Gambler's Folly (Bookstrand Publishing Romance) (13 page)

Damiano stopped in midstride, looking completely astounded. People rarely stood up to him or contradicted him. “I wasn’t going to hit you, cara, but stay out of my business.”

“Your business is now my business, Damiano. When it concerns my health and welfare, I have a say in what happens. Now stop shouting at everybody, and stop arguing about whose is the largest.”

“Largest?” he asked, confused.

“Yes. You know, who’s got the biggest dick?”

A few seconds later, his ears turned red. “And now who is angry, cara?” he asked. “You stoop to insults?”

“If that’s what it takes to get your attention, yes.”

“Okay, fine. Let’s all sit down and have some coffee, maybe some biscotti, and take a break. Maybe you are right, cara. I might be overreacting, just a little.”

“I think so, Damiano. Yelling at Dante isn’t going to accomplish anything, except to upset him even more than he has been. What’s done is done. We need to figure out how and why.”

“I know why, cara, or at least I believe that I do. The how is the puzzling bit,” he added, shaking his head. “I thought, after the first time, we had got rid of the problem. Maybe the problem is a little bigger than I thought.”

The five of them, Dam, Karianna, Paolo, Marco, and Dante sat down for nearly an hour and went over everything. Karianna got quite a lesson on what goes on in a hotel.

“There has to be an informant somewhere. Nobody in the kitchen staff could know when I was going to be gone, unless someone was watching.” Damiano was fairly certain about this.

“Well, that leaves the cleaning and maintenance staff,” Paolo said.

“Not necessarily,” Karianna interrupted. “If you think about it, the only time I order room service is when you’re gone, Dam. Otherwise, you’re usually home for lunch, or at least for dinner. We have coffee or tea, but it’s for two.”

“So it could still be the kitchen or wait staff,” he answered. “We’ll have to arrange a little charade for our friends. Let me think about it.”

Just before the weekend, Damiano told Karianna he would need to be away for four days. They had checked the suite for any kind of transmitting device and had found nothing. All the same, there was no way to be one hundred percent sure, given the size of the suite.

Later, when the cleaning staff came in, they “happened to discuss” his plans for the weekend and what she might do while he was gone. They did the same when they were having dinner in the restaurant.

As the staff members left, various of Damiano’s people from other locations kept watch to see where they went and who they talked to. Then Damiano and Karianna went back up to the suite to meet with Marco, Paolo, and Dante.

“So, do you think it will work?” Karianna asked. The room had been checked for bugs again and they were confident everything was secure.

“We won’t know until we either have an incident or somebody reports suspicious activities. In the meantime, I need to pack and get ready for my ‘trip,’” he told her.

Since the trip was planned for the next day, they spent their time as they would have done were the trip real. She complained about the time he would be gone. He consoled her and told her not to worry.

The following morning, Damiano got dressed for an off-world trip, gave his bags to an attendant and kissed Karianna good-bye, assuring her he’d be back soon. She saw him to the lift and then returned to the suite for her workout.

Workout finished, she called down to the kitchen for some lunch. As usual, Dante came up with it, having checked it before delivery, just as he’d been doing. But once the door was closed, out came the sample containers, and little bits of everything were collected for the lab. The rest of it went into the refrigerator, in case they needed it later.

And for lunch? Karianna had some cheese and bread they had bought away from the hotel. Bottled water from another source made her coffee to go with it. After that, she sat and read a book for a while, sipping the freshly brewed coffee.

Damiano slipped back to the suite late in the afternoon. He had gone all the way to the airport and back with a double who had gone on a trip for him. They talked quietly and had a snack while they waited for the lab results.

As it turned out, lunch would have been fine. Nothing was found which would have harmed her. They threw it away anyway, and ordered up dinner for one, with tea and bottled water. Again, Dante came up with the waiter and watched her sign for the meal. Again, samples were taken for the lab, and with the same results.

“Damiano, maybe it’s over and they’re not going to do anything else,” Karianna said over soup and a sandwich from their own kitchen.

