The Claim (8 page)

Rocco wasn’t drunk, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t feel his legs. “Did you do something to my drink, Bep?”

Beppe was nodding aimlessly at the table. “What? Nah, I didn’t say your mother was fit.”

A very valid fear twisted Rocco’s stomach. “I am going to kill you.”

“It’ll wear off in two minutes.”

“That gives you a head start,” Rocco growled. Beppe took the hint and grabbed his jacket. Struggling to pull himself to his feet, he glanced up from the steady table he still had hands on and prayed he’d stay upright. All right, that couldn’t be Anna—he was hallucinating. There was no way Anna Taylor would be seen dead in a strip club.

“What in the name of all that is fuggery?”

No hallucinations. “Hey, Anna.”

Anna turned to the silken-looking woman beside her. “Amelia Johnson, I am going to kill you.”

“Have a nice evening,” Amelia gurned, turning tail and disappearing.

Rocco lifted his fingers from the table, and his jelly legs completely collapsed from under him so that he found himself sitting down, looking up at Anna. Why did she have to be so beautiful? Her hair was loose to her shoulders, a red halo in the club’s lights, the faintest kiss of golden brown on her full lips and her shirt scandalously unbuttoned to show the bow on her bra.

“Are you drunk?” she demanded, coming to stand beside his table. Her hip bumped the wood and his beer bottle wobbled. His reactions were so slow, he couldn’t save it from overturning.

“Nope, a little drugged.”

“Beppe?” she guessed.

“Never leave a drink alone with him.”

Her frown deepened. “Your friend set you up.”

“So did yours.”

“For which she shall die.”

He smiled and prayed he wasn’t drooling. “She obviously thinks you and I have things to sort out.”

Anna rubbed a hand over her face. “Again, she’ll be executed at a later date.”

He wanted to touch her. God knows, he couldn’t feel the lower half of his body enough to get up and hold her, but at least he could have skin-to-skin contact, even for a moment. Then if she killed him, it’d be with a smile in his heart. “You should have some friends left.”

“I’m running low on mates, yeah, whose fault is that?” she flared. The Bambi-eyed stripper was taking another circuit. She took one look at Anna’s face and carried on walking.

“Annie, sit down a minute?” he asked gently.

“Fuck no.” She closed her eyes briefly. “What do you want from me? What else do you want from me? Haven’t you had enough?”

Rocco caught her free hand and pulled her closer so she could hear. “I want you to forgive me.”

She laughed bitterly. “If you didn’t do anything wrong, why do you need my forgiveness?”

“I did, because you left me. How is that anything but wrong? I’m sorry.” He palmed her cheek, petal soft to the touch, before he carefully lifted the hand tight in his own to his mouth. Raising his lashes, he saw her visibly swallow before she pulled away. The world was wrong. Not just because he realised Anna couldn’t bear to have him touch her, and not because he was pretty sure the knowledge was killing him. Mainly it was because Giuseppe Nardiello had said something right. She didn’t know that he was sorry. If he could take it all back and never, ever see that look in Anna’s face, he would. Without a second thought. He needed the equivalent of hail Marys to wipe the slate clean with her. If she’d ever let him.

“I can’t do this. I’m not.” She turned and disappeared into the crowd. If he could even crawl, he’d be after her right now.

Anna gulped lungfuls of air. She couldn’t cope with a contrite Rocco. It was all too genuine, and she couldn’t be that stupid woman who ignored all the warning signs and walked into a destructive relationship because he said he was
sorry
. Sorry? What the hell would she do with
sorry
? Oh God, her heart was collapsing in on itself.

“
The sun’ll come out, tomorrow
!” Beppe’s rich baritone belted across the car park. “Hello, Annie.”

“Don’t call me that,” she warned, even as she accepted a tight hug and a kiss to her cheek. “You’re such a degenerate, how are you still friends with Rocco?”

“Shameful secrets.” Beppe shrugged. “I’m waiting for the memory loss to kick in and then I’ll go and get him. Speaking of Rocco, why aren’t you friends with him anymore? You know he swore off women for at least two years because of you.”

Anna tutted, “Well then, he shouldn’t have banged my mate.”

Beppe looked at her for a moment, amber eyes dark with secrets. “You really believed he’d do that? Annie, do you understand how important trust is to him?”

“It is now because he was sprung like a chump!”

“No, sweetheart, you know his dad was a serial cheat.”

“Yes, it was obviously genetic.”

“He saw what it did to his mum, and he would never do that to someone he loved. He’d chop a ball off before he betrayed you.”

This was really starting to wind her up. Bros before hos. “My friend had no reason to lie!”

Beppe laughed, slapping his thigh. “That crazy bitch had every reason to lie—she fucking hates you!”

Anna jolted. “What? No she doesn’t.”

“She hated you, trust me. What did she have compared to you? Did she have her own home? No. You did. Did she have a close family who were all
Cosby Show
around her? No, but you did. I mean your parents actually like you.”

“Er, I never let you near my parents.”

“I spoke to them when you and Rocks were in the hot tub. I reassured them that you had arrived safe and well and you weren’t doing anything that a sexual deviant would be proud of.” No wonder they’d been off with her when she’d gotten back. Beppe! “Listen. They weren’t hurrying you to get the fuck out of their home and set up by yourself. You were and I suspect still are happy with yourself, your job, your money, your sexuality. Just for the cherry on the top of the sundae of ultimate my-life-is-better-than-yours, you had Rocky on your arm. Actually, you had him on a collar and dog leash because he would have rolled over for you.” Anna couldn’t speak. Beppe rubbed his temples. “I think I think too much. Do you ever feel like that?”

