Wedded, Bedded, Betrayed. Michelle Smart

had watched his father be accused of a crime she knew damn well her own father had committed. She had seen Gabriele take the rap, had seen the worldwide media coverage, had likely seen the footage of him entering the federal prison system, and seen, mere days later, the coverage that his father’s great heart had given up on him. And through it all, she’d said nothing.

      She’d allowed his father to die with his only child imprisoned for a crime her own father had committed and his wife all alone in a country whose language she had never quite mastered. And she’d done nothing.

      As far as he was concerned she was as guilty for his father’s death as Ignazio, and he wouldn’t rest until every single Ricci had paid the price for their heinous lies and betrayal.

      If she wanted to know what real pain was she should walk in his shoes for an hour.

      ‘Our marriage will last for as long as it takes to conceive and then we will go our separate ways.’

      Her face went even whiter, her horror stark. ‘You would take a child away from its mother?’

      ‘I’m not the monster in this relationship,’ he said. ‘I’d be willing to have joint custody but the condition would be that it has no contact with any member of your family.’

      ‘You are a monster,’ she spat. ‘How you can even think about bringing a child into the world under such conditions...’

      ‘Nevertheless they are my conditions. Take it or leave it. I want a child. I want revenge. I can marry those two desires by marrying you. And look on the positives of having my child—as soon as you’re pregnant you’ll have outlived your usefulness and I will set you free. It is up to you. Or you can take your chances with the law.’

      ‘Let’s say for argument’s sake that I do agree to have a baby with you.’ Desperation laced her husky voice. ‘How are you going to have...have...sex with a woman you hate?’

      ‘Are you really that naïve about the workings of a man?’ he mocked. ‘Our libidos tend to work independently from our brains. You’re not a bad-looking woman. I’m sure making a baby with you won’t be too much of a hardship.’

      If Elena had anything else to say she must have become incapable. Her eyes were wide and full of fury and outrage.

      ‘It is best our cards are laid on the table,’ he said. ‘And now that you know where you stand on everything, have you come to a decision? Will you marry me?’

      Her lips pulled together. He could hear her breathing.

      ‘As long as that contract guarantees you will not take my baby away from me and as long as it guarantees you will destroy the alleged evidence and that you will stop the whispering campaign you’ve been conducting against my family then yes, I will marry you.’

      He allowed himself the satisfaction of a smile.

      But Elena wasn’t finished.

      Hands clenched into balls, she said, ‘But you have to buy me a house in Florence and one close to your home in New York.’

      ‘What on earth for?’

      ‘If we’re sharing custody it means I can always be close to our child whenever it’s with you and be there if it needs me.’

      He was surprised to find she had some latent maternal genes in her.

      ‘And I want it stipulated, in black and white, that you will never bad-mouth me or my family to our child.’

      From the look on Elena’s face, Gabriele judged this was the deal breaker. He had to admire her. She had spirit. And, despite being a Ricci, compassion for a child who hadn’t yet been created.

      ‘Okay,’ he agreed with a lazy shrug. ‘I can agree to that.’

      ‘I want it written in the contract.’

      ‘Consider it done.’

      ‘Good. But just so you know, you’re not the only one who can hold a grudge and wish for vengeance.’ She rose from her chair and leaned forward so her furious eyes were mere inches from his. ‘When this is over I will personally see that you pay. There will not be a minute of the day when you don’t regret what you’ve done to me. I will see you burn in hell for this.’

      Unexpectedly, something cold raced up his spine.

      ‘I’m already in hell,’ he said bitterly. ‘Your father put me there.’

      Her top lip curled. ‘Then I will make it my mission in life to keep you there.’

CHAPTER FOUR

      THE SOUND OF a helicopter flying overhead made Elena shade her eyes and look to the skies.

      She was sitting on the balcony of her cabin, exactly where she’d been for the past two hours since she’d walked away from Gabriele, before she’d given into the temptation to punch him in the face.

      Never in her entire life had she hated someone. Never in her entire life had she felt so, so, so...much towards another person.

      Her early childhood had been spent rallying against the injustice of being the only female in a household of males. She had come to realise the only way to get their respect was to behave like them. She might have been home educated, unlike her brothers who were sent to smart schools, and she might have been sheltered from the outside world, but within the household she had turned her anger to her advantage and become one of the boys. She had forced her brothers’ respect and at the same time gained her father’s.

      Now she felt as helpless and angry as she had at the age of ten when she’d finally comprehended that the education she dreamt of, one where she could be with other girls her age, had been denied her. Even now she still struggled with other women. She just couldn’t relate to them. First kisses, first attempts at putting make-up on, everything that went with being a female adolescent had been denied her. She had learned to embrace it.

      Well she wouldn’t embrace this situation. Gabriele would pay for this. She didn’t know how or when or...anything, but she would make him pay.

      She couldn’t even think about what it would mean to have his child.

      A child. A baby. The one thing she’d never thought she would have.

      Having intended to spend her life as a Vestal Virgin, Elena had reconciled herself to never having a child of her own. Her brothers had taken too much glee in sharing salacious stories of their conquests. She’d listened to all the sordid details and heard their obvious contempt for the women who were always, without exception, referred to as whores.

      By the time she’d turned fifteen Elena had known she would rather stay a virgin than be subjected to that kind of disgusting treatment. She would never allow herself to be treated as a piece of meat. Yes, there were ways to conceive a child that didn’t involve getting physical with a man, but they weren’t ways she could bring herself to consider.

      A knock on the cabin door brought her out of her reverie.

      She unlocked it and found Gabriele standing there, a thin document file in one hand, the case she’d taken to Nutmeg Island in the other.

      ‘Where did you get that?’ she asked, amazed.

      ‘I had it couriered to my assistant. She brought it on the helicopter.’

      ‘But how?’

      ‘A friendly police officer retrieved it.’ He smiled a secret smile. ‘Carter’s gang disabled the security monitors before you arrived. All your security team saw on their screens was the feed from the day before. No one knows you were on the island and I would imagine the gang won’t mention it unless they want to add assault and attempted kidnap to their list of charges.’

      Immediately her blood pressure rose. ‘So they get away with it?’

      ‘Not