THE GREATEST BETRAYAL: A romantic thriller with a shocking twist, page 22
Mac remained motionless.
He glanced over at Liz. ‘When I found the sniper’s body, on an impulse I called the last number the sat phone had rung,’ he said. ‘A voice came on the line and said “Is it done?” so’ – he reverted his attention to Bruno – ‘I adopted a gruff tone and said “Yes.”’
As shaken and distraught as she was, Liz was staring intently at Mac.
‘Mac?’ she said.
Bruno reached out his hand again. ‘Mac, we really need to call for help.’
‘It wasn’t Raf’s voice on the line,’ said Mac, his voice rising. ‘Just as it wasn’t Raf who ordered those pills or forged those signatures.’
Mac stepped forward, pushing Bruno back and grabbing him by the lapel of his parka, simultaneously tearing at the zip. The gap where the zip had been torn revealed another sat phone. ‘You answered that call.’
Bruno pulled free and moved away. ‘That’s crazy talk…’
There was a rumble in the distance and the ground shook again, a signal from the mountain that it hadn’t finished venting its rage.
Bruno turned and ran back around the side of the rifugio.
Liz’s eyes were fixed on Mac. ‘Bruno wouldn’t–’
‘Stay right where you are, both of you.’ Bruno reappeared from around the side.
Instinctively pulling Luke in tighter to her breast, Liz looked around and froze.
Bruno was aiming a rifle at Mac. ‘First mistake was finding that phone and hitting redial,’ Bruno said. ‘Second mistake was leaving this weapon with the sniper’s body.’
Liz stared at him in disbelief. ‘Bruno? What–’
‘Throw the sat phone over here,’ Bruno said.
‘For God’s sake, Bruno–’ Mac began.
‘Throw it,’ Bruno said again, focusing the rifle closer on Mac.
Liz felt her heart thumping and an ache drumming in her head. She barely recognised the man facing them. This wasn’t the Bruno Vetrani she’d known so well for so long. There was a deep sorrow in his eyes, his expression one of despair.
Mac threw the sat phone towards Bruno and it landed on the ground at his feet. Bruno picked it up and shoved it under his parka.
‘The four-wheel drive is hidden around the back,’ Bruno said. ‘Liz, bring Luke, get in the car. There’s a duffel bag with Luke’s clothes in the back.’
‘No, Bruno.’
Bruno lifted the rifle higher, square with Mac’s head. ‘Get in the car or I’ll fire.’
‘You’re not a killer, Bruno. You won’t shoot.’ Even as she spoke Liz watched Bruno’s finger tighten on the trigger. She saw tears in the corners of his eyes.
His voice was shaking. ‘Don’t make me do this.’
Liz held her son tightly against her chest. ‘Okay.’ She glanced helplessly at Mac as she moved towards the side of the hut.
‘Stay,’ said Mac. ‘He won’t fire that thing.’
The expression Liz shot back made it clear she wasn’t taking any chances. She no longer knew how to read this. Bruno wasn’t acting anything like himself. He was out of control. Raf had fled, leaving them all behind when the landslide had hit. No one else knew exactly where they were. She was going to have to go along with this.
Minutes later Luke was strapped into the baby seat in the back of the vehicle and Bruno was in the front passenger seat, the rifle propped up beside him. Liz was behind the wheel.
‘Drive,’ he said.
With no sat phone and no vehicle, an exhausted Mac watched as the four-wheel drive pulled out and headed off, down the mountain, on the road back to Taurianova.
EIGHTY-TWO
An inner voice whispered to Liz. Stay calm. For Luke’s sake. For all your sakes. Try to make sense of all this.
As she drove, Bruno wiped tears from his eyes, and Liz noted he was jerking his head about, looking at her, glancing out at the landscape as it flashed by, as though unseen terrors were lying in wait.
He’s on the edge of desperation.
‘What is happening?’ she asked him, keeping her voice low.
Stay calm.
‘Raf never loved you,’ Bruno said. ‘You were the latest in a long list of playthings. And now, of course, he’s abandoned you again, saved himself, left you and Luke and me to the mercy of the landslide.’
