Page 23 of Utterly Dauntless (Return to Culloden Moor #3)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
T he Ligurian coast stretched out before Grey in sunny splendor, just as it had that day two years ago when he'd found his wife here. The Grand Hotel Alassio rose behind him, its pale-yellow facade reminding him of The Grand in Brighton. Maybe that's why she'd chosen the latter, to trigger his memory of this place.
The private beach had emptied as dinner approached, leaving Grey alone with his thoughts and the waves that kept on coming whether he was happy or not.
He'd booked the same room they'd had, ordered the same wine, and watched two ghosts dance and laugh and walk the same stretch of beach, just as oblivious as the waves were to his current existence. They had no clue what would soon follow. Or at least he hadn't. Aries might have been planning to leave him from the moment she was caught. While she looked out at the boats on the water, had she wished she could jump on one and leave straight away?
He'd systematically pulled every ghost from its hiding place and stared it down until it faded. Some took longer than others. The memory of her sleeping form in the morning light had been particularly stubborn.
He'd been a fool to come. He'd been asking for torture and gotten just what he'd asked for.
The tide was turning now, leaving a wet shine on the sand that reflected the painfully bright sky. Damn, but he missed Scotland.
He stooped to pick up another shell, tested its weight. The action reminded him of skipping stones with her on that first afternoon, when she'd finally allowed him to catch her and carry her into the water. When she'd claimed she was tired of being alone.
Lies. All of it lies.
He hurled the shell as hard as he could, nearly wrenching his shoulder. The wee thing hadn't been substantial enough to make a splash. And neither had he...
"Ye're a damned fool," he muttered.
He'd known exactly what he was doing when he told Shug he intended to put old ghosts to bed. Where else would he have ghosts waiting for him? He'd dropped that breadcrumb deliberately, hoping she might follow. Hoping she would want what she was finally denied.
But he'd been wrong. His little experiment had failed utterly.
At least she wasn't running anymore. Shug's daily texts confirmed she was still in Inverness, settling in, finding her feet. Maybe he'd done the right thing after all. Maybe letting her go had been exactly what she'd needed.
And if that were true, the best thing he could do now was stay away. Let her build whatever life she wanted without his shadow falling across it.
It was time. Time to check out of this beautiful prison of memories. Time to stop imagining her walking toward him, barefoot, down the beach...as he was doing now.
He blinked hard, but the mirage didn't fade. He'd seen her ghost a hundred times this week, but never painted her in a cable knit sweater with green pant legs rolled up. His imagination wasn't that keen.
The mirage neared enough so he could see her grin. Then she broke into a run, stumbled, and fell in a spectacular disaster—a high-pitched squeal and a spray of hair and sand.
His imagination definitely couldn't have conjured that.
Aries pushed herself up to a seated position, laughing at her epic failure to take Grey by surprise. Sand clung to her sweater and dripped from her hair. She unrolled her pant legs to free the damp mess that got caught there. She'd imagined this moment a hundred times on the flight from Scotland to Genoa, but none of those scenarios had involved a faceplant on the beach.
"I had this whole dramatic entrance planned," she called out.
At the very least, she'd stunned him. He stood frozen twenty feet away like he didn't dare come close.
He suddenly frowned and focused on something behind her. She turned to follow his gaze and saw two Italian police officers striding purposefully up the beach. At least they looked like they might be police. Their light blue pants and dark blue shirts looked official enough, but their hats and tall dark boots reminded her of the cop in The Village People.
She stood and brushed her hands together as they neared. Grey started toward her but one of the officers held up a hand to stop him.
"Signora Aries Strachan?" The taller officer's accent was thick but his English clear enough.
"Yes?"
"You are under arrest." He pulled out a pair of handcuffs while his partner read her rights in careful English, their Italian accents made her feel like she was in some sort of skit. She couldn't stop smiling.
"There must be some mistake," she said as the cold metal closed around her wrists.
"No mistake," the shorter one said. He took her arm firmly but not unkindly. "Come with us, per favore."
When Grey tried to intervene, the taller officer blocked his path. "Sir, please stay back."
"The cuffs aren't necessary," Grey insisted. "She won't run."
The officer smiled apologetically. "We would be fools to trust a tourist not to flee, signore. "
They led her up the beach to where their motorcycles gleamed in the sun. She bit back a laugh. Of course they were motorcycle cops. But she stopped thinking everything was funny when a police car pulled up, its blue lights flashing.
She wasn't seriously worried, though. Clearly, they had her mixed up with someone else. Grey would sort it out. He had pretty clever friends who had made it nearly impossible to hide from them all these years. Now, she figured they owed her one.
She was carefully guided into the back seat of the car. When the door snapped shut, she twisted to look through the rear window. Grey stood a wary distance from the motorcycles with one hand raised. He was telling her she wasn't alone. She gave him a big grin to let him know she was okay while the car pulled away, leaving him diminishing in the distance.
She settled back against the seat as well as she could with her hands behind her. It wasn't exactly the reunion she'd planned, but at least she'd found him. At least she had a chance to explain everything.
Just a little delay, a little bump in the road. Nothing to freak out about. After all, how scary could the jails be in a pretty place like this?