“Uh-huh.” Despite everything, he felt a quick flash of irritation for Nick Coretti. Yet how could he blame the man for trying to save his daughter? Rico or any of the Kings would have done the same for one of their family. Though it burned that the older man had almost put one over on him. Would have, if Teresa hadn’t chosen to stay.
“So your father arranged this escape.”
“He’s worried about me,” Teresa told him with a heavy sigh of frustration mingled with exasperation. “He can’t find Gianni or the dagger.”
“Are you certain that it is you he’s worried about?” he asked. “Or is he more concerned with the idea that he and his sons are going to prison?”
She flushed and a spark of anger lit her eyes briefly. “Of course he’s thinking about that, too. But sending Bastien was about me.”
Scowling, Rico said, “Maybe. But it was a foolish thing to do.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket, handed it to her and said, “Call him.”
She took a deep breath and held it. Then she punched in her father’s number and listened to it ring. “Papa?” She flicked a glance at Rico. “Yes, Bastien was here. I wouldn’t go with him.”
Rico heard the older man’s shout and almost smiled. He, too, hated it when a plan fell apart. As his own plan concerning Teresa had, he thought grimly. But he’d consider that and the ramifications later. For now…
“Let me talk to him.” He held out one hand and waited until Teresa slapped the phone onto his palm. Dominick was still shouting at his daughter when Rico interrupted him.
“Do not try something like that again,” he warned, holding Teresa’s gaze while he listened to Nick Coretti sputter.
“She is my daughter. I want her safe,” Nick said finally.
“I understand that,” Rico told him, and he meant it. He would do whatever he had to do to keep a member of his family safe. But that didn’t mean he was going to let Nick off the hook. “Teresa is safe with me. But if you try to get her off the island again, I’ll make sure you and your sons are locked up forever.”
The man on the other end of the line was quiet for a long moment, then said, “Agreed.”
“Good.” Rico looked into Teresa’s eyes and added for both her and her father’s benefit, “I am a man of my word. At the end of the month, once I have my dagger, I’ll hand over the evidence I hold.”
“And,” Nick said firmly, “you will release my daughter.”
He should. It was part of the deal he’d made. Not to mention the fact that he had spent the last five years working to get his errant wife out of his mind and heart. But now, looking at Teresa, Rico knew that he couldn’t let her go.
Yes, he’d given his word. But he couldn’t, wouldn’t let Teresa leave him and disappear again. She was a part of him. A part of his life here on the island and without her…no.
It was unthinkable. But he couldn’t very well say that to her father. So instead he said only, “We made a deal. I will stick to it—as you should.”
He ended the call and felt the world beneath his feet tilt precariously. All his life Rico had done his best to be a man of his word. To avoid lies and deception. And now the only way he could get out of a bargain he had struck was to break every one of his personal rules.
Which meant he had to find another way out of this.
“He’s scared,” Teresa said as explanation, dragging him out of his thoughts and back to the present.
“I know.” He reached for her before he could stop himself, cupping her cheek in the palm of his hand. “Any father would be. What I want to hear is why you didn’t go with Bastien.”
She was silent for a few seconds, as if she was considering just how to say what she needed to say. Finally she said quietly, “Five years ago, I made the choice I thought I had to. But tonight I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake.”
He stiffened slightly, as he always did when reminded of that time five years past. He’d shut her down whenever she had tried to tell him about the night she had left. He hadn’t wanted to hear this before, but now he needed to. Rico had to know why she’d left him. Why she’d run—so he could believe that she wouldn’t do the same now.
The bedroom was cool and dimly lit from the moonlight pouring in through the open terrace doors and the twin bedside lamps casting golden light across the bed and floor.
“Tell me.” His words were short and clipped, but they seemed to release her from a tension that had coiled inside her for too long.
When her eyes met his again, they were damp, looking like gold coins drenched in water. If her tears spilled over, it would tear at his heart, he knew. Rico steadied himself, then took her hand and led her to the bed. Sitting down, he drew her with him and repeated, “Tell me.”
“I’m glad you’re finally willing to listen.”
“I wasn’t ready before,” he told her. “I am now.”
Nodding, Teresa tried to smile, but gave that up quickly. “All right, but first you have to know that when I was eighteen, I told my father that I wasn’t going to be a thief. That I wanted a different kind of life.”
He hadn’t expected to hear that and as he thought about it, he laughed shortly.
She glared at him.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I was just imagining how your father must have taken that decision.”
A reluctant smile curved her mouth. “Not well. He was horrified. And disappointed. But in the end, though he didn’t understand my decision, he respected it.”
Rico silently gave Nick Coretti half a point of admiration for backing off and giving his daughter the room she needed to grow her own way. Not that he was willing to forgive the old thief or anything.
“I took that job at your hotel,” she said, starting off slowly, her soft voice hesitant, as if she wasn’t sure how to put it now that he’d given her the chance. “And I asked my family to stay away.” She smiled wryly. “Usually they did as I asked, not wanting to bring down suspicion on me in a place where I happened to be working. But that was before I took a job with Rico King.”
She shook her head and caught his eyes again. “The temptation was too much. The richness of your guests at the Castello de King was enough of a draw all on its own, but there was more. They knew about your dagger. There had been some piece written about it—”