‘I know…’
‘But I was there for you, as always.’
‘Yes, you were. But, Bruno, what’s this all about? When Mac found the sniper’s phone and redialled, you had your own sat phone, you answered, and you held a rifle on Mac, a rifle for God’s sake. Why?’
‘Mac’s no good for you either. Man-about-town airline pilot, probably has a woman in every city–’
‘He’s not like that.’
‘I may have done a few underhanded things but it’s only because I was looking out for you, Liz.’
‘Underhanded things?’
‘But you were never meant to know.’ His voice dripped with anguish. ‘It was never meant to be like this.’
‘What wasn’t I meant to know?’
‘The damn storm then the landslide, couldn’t have predicted… ruined everything. The babysitter taking off and going over that cliff… Mac finding that phone, redialling…’ He was rambling.
‘You sent Raf here, on his own, didn’t you?’ Liz said. ‘So he could avoid trial back in Sydney, escape, lay low here while he planned a new life. But he didn’t kidnap Luke, did he? You had Luke taken and brought here and looked after by that woman in the adjacent hut.’ Realisation dawned on Liz. ‘It was you who theorised Raf had come here, to these mountains, but of course you knew all along for certain because you sent him here.’
‘I never wanted it to go like this.’ Bruno’s voice was a croak.
‘You brought me here, so I’d believe it was Raf who’d kidnapped Luke and so that… what? You could be seen finding Luke and reuniting us?’
‘Just drive,’ he said.
‘Bruno?’ Liz’s voice rose as the full impact of Bruno’s betrayal slowly unravelled. None of this made sense.
Stay calm, she reminded herself.
‘Just drive,’ Bruno said again with the tone of a man on the edge.
EIGHTY-THREE
In the early hours of the morning, as they reached Taurianova, Bruno directed Liz to turn off and follow a road that led to a large country house. ‘My contacts have made this house available to us for a few days,’ Bruno said as Liz pulled up in the wide driveway that circled the house in a loop.
‘Your contacts,’ Liz said. ‘It wasn’t Raf with mafioso contacts here in Calabria. It was you?’
Bruno didn’t respond as he stepped from the vehicle, motioning for Liz to do the same and to gather up the sleeping Luke. A middle-aged woman, with silver streaks through her dark flowing hair, ushered them into the house. Liz tucked Luke into a single bed in one of the rooms then returned to the main living area. She was aware there was a man outside – a guard? A lookout? The woman brought steaming hot bowls of soup, placed them on the long wooden dining table, then left.
‘There’s a change of clothes–’ Bruno began but she cut across him.
‘I don’t care, Bruno.’
She was shivering. She sat and spooned up some of the soup, staring at this man whom she no longer knew or understood. She was struggling to believe any of this was real. At the same time, there was a strong inner resolve reminding her no matter how confused or angry or fearful she was, it was essential to remain calm and in control. She had to think of Luke, in the other room. And of Mac, stranded up there on the mountain.
Bruno was standing by the far wall. Awkward, restless, silent.
‘Eat some soup,’ Liz said.
He went to the table, pulled out a chair and sat.
Liz saw he was shaking. ‘Won’t Caterina and your daughter be wondering where you are?’
‘Caterina thinks I’m away on business.’
‘Caterina doesn’t know about any of this?’ Liz watched him closely as she took intermittent mouthfuls of the soup.
‘Caterina and I have been leading separate lives for a long time,’ Bruno said. ‘The Saturday get-togethers have been to keep up appearances, and to keep in touch with yourself and other friends.’
‘So, it’s all been a façade?’
‘To an extent. There’d been indiscretions, on both our parts.’
Liz thought of the list Monica Leeman had given her. ‘Caterina and Raf?’
‘You knew?’
‘Monica gave me a list of Raf’s supposed conquests.’
‘Ah, Monica…’ Bruno picked up a spoon and toyed with the soup. Liz noticed he seemed calmer. ‘I’m asking you to give this a chance,’ he said.
Liz fixed him with an unrelenting stare. ‘I don’t need to give anything a chance, Bruno. I need to know what’s been going on, what this is all about. I thought you were my friend.’
