Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge by Jackie Collins Read Free Book Online Page A

to see. I’m putting into development and production the movies Hollywood should be making.”
    Alex Woods called in the middle of the interview. “Can I take you up on that visit to your father?” he asked, speaking in a low, fast voice. “How about this weekend?”
    “Uh, I don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “I’ll have to arrange it with Gino.”
    Alex sounded like a man on a mission. “You’ll come with me. It’s important.”
    She had not planned on accompanying him. “I’m away this weekend,” she said, wondering why she felt the need to explain.
    “Where?” he demanded like he had a right to know.
    None of your fucking business . “Uh…I’m spending a couple of days with my husband.”
    “Didn’t know you were married.”
    Oh, really? Where have you been? “To Lennie Golden.”
    “The actor?”
    “Very good.”
    He ignored her sarcasm. “When can we go?” he asked impatiently.
    “If you’re that anxious, I’ll set it up for next week.”
    Very insistently, “And you will come?”
    “If I can.”
    Alex Woods was the kind of man she could get into trouble with. Before Lennie…before her life had become so structured with kids and a studio to run and all the other things she was involved with.
    She tried to return her attention to the interviewer, but two thoughts kept buzzing around in her head, vying for attention.
    Alex Woods was a dangerous temptation.
    Lucky refused to be tempted.

5
    DONNA LANDSMAN, FORMERLY DONATELLA Bonnatti, resided in a fake Spanish castle perched atop a knoll above Benedict Canyon. She lived with her husband, George—who was her late husband Santino’s former accountant—and her son, Santino Junior, a truculent, overweight sixteen-year-old. Her other three children had all left home—willing to face anything rather than life with their domineering and controlling mother.
    Santino Junior—or Santo, as he was known—had elected to stay because he was the only one who could successfully manipulate her. Plus, he was sharp enough to realize that someone had to inherit the family fortune, and that someone was going to be him.
    Santo was Donna’s youngest child and only son. She worshiped him. In her mind he could do no wrong.
    For his sixteenth birthday—against George’s advice—she’d bought Santo a green Corvette and a solid-gold Rolex. Then, in case this was not enough, she’d handed him an American Express card with unlimited credit, five thousand dollars in cash, and thrown him an enormous party at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
    She wanted her son to own the world.
    Santo was in complete agreement.
    George, however, did not agree. “You’re ruining him,” he’d warned Donna on many occasions. “If you give him everything at such an early age, what does he have to look forward to?”
    “Nonsense,” Donna replied. “He lost his real father, he’s entitled to whatever I can provide.”
    George had given up arguing. It wasn’t worth the battle. Donna was a difficult and complex woman; sometimes he felt he didn’t understand her at all.
     
    Donatella Lioni was born in a small village in Sicily to a poor, hard-working family. She’d spent the first sixteen years of her life taking care of her many younger brothers and sisters, until one day, an older cousin who lived in America visited her village and picked her out as a bride for the very important American businessman, Santino Bonnatti. Her father agreed it was an excellent match, and even though he’d never met Santino, he’d accepted a thousand dollars in cash and sent her on her way to the United States without any thought for her feelings .
    The truth was, he’d sold her to a stranger in a faraway country, forcing her to leave the love of her life—Furio—a boy from her village. Donatella was heartbroken .
    Arriving in America she was taken straight to Santino Bonnatti’s house in Los Angeles. He’d looked her over with his beady eyes and given her cousin the nod. “Okay, okay, she