41 Chapter 41

The next day, Poppy was back at the mansion and had a private nurse to care for her. All cozy in a nice warm bed, she had slept all night and most of the next day.

Her brother had taken duty with Tate on rotation to watch over her. Seemed they were talking a lot and Poppy wondered if her brother had even mentioned his crush on the big burly man. Rick was intimidating at times, but deep down he had a big heart and was shy about his feelings. She also wondered if Tate would be okay with it once he found out. The men seemed to be getting along and she knew more than anything her brother needed a friend after his tumultuous divorce, and maybe that was more important than finding his life mate now.

As the door to her room squeaked open, Poppy threw the pillow over her face, mumbling, "Go away, Rick. I told you I'm fine. Let me sleep!"

"It's me, princess. Can I come in?"

Lowering the pillow, she found Roman at the end of her bed with his pearly white smile and looking dashing as ever. Slowly, a smile crept on her face.

"I guess I can spare a moment for my captor."

Giving a chuckle, he walked around the bed, carrying a tray of food. "No. I'm not your captor. You're my guest. I brought you some lunch. I hope you can eat it because it looks great. My chef prepared something light for your belly since you probably still can't hold much down."

"I thought you had people for this. Shouldn't your maid be bringing my food?"

"Only first-class accommodations for this guest. It's the least I can do after putting you through hell these last couple of weeks."

"Well, thank you. I could eat, and that smells good."

Setting the bed tray across her lap, Roman sat next to her watching as she rummaged around the tray to find some things that looked appetizing. When she took a sip of his chef's soup, the hum escaping her lips made his heart beat just a little faster, knowing she was going to be okay.

"I talked to the doctor. He doesn't want you out of bed much over the next few days."

"The wedding is tomorrow," she noted.

"What does that matter? Do you plan on breaking out of here and marrying Luke? I thought you liked that kiss."

With a giggle, she shook her head. "No. I just thought you had plans to crash the wedding. I don't want to see him hurt, Roman. He was good to me. A bit grumpy, but then again, he thought I was Claudia."

"We have a change of plans. Claudia's not going to show up. That's what she had planned all along, right? So, as much as I hate to admit it, I feel bad for the guy. Hell, I can relate. She screwed me over, too. It seems you were right. She left town with a shit-ton of money. I called my dad and had his men look into it. There had been sightings all over Milan of her crazy shopping sprees. It's been a few days now and no sign of her. My guess is that she's off to Paris. and then, God knows where."

"She's still being Claudia? She'd be easy to track down using her name."

"No, she's using one of her many aliases to keep a low profile. I knew most of them because when she tried to scam me, I had a private investigator find out all about the names she's used since being in the US."

"That's something I was confused about. She sounds American."

And she did. Claudia seemed to be good at hiding who she really was. Maybe it wasn't just Poppy who had lied about her identity.

"She's a good actor, sweetheart. When she first came to the US, she took voice and acting classes. She wasn't getting any acting gigs, so she turned back to what she knows best."

"Hustling people."

"Exactly. She made out with a lot of loot back then; cars, money, clothes, jewelry, the works. Whatever those rich LA guys would buy her, she took it. She had, at minimum, had ten sugar daddies at one time that paid her way. At least until they ran her out of town, and she showed up here."

"Whoa. She's sort of a--"

"A slut?"

"I was going to say train wreck, but that works, too."

"Yeah, she is. Why do you think guys like her? She puts out because she knows her body is a way to manipulate men. She knows how to run a good hustle because she is a Ricci. Claudia just learned a different way than the old Italian families taught her."

"So, what are we going to do about this wedding?"

"We are not going to do anything. You're staying in bed. You need to recover and give yourself time to heal."

Dropping her head, Poppy kept thinking about poor Luke and all he'd been through. He was being accused of atrocious things that he had nothing to do with. Yet tomorrow he would suffer with the discovery that he had a runaway bride.

"Shouldn't I be there to tell him that I'm not Claudia and the wedding is not happening? Roman, he's gonna be so heartbroken."

"Broken no. Luke is going to be just fine. Besides, I've made arrangements to let him know the truth about his bride."

"Roman, what are you going to do to him?" she asked with a scowl. "You better not be doing anything that's gonna hurt him. I want to trust you and I want to help you find your brother's killer, but you have to stop this anger you have against Luke and act rationally."

"There is no anger. All this left now is an utter loathing of that man. Princess, you don't understand. For two years, I've watched my brother decline. Every day I was wondering whether I'd find him dead on the streets with a needle in his arm or get a call that he'd hurt someone or himself. Luke could have come to me and told me what was going on and that his father was dealing drugs and my brother was involved."

"What do you mean, involved?"

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