‘I am.’
‘Then how could you be a part of any of this?’
There was a long silence.
Liz waited.
Finally, Bruno said, ‘From the moment we had our first meeting – you and I and Raf – I fell in love with you, Liz.’
‘You?’
‘I did not want this, did not want you to think of me in this way… I’m so sorry.’
‘Sorry? Sorry there was a landslide and Mac survived your sniper, so that I’ve found out the truth.’
‘Liz, there’s so much you don’t understand.’
‘Make me understand.’ Her voice had risen in anger again. She took a deep breath. Stay calm. ‘You owe me that.’
Bruno’s shoulders slumped, as though in acceptance he had to come clean. ‘I’ve always been the one in Raf’s shadow,’ he said. ‘Raf the perfect son. Yes, he slept with my wife. My own brother.’
He paused, and Liz sensed he was searching his mind for the right words.
‘And yes, I knew,’ he said. ‘Monica sent me the same list, long ago. She was always trying to sabotage Raf, always trying to drive a wedge between us. I pretended I didn’t know, for the sake of our daughter, for the sake of the firm. I played the dutiful husband, but I wanted out. I played the reliable business partner, always Raf’s second in charge, but I wanted so much more…’
Another long pause. Liz looked at him in disgust, wanting to scream but biting her tongue.
‘I fell in love with you the moment we met,’ Bruno found his voice again. ‘It felt deeper than anything I’d ever known. But of course, you were with the great Captain Mac. Then Raf tells me he’s smitten with you and knows in his heart he must be with you. Another one of his fantasies; I’ve seen them so many times over the years, Liz. And of course, the great golden boy always gets what he wants. I knew he’d find a way to win you away from Mac. He didn’t deserve you. Neither of them did.’
‘What gives you the right–’
Bruno cut across her, lost now in his own story. ‘I decided to test fate. Carl Vickerson’s news story gave me the perfect way to see if Mac could be removed from the scene. I sent him the fake text, and if he hadn’t gone charging off to this exotic love of his from the past, none of this would have happened. I would’ve left it at that. But he did. That’s how I knew he didn’t deserve you, and that I did.’
His mood was changing rapidly. This was the side Liz had never seen. She’d heard of “quiet” borderline personality disorder – not all such conditions were in your face – but this had to be an extreme version of something like that, didn’t it? A deluded mind in turmoil, kept hidden from all around. Until now. Going to extreme lengths to pursue an obsession.
‘I used all the resources of the drug ring to have him imprisoned, knowing Raf would step in and win you,’ he said. ‘I didn’t have any way to stop that, but I also knew it wouldn’t last, so I used it to my advantage, made sure I was the one you could count on as a friend, the one who was always there for you.’
‘So, you and I could be together once Raf eventually split from me?’
‘Yes.’
Liz thought back. It wasn’t Raf who’d been with her when she gave birth to Luke. It was Bruno. When she’d split from Raf, it was Bruno who picked her up from the airport.
How could I not have seen it?
Her spoon dropped with a clatter.
Bruno didn’t notice. ‘Of course, I couldn’t keep Mac detained forever, and I had to make sure you wouldn’t get back with him. So, I switched out the birth control pills, so you’d be pregnant when Mac was back–’
‘What? Oh my God, Bruno.’
‘It sounds awful, I know. But, Liz, please understand, I did this for you and me.’
‘There is no you and me!’ Liz sobbed, the enormity of Bruno’s warped mind and betrayal engulfing her.
‘I didn’t anticipate that Raf would’ve eloped with you anyway,’ Bruno said.
‘And then you contrived the fake police raid enabling Mac to escape,’ Liz said.
‘There was never any intent to harm him, Liz. But no, I didn’t enable his escape.’
‘Then who…?’
‘I don’t know. He would have been released eventually, of course, but he was freed too soon; that wasn’t part of my plan at that point.’
‘Do you even hear what you’re saying?’ She looked down and saw her hands were shaking, the full extent of Bruno’s cruelty resonating, her jumble of thoughts so loud in her head she wasn’t even sure if she was saying them aloud.
