The Billionaires' Club: Return of Her Italian Duke (The Billionaire’s Club) / Bound to Her Greek Billionaire (The Billionaire’s Club) / Whisked Away by Her Sicilian Boss (The Billionaire’s Club)

With her heart in her mouth, Gemma left the restaurant and walked to the end of the street to reach her car. She started the engine and pulled into traffic. Soon she was headed for Sopri.

Through the rearview mirror she could see the Maserati following closely behind. Adrenaline gushed through her veins. Finally she would know what had happened all those years ago. It didn’t take long to reach the pensione. Vincenzo pulled up behind her and parked his car.

Without looking at him, she went inside, leaving the door open. He followed, closing it behind him.

“Come in and sit down. Take your pick of one of the chairs or the love seat.”

* * *

Vincenzo did neither. First he looked around at the small, well-furnished flat. From the living room he could see part of the bedroom. Then he walked into the kitchen, where she was clinging to the counter.

This evening, the fear that he was losing his grip on Gemma had made him realize he had to tell her the painful truth about his disappearance if he ever hoped to have a chance of keeping her in his life. All the guilt and the shame would have to come out. He’d wanted to protect her, but it was too late for that now.

But first he needed to hear what had happened to her after he’d left. He sucked in his breath. “The truth, Gemma. All of it! How soon after I disappeared did you and your mother leave the castello?”

She was trembling. “The second your father learned you were missing, he came with the chief of police and guards to our rooms at six that morning, demanding to know where you were. I told him I knew nothing. They searched our rooms before the police chief said he believed me.

“Your father told my mother to get out and take her baggage with her—meaning me, of course. Your father’s outrage was frightening. The idea that his son, who would one day become the Duca di Lombardi, was enjoying life below the stairs with one of the cooks’ daughters put him into a frenzy.

“He vowed to make certain she never got a job anywhere else. He threw Bianca and her mother out that same morning before he left with the police to start searching the countryside for you. That’s why Mamma made me use the Bonucci name, so he couldn’t find us.”

Vincenzo’s pain bordered on fury. He fought to stay in control. “What he did was inhuman. You should never have been forced to live through such a nightmare, and all because of me. I can never hope to make this up to you.”

“It’s over, and he was a sick man.”

His jaw hardened. “More than sick. You don’t know what a frenzy is until you’ve seen him raging drunk. My uncle was the same. Dimi had to get away, too.”

She swallowed hard. “You said he lives in Milan with his mother.”

He nodded. “They left the same day as you and your mother did, while my father was out with the police hunting for me.”

“When I first met your aunt Consolata, she was in a wheelchair. I always worried about her.”

“I know you did. She always spoke of you with fondness, but she isn’t well and has lost her memory.”

“That’s so sad.”

This was the girl he’d remembered and dreamed about. She’d always had a sweetness and kindness that made her stand out from any woman he’d ever known.

“Did you ever hear how she ended up in her wheelchair?”

“Mamma told me she had a disease.”

“No, Gemma,” he ground out. “That was a story the family made up to cover the truth. My father and my uncle Alonzo were the ones with the disease.”

“What do you mean?”

“They are alcoholics. Alonzo drove Dimi’s mother home from a party when he was drunk out of his mind. She begged for someone else to drive her, but he became enraged and dragged her to the car. En route home, there was a terrible crash. The man in the other car was killed and Dimi’s mother was paralyzed from the waist down, unable to walk again. But as usual, my father had it hushed up to protect the family honor.”

Tears splashed down her cheeks.

“Just know that since my uncle has been imprisoned, Dimi and my aunt have been able to live in peace. But there’s a lot more you need to hear in order for you to understand my sudden disappearance.”

“A lot more?”

His fear for what his father might have done to her triggered other thoughts. “The night we almost made love, you thought I’d been recovering from a fall after I’d been out horseback riding.”

She nodded. “That’s what they had been gossiping about down in the kitchen. I snuck upstairs that night to see how bad your injuries were.”

“My bruises and welts weren’t because of an accident, Gemma.”

