THE VELVET BETRAYAL

Chapter 2: The Hotel Room

Isabella POV

The room at the hotel is too silent. Too empty. I sit on the bed edge and look at the wall, not making a real sight. I am still trembling with the encounter with Dominic. I should feel relieved. I should feel free. Rather, I sense myself being engulfed in a substance of dark and thick nature that I cannot identify.

I take out my phone and call Marco. He picks up on the second ring. I can also hear traffic in the background and hence he is driving. Or walking. Marco is never staying put these days. Always nervous. He is always checking back over his shoulder as though something is following him.

"It is done," I tell him. "He said yes to everything. No fight. No resistance."

There is a long pause. Marco ought to be pleased with this. This is what we wanted. This is what the case needs. And I can hear something in our silence between us. Doubt. Or maybe fear.

Well, that is peculiar, Marco eventually remarks. Dominic Rossi is not a quitter. He fights for everything. He kills anybody who attempts to steal his. Something is wrong."

I sink on the bed and shut my eyes. "I know. He smiled at me as if he knew there was something. As he had already won some games I do not know what at all.

Listening to me, Change your voice, he says to Marco, and his voice changes. It takes the role of my FBI handler. The professional voice. Not the voice of my companion and partner. "You need to be careful. Do not go anywhere alone. Do not trust anything he says. Domic is playing something. What we need to do is to find out what.

I tell Marco I am hanging up when he tells me more instructions of keeping watch and an eye on something strange. But he hurts me with what he says. I have been handling this case for 3 years. Three years of lying and getting along and acting. I believed that as soon as we would sign the divorce papers, the difficult part would be completed.

But the smile of Dominic told me so. It stated that the difficult part had only begun.

I order room service since I require feeding on something, yet when the food comes to my table I just end up pushing it about my plate. The chicken has a flavor of nothing. The vegetables have an ash flavor. It all goes down like falsehood and remorse. I go to the window looking out on the city below.

And down here the city appears giant and threatening. The individuals are running about as though they have the destination. They are all so confident in themselves. So confident. I used to feel that way. Before I met Dominic. Prior to me falling in love with a criminal.

My phone buzzes with a text. It is from Dominic. Three words only, "Come home to-night."

I take an extended time looking at the message. I should ignore it. I must not approach anywhere near him. My fingers have already begun to type a reply and my brain cannot prevent me. "No."

The answer is received instantaneously. "Please. Just one more night. That is all I am asking for."

I drop the phone on the bed as though it is hot. I get out on my feet and walk about the little hotel room. Back and forth. Back and forth. My mind is racing. One more night. What does that mean? Is he planning something? Is he trying to trap me? Does he want me to say something which he can use against me?

What is beneath all those questions is something. There is something which approximates hope. Hope that possibly Dominic wishes to see me since he loves me. I wish there was some other way we could be together without all the lies. I wish I were more than a case with him.

I know better. I should know better. Yet the head knows not necessarily what the head listens to.

Before I can think too much about the same I get dressed and leave the hotel. I am in my car driving on the city streets to the mansion of Dominic. This is the location to which I spent a period of three years. The location I claimed I detested. The spot that I really loved more than any other place on earth.

As I approach the gates, the gates open automatically. I do not need to speak about myself. Domic had given them word that I was coming. Of course he did. He can always tell me before I do it what I will do.

I leave my car before the mansion and simply sit down some moment. The house is dark except that there are lights on in his office. I am able to see him through the window. He is waiting at his desk, waiting on me. Just waiting. Like he knew I would come.

I enter and slowly walk up and down the stairs. Every step seems like it is drawing me into a hole that I will not be able to get out of. The office door is open. Dominic looks up when I enter. Me his dark eyes meet, and my heart heaves.

"You came," he says simply.

No I should not, I say, but do not turn to go.

I know something, he says to himself. "Something about you. Something that alters the whole thing.Something that alters everything.

I freeze. My blood goes cold. My hands go numb. "What do you know?"

Dominic rises and walks to my direction. He is walking at a leisurely pace as though he is after something. I understand the reason you really wanted the divorce, Isabella. And not what you said to the FBI.

My breath stops. He knows. Oh God. He knows.