Fidelity (Infidelity #5)

“Amore mio,” I whispered in Adelaide’s ear as Clayton pulled the ambulance onto the tarmac of the private airport. “Soon you’ll be safe.”

Adelaide didn’t move, even as I smoothed her hair away from her beautiful face. To me, she was gorgeous. She always had been; however, as I stared at her, it was clear to me that her ordeal had made its mark. Her once rosy complexion was now gaunt. Her cheekbones had become too prominent and her skin loose. Since the time I’d last held her in my arms she’d lost too much weight. I knew from the doctor’s notations it had mostly occurred recently. It had been evident as I helped to lift her from her bed to this gurney. Her shoulder and arm bones protruded. My fingers easily surrounded her dainty wrists as I sought the thump of her pulse.

The rhythm was present, though rapid and faint. Maybe it wasn’t faint. Maybe it was that mine was thundering in my chest. I held my breath and counted the beats as my fingers pressed against her frail wrist. I wasn’t a doctor, even if I’d pretended to be one. In fifteen seconds I counted twenty-eight beats—or 112 per minute. Her breathing was shallow. Since we’d left Magnolia Woods each breath seemed to come quicker, yet be less effective.

“Mr. Demetri,” Clayton said from the front seat. “Mrs. Witt said the plane is ready and Dr. Rossi is here, ready to accompany you back to New York.”

I nodded. With each passing day I gained new respect for Deloris Witt.

Eva Rossi was the one physician I could implicitly trust with regard to both Adelaide’s care as well as discretion. She was family. As I’d told Deloris, family is family. The physician Deloris had consulted had proven trustworthy. She’d scoured Adelaide’s records and ordered tests. She was the one who told us how to trick the monitors at Magnolia Woods. She was still on the case, but she wasn’t family. I couldn’t ask her to assist me in transporting Adelaide to New York.

Eva was a Costello, the daughter of another of Angelina’s cousins. Being related to Angelina, she was also related to Vincent.

Angelina’s cousin was still in charge.

I should have hesitated to call. I should have known the repercussions. Vincent and I had made our peace. We’d completed our deals and granted each other space. The world was different today than it was twenty years ago. But it still existed.

As a young man I’d worked hard to belong in the Costello world. Then as an older man, I’d worked equally as hard to earn my freedom as well as Lennox’s immunity. There were few people who were worth the reintroduction to the family life. Adelaide was one.

During my conversation with Vincent, I’d emphasized one thing: I would be the one in debt, not Lennox.

Clayton brought the ambulance to a stop. Though it was night, the tarmac was well lit. The pilots flying our plane needed flight plans and a manifest with names. Even on private planes the FAA had requirements. It wasn’t like we were taking off from a privately owned airstrip.

Our timeline had been tight. I did what Lennox had done. I trusted someone else to make it all work. Now it was time to learn if my trust had been misguided.

As Clayton got out of the vehicle and walked around to the back, I stayed at Adelaide’s side. The holster of my gun rested against my hip as I blindly waited for the back doors of the ambulance to open. My pulse increased with each tick of the clock. I wasn’t sure what I anticipated, but as the rear doors of the ambulance opened, my solemn gaze met that of the woman standing at Clayton’s side.

“All the paperwork has been cleared,” Deloris said.

I took a deep breath and nodded.

The identifications she’d provided were false, even mine. It would be too easy for Fitzgerald to follow the plane I hired back to New York, back to Rye. Part of me wanted to change the flight plan and continue east across the Atlantic. I imagined having Adelaide in London. Medical care there was equally as advanced. Though we’d be much more difficult to find, there was one huge unknown that wouldn’t allow me to take her to my home in the United Kingdom.

When the woman on the gurney beside me woke, I wanted her to have the option to return to her life. I wouldn’t really kidnap her. She was free to do as she’d done before and tell me to leave, to tell me she wanted to work on her marriage.

If she chose that option, though it would kill me, I would let her go. But not until she was well. In the meantime, in Rye she would have access to the one person I believed she wouldn’t turn away—Alexandria.