“Maybe,” he agreed, “but maybe not. We’ll wait another day or two and make sure.”

The next day was the same. All the food from the kitchen went out for testing, and everything was fine. Marco had gone to the grocery for them and brought items to cook in the kitchen, so they didn’t go hungry. But the food from the hotel kitchen was so much nicer and more convenient.

“I told you I couldn’t cook, Dam,” she told him that evening. “Is this just a ploy to see if I was telling the truth?”

“No, cara,” he said, laughing. “Let’s give it one more day. If nothing happens by then, we’ll assume everything is fine.”

On the third day, Karianna and Damiano went to work out, showered, and ordered lunch for Karianna again. It was nothing much, just a salad with cheese, garlic bread, coffee, and mineral water. About half an hour after they placed the order, the doorbell sounded. As usual, Dante came up with the waiter, saw the meal placed on the table for her, and watched the waiter leave.

“Dante,” Damiano started, “if you had to pick one person in the kitchen or waitstaff as suspicious, who would it be?”

Dante thought for just a moment and then named one of the young stewards. “I haven’t actually seen anything out of order from him, but there’s something about his attitude which is not quite right.”

“Has he talked with any of our maids or waiters under unusual circumstances? Anything at all out of the ordinary?”

“No, though he talks to a lot of people during the day. It’s really just a feeling I have, nothing more.”

They took samples of everything again and then fixed something on their own. All in all, it had been a particularly slow and boring week for everyone. Damiano had felt certain that something would happen while he was “gone.”

Late in the afternoon, they had the results back from the lab. Everything checked out except for the coffee, which had a powerful tranquilizer added to it. The bitterness of the coffee would have masked the taste, and it would have knocked her out for twelve to sixteen hours. If, for some reason, she was allergic to the drug, she could have died from it.

“Alright, everyone, it’s time to act,” Dam said. “Marco, go downstairs and call up to this room. Act just like you are calling Karianna and she isn’t answering the phone. Proceed as you would if she’d actually drunk the coffee. Dante, go to the kitchen and see what there is to see there. Paolo, go out front and watch for anything out of order.”

Everyone took their places and the show began. Marco called the room and let the communicator sound until Karianna was about to answer it, just to get some peace and quiet. He called again, just as he would have done normally. A few minutes later, he rang the bell and then pounded on the door before using his key to enter the suite.

Next he waited a few minutes, talking with Karianna and Damiano for a reasonable amount of time, and then called Dr. Martin.

“Alright, what’s the problem?” he asked, seeing that everyone appeared to be fine. “Signor Leone, I see you’ve returned from your trip.”

“We are trying a little experiment, doctor, and I hope you will play along,” Damiano explained.

“Ah, I see. So we’re going to need an ambulance to take her to the hospital? Very well. After last time, it is believable.”

Dr. Martin called for an ambulance, and when it arrived, they loaded Karianna into it for her trip to the hospital. Dr. Martin rode with her and took charge once they were there. Like the previous time, she had a private suite arranged for her.

“Now if anyone asks about you, Dr. Martin can answer any questions believably, so our little friends will think they’ve succeeded.” Damiano seemed quite certain their ruse would work.

Karianna would spend the evening in the hospital, while Marco took Damiano to the airport. They would arrive at the hospital the next morning, concerned for her welfare. In the meantime, Paolo and Dante had the hotel and casino covered with Damiano’s men, watching for anything amiss.

At least the food was decent, Karianna thought, and it was unlikely that it would be spiked with anything harmful. She and Dr. Martin had a good talk after dinner, and when he left for the evening, she had bodyguards at the door.

Damiano’s homecoming was incredible to watch. Karianna rather thought the film industry had lost out on a great talent. He came bursting through the door and rushed to her bed, apologizing for having left her alone and so forth. She consoled him, telling him it wasn’t his fault. How could he have known?