A cry escaped her lips. She looked ill. “Your father was responsible?”

“Si. He beat me almost to a pulp.” Gemma winced. “But he did worse to my mamma, and she died because of it.”

“Oh, Vincenzo—no—” Hot tears spurted from her eyes. “Why would he do that? She was a wonderful person.”

“My parents’ marriage was a political arrangement with a lot of money and land entailed. But my grandfather Count Nistri, the one who lived in Padua, didn’t trust his new son-in-law. Even back then my father had a reputation for drinking and gambling. But he came from a family of great wealth and was a business wizard.

“To make certain his daughter, Arianna, my mother, always had security, he’d put a fortune in a Swiss bank account for her alone.”

“He sounds like a loving man and father.”

“He was, but my father resented me having any association with him. Still, he couldn’t stop me from visiting him from time to time. My grandfather had the foresight and the means to help me get away when the time came.”

“How did he do it?”

“Through a secret source, he learned my father had been badgering my mother for her money. At that point he gave her the information to access it and passports for both of us so we could escape.”

Another gasp flew out of her.

“During the last year before she died, my father started hitting her when he couldn’t get at her money. She couldn’t withstand all those beatings.” His eyes stung with tears. “Do you have any idea what I went through, hearing her cries while I was held back by the guards so I couldn’t help her?”

Gemma covered her mouth in horror.

“I was helpless. He was the acting duca. He was the law. No one questioned him or his authority. If I’d sent for the police, they wouldn’t have stopped him. Mamma needed me, but I failed her as her son.”

“Of course you didn’t!” Gemma cried. “Don’t say that! Don’t even think it!”

“For a long time she’d begged me to take the money and escape because she feared for my life. That’s when I started to plan my disappearance, but I would never have left her behind. As far as escaping, I had to be an adult and couldn’t go anywhere until I was of age.

“My uncle had no reason to stop his brother, since he was in worse trouble financially and was fighting to stay out of prison. To escape my father, I had to get as far away from Italy as possible. The US suited my plan perfectly.”

She shook her head. “What plan?”

“The one Dimi and I devised a year before I left.”

“A whole year, and you never once told me?” Her voice shook with pain.

“I didn’t dare until I knew it was safe for you. But when that time came, you were nowhere to be found in Italy. Dimi hunted endlessly for you, too. When I escaped, our family had been unraveling at the speed of sound, Gemma, but until I turned eighteen and Mamma passed away, I couldn’t do anything about it. If my father had gotten wind of anything, that would have been the end of me.

“Worse, if he’d found out that you knew where I’d gone, there’s no telling what price you might have had to pay. As it was, your mother paid dearly for my disappearance. Thank heaven you got away without him beating you, too.”

“This is a horror story.”

“After Mamma’s funeral, my father followed me to my room. He’d been drinking heavily. This time he beat me with his horse whip after I’d gone to bed.”

At this point Gemma was quietly sobbing.

“He thought he could force the truth from me and get his hands on Mamma’s fortune. As you know, he was a tall, powerful man. He would have succeeded in killing me if he hadn’t been so drunk.

“Somehow I held him off. The next night was when you came up to my room looking for me. Your loving comfort and kisses held me together. But I was afraid my father would be back. That’s why I couldn’t let you stay the whole night with me. I was afraid if he found us, I wouldn’t have the strength to protect you.”

She’d buried her face in her hands. “I understand now.”

“I’ll always be in hell because I couldn’t protect my mother.”

She lifted her head. “Thank heaven you got out of there alive. I remember the menacing look in your father’s eyes. No wonder you were running for your life.”

“The night after we were together, I made my getaway with Dimi’s help. But leaving you without telling you anything was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do in my life. My cousin had to take the brunt of everything, and I asked him keep me informed about you. He was frantic because he didn’t know where to look for you.”

“I was so hurt and angry at you, I didn’t even try to say goodbye to him. I’m so sorry now. He didn’t have any way of knowing where we’d gone.”

