at him as if he had suggested something obscene. “No way.” She shook her head so hard part of her hair slipped out of the French twist on the back of her head. It fell over one green eye and she impatiently shoved it aside. “You are not going home with me.”
“If anyone knows of the jewels’ whereabouts, neither you nor your employer will be safe. He will be staying with his daughter and son-in-law. You have no one.”
An expression came into her eyes when he said that, a bleakness of spirit he did not like and one he did not associate with the fiery woman who had been his lover. “I don’t have you either. Wouldn’t have you. Even as a misguided gift from my father. You aren’t going with me and that’s final.”
With that she marched past him and out the door, leaving Signor di Adamo to lock up. Salvatore cursed and followed her.
“At least allow me to drive you home.” He would take care of getting in the door of her apartment once they arrived.
“I’ll catch the bus.” And then she was running to do just that and Salvatore felt a wave of shock as he realized she’d thwarted him with less effort than it would have taken a five-year-old.
Furious, he rapped out orders to one of the men he’d brought in during the afternoon. He would see to Signor di Adamo and his grandson’s safe journey home.
Salvatore slung himself behind the wheel of his black four-wheel drive and followed that damn city bus all the way to Elisa’s apartment.
He was not in a good mood when he got there.
Elisa stepped off the bus and a very unpleasant word slipped past lips stiff with frustration.
Salvatore waited for her in front of her building with the look of a man ready to do violence. Only, if she knew anything about him, she knew he would not physically harm her. Even in the midst of his rage over the baby, he had kept his blows to the verbal variety.
All the same, she couldn’t help the shiver of apprehension that skittered down her spine.
She approached the entrance warily, her eyes fixed on the spot of the red-painted door visible to the left of Salvatore’s tall frame. If she could just get inside that door and away from the man in front of it, everything would be fine.
She stopped a foot away because he hadn’t moved.
Nor had he spoken, but his body language spoke volumes and all of it bad.
“Do not ever run from me again.”
She allowed herself to meet his gaze, pretending not to feel the shards of pain such a motion caused her deep inside. “Go take a hike. You don’t dictate to me.”
“Someone needs to. You have no concern for your own safety.”
Her eyes widened at that. “What could possibly happen to me on the city bus?”
“If you don’t know, you are more naïve than a woman of your age should be.” Then he proceeded to spell out in graphic detail what could have happened to her, covering the range from a sex fiend accosting her to being kidnapped and forced to give her kidnappers the crown jewels.
When he was done, she fought both nausea and irritation.
“And if you think you are any safer in your apartment, you are a fool,” he added when she remained silent.
“You’re assuming other people know the jewels are at Adamo Jewelers, but there’s nothing to indicate that is the case.”
“Assume the worst and plan accordingly.” He made no apologies for his cynicism and she hadn’t expected him to.
Even when she’d loved him she’d recognized that he had a very pessimistic view of the world.
“Even if someone does know and wants to steal the jewels, the vault is on a timed lock mechanism,” she said with satisfaction. “Signor di Adamo cannot open it before nine in the morning, no matter how much he might want to.”
“That will not prevent you from being used as a pawn in procurement of the jewels.”
She sighed, knowing that in the most extreme scenario he could be right, but she was unwilling to believe the risk was all that great. “Please move.” She dug for her door key in her purse. “I want to go inside.”
“Have you heard nothing I have said?”
“I heard. I just don’t believe.” Aha. She’d found it. She withdrew the key and looked pointedly at the door behind him.
“Tough.” Then in another one of those moves that always took her by surprise, he took her key. It was like the first time he’d kissed her. She hadn’t been expecting that either.
She grabbed for the key ring, but he was already unlocking the door. Stepping back, he ushered her inside, her keys still firmly in his hand.
She stepped just over the threshold and then put her hand out. “Give it to me.”
He ignored her outstretched hand and followed her inside, forcing her to move backward or be in the unenviable position of touching him again.
“It’s a secured building, for goodness’ sake.”
“A locked entryway is not secure. Particularly one with a lock as old and easy to pick as that one.”
The whole building was old and she liked it. Her apartment had character and the rent was cheap. She refused to live off of either of her parents, and Signor di Adamo could not afford to pay her what she was worth.
“Stop showing off your security-guard skills and give me back my key. I’m hungry and tired. I want to get to my apartment, make my dinner and go to bed.”
“I am a security specialist, not a guard.”
Not to mention being heir apparent to the whole company when his father decided to abdicate the throne.
“Whatever.” She wasn’t going to ask for the key again.
It was a good thing she didn’t because it would have been wasting her breath. He started down the hall, his long-legged stride eating the distance to her apartment quickly.
When he stopped in front of her door, she looked at him askance. “How did you know my number?”
She had moved shortly after their breakup, unable to stand the memories the other apartment had elicited.
He rolled his dark brown eyes. “It’s not that hard to find your address. In fact, give me fifteen seconds on a computer and I can find pretty much anyone’s. However, in this case, I simply asked your father.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t told her father about her brief affair and its disastrous end.
He would have gone ballistic and she had not been emotionally prepared to deal with any more at the time.
“You did not tell him about us,” Salvatore said, mirroring her thoughts.
She shrugged
