Black Opal Read online

  Sabina started to insert the card in the lock then paused. “Who do you think that woman was?”

  “I don’t know but I sure intend to find out,” Bella muttered tapping her cheek with an iridescent coral fingernail.

  “Leave it alone.” Sabina made a dismissive gesture with her hand than ran the key card through the lock. She wanted nothing more than to forget the whole sorry episode. How humiliating. Kissing her one night and hitting on another woman the next.

  The entry pad light blinked green and she opened the door.

  They walked into the sitting room.

  Bella pointed to the coffee table. “Looks like you’ve picked up an admirer.”

  Sabina glanced at the table. Setting next to the roses from the hotel was an ebony vase filled with roses so dark they looked black. Adam?

  A pristine white card sat in the middle of the arrangement. She walked over and plucked it out. Paper rustled as she opened the envelope. Blood drained from her face as she read the card, her complexion no doubt becoming pasty white. For a moment she swayed on her feet. Whose idea of a sick joke is this?

  “Honey, what is it?”

  She held out the card, locking her joints, forcing her hand not to tremble.

  Bella took the card and read out loud.

  Roses are red

  Violets are gray

  A casket awaits you

  But on what day?

  The two women stared at each other.

  “Quite the little rhymester isn’t she?” Bella said her own lovely complexion a bit pale.

  Sabina flung out her hand. Raw energy ran down her wrist and rippled through the amulet. The vase exploded into a thousand pieces.

  Hands on hips, Bella clucked. “I understand your anger but you need to control that, sugar.”

  “I didn’t mean to do it. Raw nerves just slipped out.” In a restless gesture, Sabina finger combed her hair straight back from her forehead. She took a breath from deep in her belly. “She’s mocking us. Letting us know she can get to us anytime anywhere. This is the second time she’s invaded our private space. Albeit through a florist but nonetheless, it’s like she just walked in off the streets.”

  Bella walked over and tapped Sabina’s chin with her finger. “Sugar, I’m going to make you a promise.”

  Sabina arched a brow. “And what might that be?”

  “I promise we’ll have the last laugh.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Bella.” Sabina reached over and hugged her friend. Bella’s arms wrapped around her and Sabina clung.

  Tears pricked her eyes and ran down her cheeks. What the hell was she crying for? So some bitch was threatening her life and Adam Morelly was putting the moves on another woman. So what?

  Bella patted her on the back. “Without me here, no vase within a mile would be safe.”

  Sabina gave a watery snuffle and pulled back. She wiped a hand across her eyes then squeezed her nose with her fingertips and sniffed. Bella touched her face and a light electrical current went through it. She looked at Bella and grimaced. “No red eyes for your friends.”

  “One must always look one’s best.”

  Sabina gave a reluctant laugh. “Bella, it’s not fair. You just make it impossible to feel sorry for myself.”

  “Feeling sorry for yourself is a waste of time and at my age it’s a luxury I don’t have.”

  “Geez, Bella, you sound like you’re a hundred years old.”

  “I’m forty-two.”

  “I’m twenty-five. So what?”

  “So there’s no guarantees. Live life to its fullest every blessed day.”

  “Beneath that empty-headed blonde façade is a very wise woman.” Sabina smiled.

  Bella patted her hair. “Why thank you, sugar. But keep that thought to yourself. You’d be surprised at the information a ditzy blonde can garner.” She walked to the closet and pulled out a dustpan and broom. “All the comforts of home.”

  After Bella finished sweeping up the shards of glass, Sabina threw down a towel to soak up the water beading on the carpet. She glanced up and caught a pensive expression on Bella’s face as she stood motionless holding the dustpan and broom. “What is it?” Sabina asked.

  Bella straightened, walked into the kitchenette and dumped the shards of glass and broken flowers into the wastebasket. She put the broom and dustpan away then turned. “That woman’s profile looked familiar and even from across the room I caught a chill.”

  “You think it’s Victoria?” Raw anger coursed through Sabina. Her teeth clenched and her jaw tightened.

  “Yes, I do.” Her expression sober, Bella shifted and faced Sabina.

  “Why that son of a bitch.” Sabina clenched her fists, her arms rigid. A light tremor passed through the room. The pictures on the wall thumped, the coffee table rocked and the bric-a-brac around the room began to shake.

  Bella made a grab for the hotel flowers. “Easy, sugar. I must say this is an interesting turn of events.”

  Sabina took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and got control. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. You’d think I was a young girl going through puberty the way my power is kicking in and out.” A wave of panic swept through her. She’d never lost control. And she couldn’t start now. She possessed the power amulet. Lost of control could be deadly. “What’s wrong with me?” she whispered.

  “You’re not going to like the answer,” Bella warned.

  “Then the way things are going you better not tell me.” Sabina rubbed her amulet gingerly.

  “You’re in love.”

  The room again trembled.

  “Sabina!” Bella’s normally placid voice held a warning and a command.

  “I most certainly am not,” Sabina ground out between shut teeth. “I have more sense than to fall for a two-timing Romeo.”

  Bella poured Sabina a glass of red wine and handed it to her. “Here, sugar, I think you need this. Let’s go sit down.” She put her arm around Sabina and guided her into the living room.

  They both sank into the plush sofa cushions.