Without conscious thought Vincenzo wrapped her in his arms, and they clung while she sobbed. He wept in silence with her. After her tears subsided, she said, “Tell me what happened the night you left. I want to hear everything from the moment you left your room that night.”

CHAPTER SIX

A MIRACLE HAD HAPPENED, because Gemma wanted to keep talking. Vincenzo kissed her hair and forehead.

“Let’s go in the other room, where we can be comfortable.” He walked her trembling body to the love seat, where she sat down, then he pulled the chair closer to be face-to-face with her.

“After I got up and dressed, I snuck to Dimi’s tower room at two in the morning. We hugged and then I stole down the back staircase and through the old passage no longer used to reach the outside.”

“I remember it.”

“Knowing the guard wouldn’t be able to see me yet, I raced through the gardens to reach the forest on the estate property without problem. The family cemetery plot was a good spot to rest. Then I ran past the lake and stables to the farthest edge of the property and hid up high in a tree until another guard had passed around the perimeter and disappeared.”

“The dog didn’t give you away?”

“It wasn’t with him. That was another miracle. I stayed free of detection for twenty more minutes before climbing the fence. You should have seen me. I ran like hell down the hillside.”

A little laugh escaped. “I can just see you!”

“My destination was a farm, where I waited behind a truck for the sun to come up.”

“That must have been so scary.”

“Not as scary as worrying that I’d be spotted before I jumped the perimeter fence. When I saw more activity on the road, I started walking to the village.”

“Did anyone recognize you?”

“I put on a baseball cap and sunglasses.”

She smiled. “I would have loved to see that.”

“It did the trick. A half hour’s walk and I reached the bus stop that took me into central Milan, where I got off near the main train station. After buying a one-way ticket to Geneva, I boarded a second-class car and found a group of German backpackers to sit by.”

“Naturally you struck up a conversation with them. I know your royal tutors taught you four different languages, including German.”

“My education came in handy during that four-hour train ride to Switzerland.”

“Weren’t you worried someone would recognize you?”

“I was lucky and made it to Geneva without problem.”

“Thank heaven.”

“Around three in the afternoon, the train arrived in Geneva. I said goodbye to the other backpackers and took a taxi to the Credit Suisse bank in the town center. I’d planned every step with Dimi and only withdrew enough cash to fly to the States and get settled.”

“I often wondered about those secret meetings you had when Bianca and I weren’t included.”

“Now you know why. After showing the banker my passport and the letter from my grandfather verifying the origin of the funds in my account, I took a taxi to the airport.”

Her eyes lit up. “You really were free at last.”

“Except that you weren’t with me.”

“Let’s not talk about that. Tell me what happened next.”

“I bought a one-way ticket to New York. As it took off, I saw the jet-d’eau at the end of Lake Geneva and the Alps in the distance. You know I’d traveled through Europe before and had been to Switzerland on several vacations. But this time everything was different.”

Shadows marred her classic features. “I can’t imagine it.”

His body tautened. “That’s when I realized I had left you behind for good. You wouldn’t be able to come to me, nor I to go to you. My ache for you turned into excruciating pain.” Hot tears stung his eyes. “Gemma—I swear I didn’t know how I was going to be able to handle the separation.”

Hers filled with tears, too, revealing the degree of her pain.

“You and I had grown up together and lived through everything. I was tortured by the knowledge that until the situation within my own family changed, our separation would have to be permanent.”

“When I first heard you’d gone, I thought I was going to die.”

He reached for her hand, enclosing it in his. “I would have given anything to spare you that pain. There was no way to know how soon we’d ever be able to see each other again.”

She gave his hand a little squeeze before removing hers.

“You can’t imagine my panic. I feared you would hate me forever for my inexplicable cruelty in telling you nothing. There’d be no way you could forgive me. But I didn’t know how else to keep you safe from my father’s wrath. To my sorrow, you didn’t escape it entirely.”

“You know what hurts the most, Vincenzo? To realize our teenage love wasn’t strong enough in your mind to handle telling me the truth before you ever left Italy.”

“I thought I was protecting you.”

