Chapter Seventeen: Right Here and Now

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Elizabeth O'Hara muttered, running her long white fingers through waves of flaming red hair. The statuesque beauty in the smart blue suit was pacing like a caged tiger, her light, rapid steps confined by the four walls of the trainer's office at the exclusive Red Lake Spa.

"Relax, baby." Thickly muscled Marco Maselli lounged in a cheap swivel chair, his hooded black eyes watching every move the powerful executive made. "Mary's been in jail for more than a week now. She'll crack any day. Either that or someone'll stick a knife in her in the prison yard. That's what you want, isn't it?"

"No! I mean yes! Yes, of course. I want control of Tudor, of everything my father built. And I want her to crack and confess!" Marco had just called her baby. Ordinarily Elizabeth would have snapped at the muscular ex-con. She would have put him back in his place. But today her mind wouldn't work correctly. She kept seeing pictures of Mary in jail, Mary framed on false charges. Mary hurt. Mary dead.

"Well, in that case, all you have to do is wait. Baby." Marco shrugged in a way that suggested he had all the time in the world.

Elizabeth stopped pacing. "Why can't you make her sign those papers? You're always saying she does whatever you say. The games you play make her glad to obey!" An odd look came over the redhead's cool features. "You enjoyed making her submit, didn't you? And you could do it again? Right now, today?"

Marco gave a guttural laugh. "Yeah, but she wasn't in prison then. Everything you asked me to do, I did. But she saw through it. The truth is, Mary's not as dumb as she looks. It's just when she's in love, she'll do anything the other person asks. But that's over."

"I should send you back to prison," Elizabeth said spitefully.

Marco gave a shrug. "Been there, done that. My chances of survival are pretty good. Mary's, on the other hand, not so good."

"Damn you! I won't have my cousin hurt!" Elizabeth's hands were shaking as she drew out her cell phone. "I'm calling my friend on the police force," she shakily announced. "I'm having you picked up on a parole violation. Pills in the trainer's office, pain killers and things like that."

"Sure," Marco said, as if the wealthy woman had offered to buy him a cup of coffee. "I can keep an eye on Mary while I'm inside. Or I can kill her for you, if that's what you really want. Making her fall in love didn't work out so well, did it?"

"I think you fell in love with her," the redhead said spitefully. Elizabeth's cool, haughty manner usually reduced men to jelly. This time the effect was spoiled, erased by a sullen jealous look.

Marco laughed. "Too bad that's not against the law. But hell, finish your phone call. Once I'm back inside I'll be closer to Mary than I am to you. Maybe you can have us both killed in the prison yard."

"I can't do that!" Elizabeth's cell phone clattered noisily to the floor. Marco didn't pick it up for her. She had to get down on her knees to retrieve it. The tall redhead glared at him, their faces close together for a moment. "Don't you see, if Mary doesn't sign those papers I'm still out in the cold? I want Tudor back again!"

"Give me what I want," Marco told her, his voice low and husky. "Give it to me right here and now."

"But . . . but I don't want . . ." Elizabeth's words were choked off as the powerful ex-convict crushed her in his arms. For a moment she resisted, her slim white hands pushing against his chest. Then the savage kiss deepened, and she found herself falling under the spell, her slender arms winding around his bull neck.

"All right," Marco said, suddenly pushing her away. "We both like it. But only one of us wants it."

"Bastard." Elizabeth's voice was choked, but only for a moment. She straightened at once, smoothing her skirt with her hands.

"Sure," Marco said. "You want Mary's signature, I want yours. Sign over the old Maselli place to me, and I'll reason with Mary."

Elizabeth snorted. "You're doing all this for a restaurant?"

"Yeah," Marco replied. "That's right. It's all about the pizza."