said it, even before Abby saw the expression on Matteo’s face as the words hit, she wished she could scramble on the floor, not for the necklace but to retrieve her own words.
‘Don’t you dare compare me to them!’
And when she had every right to be angry—furious, in fact—she saw his anger. But it didn’t scare her—in fact, it shamed her as Matteo continued.
‘Don’t you ever put me in your father or Hunter’s league...’ He was sick to death of it. He was sick of being blamed for others’ mistakes and tired of being compared to his father. ‘I would never knowingly hurt you.’
‘You have hurt me though,’ Abby said as tears started to fall.
‘It’s called a row, Abby...’
‘And I don’t need it!’ She walked off to her car and, now furious himself, Matteo stood there and let her leave.
‘Problem?’ Ellison walked down the steps and retrieved the necklace and held it out to Matteo as he spoke. ‘That’s Abby—drama as always. Still, you kept to your end of the deal. You’ve got what you wanted.’
Matteo said nothing as he pocketed the necklace.
It was far safer.
But instead of getting into his car, he took the steps in three strides and, with Ellison following, he walked back into the home and straight into the study from where they had just come.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Ellison asked as Matteo ripped the photo of Abby and Hunter from the wall and smashed it over his knee. Not content with that he took out the image and he shredded it over and over and then tossed the pieces at Ellison.
‘What you should have done years ago.’
But shredding a photo of Hunter wasn’t enough for Matteo.
It was far from enough!
Matteo got in his car and drove, not to Abby’s but towards the airport and, as he did, he summoned his jet.
‘Now!’ Matteo roared and then having ended the call he threw his phone out of the car window.
The bastard was in LA.
Oh, this had nothing to do with making things right.
This was just about catching up on so many unattended wrongs.
ABBY WOKE AFTER MIDDAY.
Like a sad Miss Havisham she was still wearing her silver gown and her face was all swollen from crying till dawn.
Matteo hadn’t come dashing to her door to explain, when she had hoped he might, but Abby understood why.
And he hadn’t answered his phone when she’d tried several times to ring, and she understood why too.
She had put him in the same league as her father and, worse than that, Hunter, and that was the very last place he deserved to be. To a man like Matteo, who had been put in the same league as his father his entire life, it had been a very low blow she had served.
Abby simply didn’t know how to put this right.
Yes, he had lied to her, but now, every time she got cross, every time a rush of anger rose, she remembered his kindness, his sexiness and how he had helped her to find herself.
She had everything she thought she ever wanted.
The Henley Cup.
A winning team.
Revenge.
Her sexuality back.
But not him.
No wonder he didn’t want a relationship, Abby thought, only she tried one more time to reach him on his phone.
It was the Monopoly of love because she got sent straight to voicemail.
‘Matteo, it’s Abby. Last night...’ She’d taken the low road. ‘Last night,’ Abby attempted again, ‘I said some things that you didn’t deserve to hear. I’m sorry for that and...’ What else? Abby thought. The truth. ‘I don’t know what else to say. You’re right, I can’t believe that I didn’t hear you out. I want to though.’
She rung off and sat there, then pounced on her phone when a text came through but sagged when she saw it was just Bella.
Have you heard the news? :-)
Abby frowned.
What news?
Turn it on.
Abby did and saw the serious face of a news reporter standing outside the venue where she was supposed to have been for the presentation last night. The reporter was talking about the tight-knit world of the racing community and denying that Hunter had been loaded and got behind the wheel.
‘The Lachance team manager insists that he fell...’
And then they flashed to an image of Hunter leaving a medical centre and Abby swallowed because if he fell, then it must have been from some considerable height and in several directions!
She called Bella.
‘What the hell happened?’ Abby said. ‘Did he take out a car?’
‘Oh, this was no car accident,’ came the gleeful reply. ‘Your lovely sponsor paid him a visit last night.’
‘Matteo?’
‘Yep.’
‘Oh, no...’ Abby felt sick. ‘Has he been charged?’
‘That’s just it—Matteo wants to be charged!’ Bella laughed. ‘In fact, when he’d finished with Hunter he took out a business card and dropped it on him and said that he was looking forward to explaining his actions in front of a judge. Oh, Abby, it was one of the best nights of my life. We’re all still drinking and cheering.’ But then Bella was serious. ‘Hunter came on to me once. God, Abby, don’t ask but...’
‘It’s okay,’ Abby said. ‘I get it.’
They would talk properly some day.
‘Where is he?’ Abby asked.
‘Having his teeth reimplanted, I think.’
‘No, I mean, where’s Matteo?’
‘I don’t know,’ Bella answered. ‘He just left afterwards and no one knows where he is...’
Abby did.
As she rung off she heard the door and then his voice and there, swaying in the doorway, looking rather the worse for wear, was Matteo.