“I realize that now, but why did you lie to me again the other day about your reasons for leaving?”

“Again, I wanted to shield you from so much ugliness.”

“Did you think I’m not strong enough to handle it?”

“I know you are, Gemma. Forgive me.”

“Of course I do,” she cried. “Finish telling me about New York.”

“It was a different world. I checked into a hotel and called my grandfather Emanuele to let him know where I was, knowing he wouldn’t tell my father. After talking with him, I phoned my grandfather in Padua to thank him for all he’d done for me...all he’d tried to do for my mother.”

“He must have been so thrilled to hear from you.”

“When he knew I had escaped, you should have heard him weep.”

“Oh, Vincenzo. To think he’d lost his daughter at your father’s hands. It’s so terrible.”

He could feel her grief. “It was over a long time ago, Gemma. Later I placed an ad in Il Giorno, needing to talk to Dimi. Four days later the call came. The first thing I demanded was to hear news of you!”

She’d buried her face in her hands. “What did he tell you?”

“Dimi couldn’t give me any information. He said that while an intensive search of the countryside had been going on for me, he’d arranged to leave the castello that morning with Zia Consolata. He realized that if he didn’t get them out of there, he would be my father’s next victim.”

“I can’t bear it, Vincenzo.”

“The news was devastating to me. He’d promised to watch out for you. Instead you were gone, and he had to leave, too.”

“I’m so sad that you and your cousin will always carry those scars.”

He took a deep breath. “I cringed to realize the suffering my disappearance had brought on everyone. And worse, knowing I couldn’t comfort you. Neither could Dimi. He tried looking for you.”

She dashed the tears from her eyes. “I can hardly stand to think about that time, but I have to know more. How did you survive when you got to New York? You’d never been there before.”

Her interest thrilled him, because until he’d told her the truth, she’d refused to listen to anything.

“Don’t forget I’d been making plans for a whole year. As soon as I arrived, I checked into a hotel Dimi and I had picked out, then had my funds electronically transferred from Switzerland to a bank in New York. Two days later I applied to take the SAT college entrance test.”

“You’re kidding—”

His brows lifted. “You can’t go to college without sending in the results.”

He felt her eyes play over his features. “With your education, you must have been a top candidate.”

“Let’s just say I did well enough to get into NYU, but I didn’t receive the results for eight weeks. During that waiting period, I purchased a town house in Greenwich Village.”

“What was it like?”

“The architecture is nineteenth-century Greek Revival, with three bedrooms. I wanted to have enough room for Dimi when he was able to join me. But of course that never happened because he didn’t want to move my aunt, who preferred being in her own palazzo.”

“Of course. I’m so sorry. Tell me about the university. What courses did you take?”

“Business and finance classes. Thanks to my grandfather Nistri, who was my business model growing up, I started buying failing companies with his money and turning them around to sell for profit.”

She let out a cry. “Nistri Technologies is your corporation!”

“One of them. My nonno was brilliant and taught me everything he knew. Little by little I started to build my own fortune and planned to pay him back every penny once I’d made the necessary money. But he died too soon for that to happen.”

“You’re a remarkable man.” Her voice shook.

“No, Gemma. Just a lucky one to have had a mother and grandfather like mine. He had a contact at NYU who taught an elite seminar for serious business students. This revered economics professor formed a think tank for his most ambitious followers and told us to visualize our greatest dreams.”

“Is that where you met your friends?”

“Si. For different reasons, Takis and Cesare came to the States from Greece and Sicily to study and work. Like me, they wanted to make a lot of money. This seminar that brought us together was a complete revelation to the three of us. We grew close, and they went on to become wealthy, highly successful hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs.”

“As did you. Why was this professor so effective?”

“No particular reason except he was brilliant. We learned it wasn’t good enough to want to make money. You’ve got to know how to get it, how to deal with brokers, renovate, assess the value of property, how to buy, sell and secure a mortgage. He sounded just like my grandfather.”

“Was that period of your life good for you?”

