Page 7

“I was already in Rome, tracking the man Delgado killed,” Kim jumps in.

“Not that it makes Matteo some kind of hero, but he was meeting with one of his godfather’s lieutenants.

Turns out, the man was starting to get power-hungry, and Delgado personally took him out for questioning Estrada’s orders and feeling out others to see if he could stage a coup.

I told Therese that this was partly my fault.

If I had been faster, Matteo wouldn’t have had a chance to meet him or for things to turn deadly. ”

“That’s nice of you, Kim, but you can’t sugarcoat it.

Matteo killed that man. He killed him because he was rocking the boat of a violent organization that my h-husband was already in.

” The word husband leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I used to love that word, to savor it. I finally had one—and such a great one, or so I thought.

He spoiled me with luxuries, travel, and sex.

I never had to work (even though I sometimes wanted to).

I never had to plan or scrimp and save (a first for the women in my family).

Wow. Never realized what a vapid little rich bitch you were becoming, did you, Teri? Just show up and look pretty, and make sure you had plenty of makeup and everything was waxed the way he liked it.

I wince in my seat, putting my hands to my temples as if I can squeeze the memories away.

How did I not realize that I wasn’t being spoiled, I was being “displayed”?

Worse, used as a cover, maybe a human shield.

No one suspects a man dancing with his wife inside a club one minute of murdering someone outside of it the next!

My strangled sob won’t stay in my throat any longer, and it bursts out in a frustrated, miserable noise.

“Hey, you don’t have to talk. Let’s see if I’ve got it,” Reggie says in his steady baritone voice.

“You met a guy who seemed great. He was involved in some bad business that you didn’t know about.

It turned violent. You witnessed it, Kim helped you navigate things, and you’re going to meet your new handler at the church.

Once you’ve got your deposition taken care of, they’ll build you a safe new life.

While you wait, you’ll get to enjoy a few days in Pine Ridge.

This is just a break between two chapters.

” His voice is deep and calm, like a still pond.

Tranquil.

Something in me relaxes for the first time in months.

“Well, that’s the nicest way I’ve heard it put,” I admit with a little laugh. “And who are we meeting? Interpol? FBI? CIA?” I’ve talked to so many people that I’ve lost track.

“U.S. Marshals, hon,” Kim says, patting my shoulder. “Like I said, if all goes well, you might not even have to testify in court. Delgado might cop a plea before this even gets to trial.”

I nod and lean back against the passenger’s seat. “How much time do you think he’d get?”

“Depends what they can connect him to.” Kim shrugs and checks her lipstick and hair in her phone’s camera.

I lick my lips as they dry out without warning.

The murder Matteo committed seems like the biggest crime to me, but it’s funny how that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

I don’t want to think about how many people this terrorist organization has killed.

I’d never even heard of them except for brief soundbites on the news—and now that I think back, it was strange how Matteo always used to shake his head and sigh before changing the channel.

“Too ugly for such a pretty face. You’ll get frown lines, baby.

” That’s what he would say, and I was glad to agree.

That doesn’t even touch on the magical side of it—the fact that these murders were made to support more evil.

Was Matteo in league with actual devils? Were they ever around me? Did they ever possess him? Could I have been sharing my bed, even my body with—

I can’t think about this anymore.

The uncertainty of the past makes me want to faint in the present, but I’m trying to hold it together.

“Connecting him to the terrorist group is important—more important than one human life,” Reggie mutters as Minegold checks the side mirror and shifts lanes.

“I h-have something that might help. I didn’t think about it before.

” I feel stupid. I feel like a pretty, stupid, brainless “dumb blonde” right now.

That’s exactly what Matteo wanted. That’s why he picked me, courted me at the speed of light, and married me after a whirlwind romance.

I’ve been playing a part this whole time and didn’t even know it.

I’m not going to be stupid another minute.

“Well, at least you thought of it now. What is it?” Kim asks. She tries to give me an encouraging smile, but I can read the naked curiosity in her eyes. She needs the details. The evidence.

Hey, we both want him behind bars. I don’t blame her for looking eager.

“I was only thinking about evidence that he was a murderer. I told the police—or whatever agents I spoke to—about the night of the murder, how I saw and heard him, what I could remember of the conversation.” I stop talking and shake my head, trying to swallow.

It’s still surreal. You don’t think you’re going to see a man you’re sure is a big, sexy teddy bear murder someone and dump the body in the ocean right outside your hotel room.

When I freeze up, Kim urges me on. “He made some stupid moves that night, Teri. I’ve had to deal with a lot more scumbags than you. They can get overconfident—especially when they’ve been doing it for a while without getting caught.”

The thought stabs me, just like Matteo stabbed that man on the beach. How often had he done this? Could I have saved someone’s life if I’d been more observant? Had I been asleep or just out of earshot for other murders?

“Look, you can’t change the past. You need to stay sharp and focused on what happens next, not what happened then,” Reggie tells me in a voice that’s gruff, but not unkind. If he thinks I’m a naive trophy wife, at least he has the good manners to hide it.

“I have a copy of his hard drive on the USB I have in my purse.”

Kim curses and turns all the way around in her seat as Minegold maneuvers us down an exit ramp through a bottleneck of traffic. I’ll be so glad to get off the highway.

“Therese, you said you have his hard drive? And you just now thought that it might be important?”