When she was finally released, on Dr. Martin’s recommendation, they made quite a spectacle leaving. Damiano was ranting and raving at Marco and the body guards about letting her come to harm in his absence. Thinking about it, she decided she must be a pretty good actress herself. Otherwise, she never would have kept from laughing at the performance. Once they were in the limo and out of sight, she nearly rolled in the floor, tears in her eyes at the hilarity of it all.

“Cara, what do you find so amusing?” Damiano asked.

“Oh, Dam, that was great. How did you do it? You were so convincing.”

“I just imagined how I would feel, if you’d actually drunk the coffee, and let it happen, cara. It is the only way.”

“Have we found out anything yet?”

“I’ve had a call from Dante indicating they have a couple suspects. We’ll see when we get back.”

Again, their arrival was met by the media trying to figure out what was happening. Damiano said he would give them a statement later, after his wife was comfortable in their suite.

Karianna wasn’t allowed into the discussion with Dante. Damiano left her in the suite, and took everyone down to his office to interview their suspects.

“It will be too uncomfortable for you, cara,” he’d told her. “These things are always unpleasant, too unpleasant for lovely ladies like you to endure. Better you stay here and have some coffee or tea. I can have someone come up and prepare it for you, if you like.”

So she had some coffee, and some little sweets similar to baklava, while she waited for him to return. She had always wished her life had been more exciting, but after the past few weeks, she was ready for something a little tamer.

Damiano came in much later, looking tired, but triumphant. “Well, we have that settled then,” he told her. “Everything should be fine now, cara. Don’t worry. I told you I would take care of you, and I will make it right.”

“I’m not really worried, Dam,” she replied. “Just confused. How is this happening?”

“There were a couple of employees who were tempted by large sums of money to cause me concern. But they won’t be causing concern for anyone again, cara. It is finished.”

“What happened to them?” she asked.

“Don’t worry, cara mia. Like I said, it is finished, unpleasant as it was. So let it go, please, Karianna. I won’t discuss it further.”

She decided he was probably right. She wasn’t sure how someone like him dealt with this kind of situation, and “unpleasant” could mean so many things. And in his world, unpleasant could be terminal for those involved.

Returning to their established routine was restful for them both, especially their evenings at the gaming tables. Damiano enjoyed the energy of the tables. He loved to walk through, put a couple of marks on the table, shake hands and chat with the other players. He appeared as a gracious host, making sure all his guests had what they wanted.

For Karianna, it was a bit more trying. Not used to the crowds and never aspiring to celebrity status, it was hard for her to always play Contessa to his Conte. She had been doing better before her recent troubles, but now she was suspicious of all food and drink brought to her.

“Cara, relax,” Damiano encouraged. “We found the people responsible, and they will trouble you no more. Please, cara. You’re so beautiful when you smile.”

During the third week after their latest incident, Damiano told her that he would have to take a trip again, not off-world, but it was necessary.

“Damiano, please don’t go away just yet,” she begged. “Every time you go away, someone tries to kill me.”

“Kari cara, let me finish. My meetings will be for two days only, and in one of the most beautiful tropical areas of this world. So, I was going to ask if you’d like to go with me. You would have two days by yourself, and then the rest of the week can be a vacation for both of us.”

“Really? I’d love to go,” she answered without even thinking. “You said tropical, so there would be swimming…”

“And walking on the beach in the starlight, fresh fish on the grill and all the wonderful sea air you can stand,” he finished for her.

“It sounds wonderful, Dam. Thank you so much,” she told him, reaching up to kiss him thoroughly. “When do we leave?”

“Day after tomorrow,” he said, holding her tightly until she stopped trembling. “So you should start packing soon. Right after we take care of some personal business of our own.” He whisked her off her feet and carried her through the bedroom door. Kicking the door shut, he threw her onto the bed. “These clothes have got to go, cara. Always in the way.”

* * * *

The trip was an easy one. The hardest bit was getting to the airport. Of course, they had Marco and Paolo with them.

“They have both been with me for a long time,” he explained to her. “I trust them with my life. In my business, it is necessary to have someone you can trust.”