“Very good in some ways. Our mentor drummed into our heads how to cut costs, decide how much risk to assume in investments and balance our portfolios in order to impress anyone. His final rule was ingrained on my psyche. ‘You must find out if your friends can be loyal.’”

“You and your partners must be very close.”

“I trust them implicitly. That means everything. When I brought them together with my idea to buy the castello, I hadn’t seen either of them in at least two months and had missed them. They got excited when I showed them pictures.”

“There’s no place like it.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “After the pain you and Dimi endured at the hands of your fathers, I’m glad you’ve found friends like that.”

“So am I.”

“When I met them, I didn’t know they were owners and your partners. Both of them have made me feel comfortable. Some of the people in the culinary world are hard to deal with, but your friends aren’t stuffy or full of themselves.”

“So you like them?”

“I do. They have a lot of charm and sophistication. Before I knew what was going on, I thought that whoever owned this hotel knew what they were doing to employ them.”

“They’re the best, and they’ll be pleased when I pass on what you said.”

She cocked her head. “Do you mind answering another question for me?”

“Ask away.”

“You may not be married yet, but is there someone waiting for you to return to New York?”

Vincenzo was in a mood to tell her the whole truth. “Yes and no.”

He saw her swallow. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve been away from Annette five weeks this time. Yesterday on the phone she told me I sounded different. She wanted to know why. I told her about the Italian girl I fell in love with in my youth, the girl I hadn’t seen or heard from in ten years until two days ago.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, he heard a moan pass her lips.

“I explained that meeting you was a complete accident. Annette wanted to know more. All I could tell her was that a big portion of my past had just caught up with me and I was still reeling. I know she wanted more reassurance, but I couldn’t give it to her.”

She averted her eyes.

“What about you, Gemma? There has to be someone in your life.” He braced himself for what might be coming.

“I dated a little after moving to Florence. But the only important relationship I had with a man was a year ago.”

The blood pounded in his ears. “Did you love him?”

“I tried. My feelings for Paolo were different than those for you, but I felt an attraction. He was a writer for Buon Appetito, a nationwide food magazine, and had covered the school for an article. His interview with me turned into a date, and we started seeing each other.

“After a month he wanted me to sleep with him. I thought about it, hoping it would help me forget you, but in the end I couldn’t do it. He was very upset, so I told him I couldn’t go out with him anymore because it wouldn’t be fair to him. He accused me of loving someone else even though I’d told him there’d been no important man in my life for years.”

Vincenzo’s breath caught. He’d hoped for honesty from her and her confession brought out his most tender feelings. He now had his answer to why she’d come to this particular restaurant tonight. Her ache for him had grown worse, too. They suffered from the same pain.

“Paolo said he wanted to marry me, but I told him no because I didn’t love him the way he needed to be loved. I couldn’t even sleep with him. For both our sakes, I knew we had to stop seeing each other and get on with our separate lives. I’d lost my heart to the man I’d grown up with.”

“Gemma...”

“After this long, it had to be unbearable to relive the ugly truth of your family’s tragedy to me tonight, Vincenzo. Thank you for your courage, for forcing me to listen to the last page in the book. You were right. I needed to hear the ending so I can let go of my anger. Now I can close it.”

This intimacy with Gemma, the knowledge that all the secrets were out, had changed his world forever. They’d been brought together again, and he loved her with every fiber of his being. The rush of knowing she’d been the constant heart in their relationship filled every empty space in his soul.

He grasped both her hands, ignited by the desire to be her everything. “Since we’re past the age of eighteen, I have a simple solution to our problem that has been out there for the last ten years.”

“What are you saying?”

“Marry me, Gemma.”

With those words, everything changed in an instant.

A stillness seemed to envelope the room. Her complexion took on a distinct pallor that revealed more than she would ever know.

“A duca doesn’t wed the cook.”

Somehow he hadn’t expected that response. He’d thought that because a miracle had brought them together at last, they’d gotten past every obstacle. After baring his soul to her, Vincenzo couldn’t sit there any longer knowing she was more entrenched in that old world than he would have believed. She still saw him as the son of the evil duca. Like father, like son?