Veretti’s Dark Vengeance by Lucy Gordon Read Free Book Online Page A

Don’t count on forcing me to sell. You can’t.’
‘I think you’ll find I can. I have a number of aces up my sleeve.’
‘I’m sure of it, but I have a few myself.’
Unexpectedly he smiled, raising his glass in salute.
‘Here’s to our confrontation,’ he said. ‘Let’s hope we both enjoy it equally.’
‘Oh, I mean to,’ she said, toasting him.
He began to laugh, surprising her with a tone that sounded genuinely warm, even charming. But that was just another of his tricks, she reminded herself quickly.
‘We’ve travelled a long, winding journey tonight,’ he said. ‘Have two people ever learned so much about each other in such a short time, yet still known nothing at all?’
‘Nothing at all,’ she echoed. ‘Yes, we’d both be wise to remember that, wouldn’t we?’
‘If it’s possible, but the danger with illusions is that they seem so much like reality-at least, that’s true of the best of them, the most desirable.’
She nodded. ‘Then we enter a conspiracy against ourselves,’ she murmured, ‘believing what we wish to believe, persuading ourselves that illusion is reality and reality illusion. And how do we ever know?’
‘That’s easy,’ he said wryly. ‘We know when it’s too late.’
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘That’s true.’
Salvatore was about to reply but something he saw in her eyes held him silent. She was looking into the distance and he had the feeling that she no longer saw him, or even knew that he was there.
‘What is it?’ he said urgently. ‘Helena, speak to me.’
But she was silent, lost in a world he couldn’t enter.

CHAPTER FOUR
HELENA was in another place, one in which the air sang with a hundred new impressions. The most disconcerting was the way she and Salvatore were talking, as though there was an instinctive connection between their thoughts. It was surely impossible, yet he knew what she was thinking, in a way that had only ever been true with Antonio.
It wouldn’t last. They were still enemies, but for a shocking moment she could see ahead to another world where enemies clung together in uneasy alliance.
Then the mist cleared and the world settled back into its right place.
‘It’s time I was leaving,’ she said slowly. ‘Will you summon your gondolier?’
‘If you wish, but I should prefer to walk you back to the hotel.’
‘All right. Thank you.’
He fetched her wrap and laid it gently about her shoulders. She drew breath, bracing herself for the feel of his fingers on her skin, but it didn’t come. Accidentally or by design he’d contrived to drape the silk without touching her.
She shivered.
They left the building by a side door which led directly into a tiny alley that she knew was called a calle, so narrow that she could have touched both sides at once. The buildings rose up high, so that it was almost like being in a tunnel. She leaned back, gazing up into the narrow strip of sky, so fascinated that she began to walk on without seeing where she was going, and Salvatore had to grasp her quickly.
‘You nearly walked into a door,’ he said.
‘Where are we?’ she murmured. ‘I’m lost.’
‘It isn’t far back to the hotel. You came around the long curve in the canal, but we’ll cut across that. Didn’t Antonio tell you how deceptive distances can be in Venice?’
He still had one arm around her shoulder, guiding her, so that she could look up as she walked, and still feel safe.
‘He didn’t tell me everything,’ she said.
‘I’m glad of that. I’m so glad.’ After a moment he asked, ‘What did he tell you about me?’
She laughed, a soft sound deep in her throat, that briefly made his hand tighten.
‘He said I should beware,’ she said.
‘And will you?’
‘I always trusted Antonio’s advice, and it was always good.’
‘Probably wise. Did he tell you that you’re strong enough to challenge me, or did you discover that for yourself?’
‘I knew in the first moment.’
He turned her towards him, looking down into