The Secret Heiress by Judith Gould Page B

answer, but Frans joined them, his hair dripping water, his white trousers wet from his soaked underwear beneath them.
    “What happened to you?” Bianca asked, taking his arm. “Did you get thrown in the pool or something?”
    “I took a quick swim,” Frans replied with a grin.
    “Maybe we should go to our room so you can dry off and change your clothes,” Bianca suggested.
    “I think that’s a good idea,” Frans said.
    “We’ll see you in a bit,” Bianca said to her father.
    Angelo Coveri nodded.
    “She looks so happy,” Sugar said.
    “Here comes somebody who looks very unhappy,” Angelo remarked darkly, extending his drink in the direction from which Nikoletta came.
    Her hair, dripping diamonds and water, was plastered to her head. Nikoletta didn’t seem to mind, however. Her gaze was focused on Adrian, and although the expression on her face was neutral, there was fire in her eyes.
    She crossed her arms across her chest, pushing her golden fish-scale-encrusted nipples directly at him. “Why was the fireworks display early?” she snapped.
    “I’m so sorry, Niki,” he said. “I didn’t realize my watch was off. Way off, as it turns out.” He pretended to eye his watch as though it were to blame. “With all the traveling lately, somehow or other I reset it incorrectly when I went through all the different time zones.”
    “Niki, darling,” Honor filled in smoothly for her brother, “aren’t you going to say hello to your guests?”
    Niki glared at Honor momentarily, then relented. “Hi, Sugar,” she said. “Thanks so much for coming to the party.”
    “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, sweetheart,” Sugar said. “It’s everything a party should be.”
    “Yes,” Angelo said. “A lovely party.”
    “Thanks,” Niki said sourly.
    She turned back to Adrian. “I don’t want anything like this to ever happen again. An hour and a half off is a serious miscalculation, Adrian. What if this had been a business deal, huh? It might have made the difference between winning or losing.”
    “I realize that, Niki,” he said, trying not to smile, “but it was an honest mistake. It won’t happen again.”
    “Darling, he’s passed through a thousand time zones in the last few days,” Adrian’s sister said in his defense. “From one continent to another. Surely you can understand.”
    “He travels like that nearly all the time, Honor,” Niki said with an edge, “and if he can’t do something as simple as turn his watch back, how am I to rely on him to conduct business on my behalf?”
    “It won’t happen—” Adrian began, but he didn’t finish his sentence. At the edge of the terrace appeared a lean and muscular paparazzo with a beard. He was raising his camera with both hands. Yet Adrian spotted an unusual metal glint below the camera, of a round silver silencer. As Adrian watched, the camera lens shifted its aim, and he saw the paparazzo raise the revolver directly at Nikoletta.
    Adrian instinctively gave Nikoletta a hard shove with his elbow, knocking her down onto the terrace. Grabbing one of the flaming tiki torches placed all around the pool terrace, he lunged at the man. The paparazzo stumbled backward as Adrian thrust the tiki torch into his stomach. Adrian threw down the torch and leaped on him, trying to wrest the revolver from the paparazzo’s hand.
    Suddenly a shot rent the air, and Honor saw blood splatter the stone terrace. She let out a bone-chilling scream, and Angelo stepped forward. Yet it was Adrian who rose to his feet and stood over the would-be assassin, placing a foot on each of the man’s arms.
    “Take this,” he said, handing the gun to Angelo.
    The assailant spit up at Adrian’s face. “I missed this time,” he snarled, “but next time we won’t miss. What happens to me doesn’t matter.”
    “Has somebody called security?” Adrian asked, trembling a bit now that the harrowing near miss was over.
    “They’re coming now,” Angelo