Reggie gives Kim a pointed “Shut up” glare.

In a gentler tone, he inquires, “Didn’t the police ask if there was anything of his that you could turn over to them?”

“Yes, but I was thinking about the murder, and I didn’t have his clothes or the knife or anything.

I didn’t know about some terrorist organization until now!

” It’s my turn to glare—but then I second-guess myself.

Maybe they did ask me. They asked so many questions at first, and they asked things over and over again, until I felt like I was the criminal.

My voice is unsteady as I feel like I have to defend myself.

“They searched through my phone to read any texts he’d sent me and stuff like that.

” I blink hard. I don’t want to cry, but this whole thing has been so overwhelming, and it’s probably going to get worse.

I may have had fun pretending to be a spoiled trophy wife, but I’m not some weak little princess.

I’m the daughter of hard-working, feet-on-the-ground types.

My dad manages a tractor and farm supply store, for God’s sake.

With an effort, I try to explain. “We’d been traveling since we got married.

Matteo called it our extended honeymoon and promised that after our first anniversary, we’d return to Miami.

We’d still travel, but that would be our home.

Anyway, knowing that this year was going to be a big deal, we took a ton of pictures using both of our phones.

I’ve been bugging him—I mean, I had been bugging him to share all the honeymoon pictures he had on his phone.

He told me he needed his phone for business at a second’s notice, but if I wanted to sift through pictures, he'd do a bulk download to his computer and share the folder with me. Well, I saw him doing something with the phone and his computer shortly after we arrived in Rome.” I turn from Kim to Reggie.

“We had a place on a private beach on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Gorgeous pictures of the sunset! Anyway, one of the days when he went out without his computer, I realized he hadn’t shared them with me yet, so I thought.

..” I shrug. It’s silly, but I still feel guilty about it, even though I know what Matteo did is so much worse.

“So I thought that since he was dragging his feet and got so pissy when I nagged him that I’d just take matters into my own hands.

I downloaded his hard drive onto my USB and intended to get the pictures later. ”

“Clever girl!” Kim crows, making me jump.

My nerves are going to completely splinter soon.

I just hope that when it happens, it is in someplace private, like a bathroom with the door locked and the shower running—and then I realize that I’m going to be sharing living space with a bodyguard for a week or two.

Straitjacket City, here I come.

“What’s on it?” Reggie gets straight to the point.

“I don’t know! It’s been in my purse for weeks. Looking at pictures from a gorgeous worldwide vacation that turned out to be a ‘perk’ of marrying a murderer isn’t really a soothing activity.”

“Fair.”

“Don’t be hard on yourself, Teri. You kept your head more than most people in your situation, and trust me, it’s a situation I’ve seen all too often. Did Delgado have another laptop?”

“No. Not that I know of... But what do I really know about my ex-husband? I thought he loved me. You can’t love someone and lie to them like this...”

Reggie's hand brushes mine in an awkward half-pat. “Those two things aren’t necessarily connected, Miss—”

“Call me Teri, please. I’m ‘marrying’ you, remember?”

“Back to this new evidence. If he didn’t have a second laptop, then there are probably some records that connect Delgado to the terrorist organization or his kills.”

Kim breaks in, voice quivering with excitement. “This might push him to accept a plea bargain deal and incriminate other people in the organization.”

“Look at that. Luck is on your side.” Reggie gives me a sideways smile, just a little one in case it breaks his face, I guess.

“Hey...Minegold?” Kim’s voice pokes a hole in the bubble of calm I was building.

“I see them.” His voice is still smooth and glacial. “I’ve noticed them for several minutes.”

“See who? Noticed what?” I ask.

“Well, we weren’t being followed—but we just picked up a tail.”

“God, I’m going to need a pacemaker after this,” I whimper, clutching my chest. My heartbeat gallops along.

Is the guy going to shoot out our tires?

Drag me out of the car? Do I end up like the tires?

“If anything happens, it’s the little yellow flash drive in my purse.

In the inner pocket,” I hiss, fumbling for my bag.

The strap is wrapped around my ankle in the car’s floorboards.

“Honey, no one is going to shoot anyone with me around,” Kim pats her hair, the other hand on her hip. I’m betting something deadly is concealed on her person.

“Delgado isn’t going to want you dead. That would look far too suspicious, especially after he learns you spoke to the police.

If you turn up dead, they’ll look hardest at him and his connections.

He’ll want to pressure you to change your story, say you were lying or drunk and confused.

” Reggie speaks in a low, even voice as the highway turns into a smaller four-lane roadway.

“Whoever is on our tail now is most likely from someone above Delgado in the organization, and they want to make sure that you’re not shooting your mouth off about anything but the murder.

That’s small potatoes to them. Won’t impact their day-to-day operations for long. ”

“I’m...oddly comforted.”

It’s funny, but I am. Matteo tended to talk down to me, that whole “Don’t worry your pretty little head” stuff.

I admit, it was nice while it lasted, but it had begun to wear on my nerves.

Reggie's calm, factual answers, combined with the fact that I believe he won’t let anything happen to me, are refreshing.

And attractive.

Why couldn’t I have met a guy like that before I met Matteo?

You wouldn’t have realized how great he was. Don’t trust first impressions, Therese. Look what happened the last time you let yourself get swept off your feet!