“Just wait a minute, I mean, he didn’t deny it.”

“What did he say?”

“Trust me.” The one time she let him speak. Because she didn’t answer his phone calls, she also deleted his text messages, destroyed his e-mails and burned his letters and cards.

Beppe shook his head. “He couldn’t deny it, Annie. Because if he wasn’t with crazy bitch, he was with us. If he was with us, then he was doing something pretty fucking bad and then he’d have been fucked.”

“What,” Anna begged, eyes tightly closed, “are you talking about?”

“Okay, if he was at home banging your crazy mate, then he definitely wasn’t anywhere doing anything illegal, so yeah, he couldn’t deny it.”

“What, now you’re saying he lied so he could play boy gangster?”

“No, so he could protect people he loves. Like his father’s stupid arse. Annie, don’t look so upset.”

She was struggling not to burst into tears. “You would stick up for him. He’s the only one who understands you’re fucking mental.”

“Fine, hold on.” He pulled out his phone and with one eye closed he tapped out a text message. “You should be more upset about your crappy friendship.”

“She’s a much better friend now,” she said defensively, sniffing in the chilled night air.

Beppe snorted. “Because she broke you two up. When was the last time you two had a girly pillow fight and talked about your feelings?”

Anna eyed him with distaste. “You know that doesn’t happen.”

“Whine about your feelings?”

“Have naked pillow fights.”

Beppe grinned. “Naked, eh?” His phone trilled. “Here we are—look.”

She squinted at his phone. Someone called Boss DC. “Can’t talk about that, Bep.”

Anal Lover. Anna didn’t want to know who that was. “I thought we said we were letting crazy stalker handle that? Is she back? Fuck, man that bitch is psycho.”

Cougar ‘Demi Moore’ Mamione: “Giuseppe, he was doing what he needed to for his family. I feel sorry for him every day, but he saved his family from something much worse.”

Beppe took the phone back. “Convinced?”

“I don’t know what the hell’s going on. And it was so long ago, Beppe. Plus you’re his best friend, so what’s one more lie on top of the others?”

“It’s how that lie affects the rest of a person’s life. Talk to crazy bitch.”

“Stop calling her that.”

Beppe stretched. “I love a shaved pussy as much as the next man, but I don’t like seeing it waved in my face at my friend’s birthday.”

Anna felt sick. “What on earth?”

“Rocky’s birthday. He had that whole Moroccan place hired out, remember? Two in the morning. I was sitting by the shisha pipes and she hooked her leg over my shoulder, no knickers on, waved her cunt in my face and asked me why I didn’t want it. I told her I don’t play with my food. I’ve still got photos.” He looked thoughtful. “I should take that up again. Photography. I was really good at it.”

“There’s something wrong with you.”

“Ask her about it, she wasn’t that drunk. What she doing with herself now? Married?”

“Yeah.”

“Working?”

“Umm...”

“Cheating?”

Goddammit. “Couldn’t say.”

He shook his head again. “Women like her are never satisfied. She’s probably got a sexual fixation on you. Maybe the truth will set her free!”

“All right, I will talk to her, only to get you and your mate to shut up! She made promises when we started being friends again, and it’s beyond me why anyone would lie about something like that.”

Beppe sighed. “For a solicitor, Annie, that is a terrible argument missing one basic fact. Humans, particularly of the female persuasion, do crazy shit. Rationality need not apply. You know what, this is my second time at a strip club with a woman, and my friend is spoiling it for me. Are you coming in for a beer or do you want a cab?”

Her head was banging with so much information. “I need to go home.”

Beppe caught her hand and jogged her to the main road until he saw the light of a black cab. “We need to go out again.”

“I don’t like your friends,” Anna said with a laugh.

“You like my
friend
too much, that’s the problem.” He bundled her inside and slammed the door shut. “See you later.”

The cab zoomed off toward the river, nearly sending Anna to the cab floor. “Slow down, will you!”

“Sorry!” the cabbie yelled over his shoulder. “Last drive of the day.”

It took a minute and a half of thought before she blurted, “If you found out something about your partner and it meant you were wrong about something, what would you do?”

“That’s a bit cryptic, innit? I’ve been with my partner for a long time. He and I talk. We have to. It’s so easy for things to build up and build up until you just sodding hate each other. Best advice I ever got was from an old boss who used to run the gay bar on Clapham High Street. Never let the sun go down on a fight. And it’s worked.”

“Really?”

The cabbie smirked. “I get the feeling you’re used to giving advice rather than taking it.”

Anna glanced down at her legs and saw a run in her stockings. “You’d be right.”

Chapter Nine

Anna called Mimi, who was for once in between patients. “I’ve got a job offer,” Mimi said before Anna could voice her annoyance.

“What? Really?”

“Really. Private hospital, insurance covered, a team of nurses and specialist surgeons, manager, insane amount of money and benefits. Plus we can do work for charitable organisations.”

“What’s the catch?” Anna frowned. Mimi had wanted to move into private work for a while, but it was difficult finding the operations that were willing to fund such a momentous and financial burden.

“It involves your ex’s friend. Beppe.”

“Get out of it,” Anna said without hesitation.

“I know, that man is rather mentally damaged, but who isn’t? He sounds quite sexy on the phone, but you know if you tell anyone I said that, you won’t be needing your spleen or your lungs.”