whispered into my damp skin the night before I left, while I begged for his cock.
* * *
While the girlsare busy watching a movie and Rafael’s napping, I sneak into the conference room to call my devil.
“Princesa.”He uses that seductive tenor that beckons. The one that dares me to come closer.
“My dark prince. You know, it’s interesting. Most days, reaching you directly is no longer the problem it once was when I arrived in Porto. Did you have your phone fixed?”
He laughs. It happens so infrequently that when it does, my heart sings.
“As it turns out, the phone just needs to be stroked with a light touch. But I think you’ve figured that out.”
Not entirely, but I’m getting there. “I have quite the entourage with me.”
“Yes, I heard you boarded with some unexpected cockblockers. I’m surprised you didn’t call to check with me.”