‘I didn’t want you to know any of this, Liz, but… if you could just understand–’
Liz ignored his pitiful plea. ‘So, what was ultimately intended? You would fraudulently expose Raf as having been the one who abducted Mac then Luke, so you could save the day and I would fall lovingly into your arms?’
‘I know it all seems crazy right now but, Liz–’
‘It doesn’t seem crazy, Bruno, it is – it’s totally insane.’ The time for Rational Liz is over, she thought.
Forget calm.
‘I’m taking Luke, now, and I’m leaving.’ She headed for the bedroom but Bruno’s voice, like chilled ice, stopped her.
‘I have friends standing watch outside, Liz. You can’t leave.’
Liz had witnessed Bruno’s anger on display when she’d been at his home and overheard his phone call with Raf. She recalled Caterina’s words. “He bottles it all up inside. Puts on a brave face.” But it wasn’t a brave face. It was a mask.
She whirled towards him. ‘Are Luke and I your prisoners now? Like Mac was in Indonesia?’
Bruno gestured frantically as he responded, showing the depth of his anguish. ‘It’s the last thing I wanted. We should’ve been returning to Sydney, together–’
‘To live happily ever after as you assumed full control of the company?’ Liz screamed the words at him, her eyes flashing with rage.
‘I can’t have you blurting out what’s happened here, so it’s just for a while, Liz, until you’ve settled down, until we can get past this together.’
Liz seethed. ‘We’re not getting past this; do you get that?’ She marched into the bedroom, nestled Luke in her arms, then headed for the front door. ‘And stay out of my way,’ she said to Bruno through gritted teeth.
‘You’re not leaving.’
‘What are you going to do? Shoot me? Shoot Luke?’
‘The men outside won’t let you pass. They’ll take Luke from you, and they’ll block you from going anywhere. Please, Liz, don’t make this harder than it already is. We need time, I’m sure of that, we just need time.’
‘Don’t you dare try to stop me,’ she shouted.
She got to the front door and was reaching for it with her free hand when it was flung open. One of the men, rifle in hand, stood there, every nerve and muscle tensed and primed.
His eyes bore into her as he raised his weapon.
EIGHTY-FOUR
‘If I need to use this to wound you then I will,’ the man said. There was no emotion in his eyes or his voice. Just a vacant sociopathic stare.
Liz didn’t reply.
Does Bruno even have the control over these people he thinks he does?
She returned the sleeping Luke to the bedroom, then stepped back into the main living area.
‘Okay,’ she said to Bruno. ‘You win. At least let me retrieve that bag of Luke’s clothes from the car.’ She pushed forward, past the armed guard, and Bruno nodded to the man to let her pass.
There were two other men outside. More than she’d realized. As she reached into the back of the car, while the men watched her intently from the doorway, her eye caught a flash of colour between the front passenger seat and the door. She squinted and saw it was one of the sat phones. She realised it must have slipped from underneath Bruno’s parka as he got out of the car and he hadn’t noticed. As she partly entered the back seat, clutching hold of the duffel bag, she covertly slid her hand along, grabbing hold of the phone, and pushing it into the bag.
I pray that creep didn’t see me do that.
Holding the bag innocently by her side, Liz trudged back into the house. She didn’t make eye contact with the guard. Walking through the front door, she observed a second man around the right corner of the house.
She threw the bag into the bedroom and turned to face Bruno.
‘It’s best I go back home,’ he said. ‘And that we have some distance, so you can take all this in.’
‘Running away?’
‘No. Just giving you some space, and I’ll be back, maybe in a week or so, and we can try to talk through all this.’
Liz couldn’t hide her cynicism. ‘Sounds great. Bring some wine.’
Bruno stared at her, despair in his eyes. ‘I hope in time, Liz–’
‘No, never.’ She brushed a strand of wet hair away from her face, and then she placed her hands on the back of a chair, to steady herself. She thought her anger had beaten her nerves, but she was shaking again. ‘Were you the one who had Monica feed me all that poison on Raf?’
‘Anonymously. She never knew the details were being sent to her by me… Monica was easy to manipulate… she hated Raf; his doing, not mine.’