  Bella removed her arm and Sabina gulped her wine. For once the deep red beverage didn’t calm her. What Bella had said was just too damn frightening to contemplate. She stared at the sea scene on the wall and tried to relax but her body felt taut as a bow string.

  “You are the most rational person I know. But where Adam Morelly is concerned the blood leaves that calm, logical portion of your brain and pools right below your stomach where there’s nothing but nerve endings.” The cushions sighed as Bella curled into them.

  Sabina jumped to her feet, strode into the kitchen, poured herself another glass of wine, and returned, plopping down on the couch. The wine sloshed out of the glass and, dropped like blood onto her white pants. She dabbed at it with her fingers. “It’s lust, Bella. I’m not in love.”

  “Hmm.” Bella curled her legs under her and studied Sabina. “We’ll table that for now. As far as Adam goes…”

  “Must we,” Sabina interrupted then gulped her wine.

  “I know you’re Italian and drink wine like water but don’t abuse it.”

  She shot Bella a dirty look.

  Bella continued calmly. “As I was saying, you’re not rational where Adam Morelly is concerned. You basically told the man to get lost and are now yowling like a cat with his tail caught in the door when you see him with another woman.”

  “Not just another woman, Victoria Price,” Sabina shot back. Once again the coffee table began to vibrate and the couch quiver.

  “Oh, my, that feels rather good,” Bella cooed.

  The vibrating stopped and Sabina grinned reluctantly.

  “As I was saying,” Bella continued, her expression placid. “We don’t know for sure it’s Victoria but even if it is, I’m betting A,” she held up a finger, “Adam doesn’t know who it is, or B,” she held up another finger, “he’s playing his own game.”

  “I’m betting on the latter,” Sabina mutter
ed.

  Bella cleared her throat. “As I was saying, even if he has an agenda I don’t believe for a moment he’s in cahoots with Victoria. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, sweetie.”

  “What about his uncle?”

  “Well now it wasn’t his uncle he was having dinner with was it?” Bella responded unperturbed. “Are you ready to stiffen that lovely Italian spine and go back down there?”

  “And then what?”

  “Well for starters I thought you might want to glue that black-haired witch to her seat.”

  Sabina felt her eyes gleaming. She relaxed and smiled. The first real one since she’d seen Adam in a liplock with “that” woman. “What a lovely idea. Shall we go?” She stood up.

  Unfortunately, when they arrived at the lounge, the couple had vanished.

  A small tremor ran through the floor as Sabina looked around the lounge, her arms rigid and her hands fisted. A solitary couple sat in the corner and an older gentleman sat at the bar. At the quake, he hopped up, an alarmed expression on his face.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions, sugar,” Bella warned.

  Sabina took a deep breath, rolled her neck a couple of times and forced herself to relax. The tremors stopped. Tiredness rolled over her in waves. She had been on an emotional rollercoaster and felt wrung out like a limp rag. “Bella, do you mind if we go back to the room? Doesn’t seem to be a lot going on here. You are staying in my room again aren’t you? I feel so much safer when you’re there.”

  Bella laughed and patted her hand. “Sure, shug. We’ll keep up the pretense that it’s to make you feel safer when I know you feel the need to protect me with your arm gear. But I’m perfectly safe. In case you haven’t noticed, I sleep with a ladies’ Derringer under my pillow.”

  Caught, Sabina opened her mouth like a floundering trout. Before she could come up with a good line a hard shoulder knocked her several paces back. Large hands reached out to balance her.

  “I am so sorry.” A good-looking blond steadied her, a contrite expression on his square, tanned features.

  “That’s quite all right.” She smiled and twitched her forearms forcing him to drop his hands.

  “Say aren’t you Sabina Comti?” His eyes lit up, interest on his features.

  “Yes, I am.” She smiled and straightened her turquoise silk blouse. “This is my friend, Bella Tremaine-McHenry.”

  Sabina watched in amusement as his intelligent-looking features went slack-jawed. He snapped his mouth together. No doubt to keep from drooling. “Ma’am,” he nodded.

  “Hello, Mr…” Bella held out her hand.

  He took it promptly. “Dave. Just call me Dave.”

  “Nice to meet you, Mister Just-Call-Me-Dave,” Bella dimpled up at him.

  “May I buy you ladies a drink?” He turned to Sabina. “It’s the least I can do after nearly knocking you down.”

  “We were just leaving.”

  “Maybe another time.”

  “Maybe,” Sabina responded noncommittally.

  She felt his eyes on them as they turned and walked away. She shrugged. Nothing new about that with Bella around.

  They stepped into the elevator. As the doors closed, she glanced out and saw Dave settling into the sofa across from it. She pressed the elevator button and glanced at Bella. “Did you see him?”

  “I sure did.”

  “Do you think he’s following us?”

  Bella lifted her shoulders, causing the elegant silk stretched across them to rustle. “Who isn’t?”

  Sabina gave a short laugh that held no trace of humor. “I wonder who he works for, Victoria, Johnny or Adam.”

  Bella put her arm around her friend and gave her a comforting squeeze. “My, we are popular aren’t we?” The elevator door slid open. “Screw it, let’s go to bed.”

  An elderly couple happened to be passing by. The grey-haired woman threw the two women a look of condemnation.

  Sabina giggled nervously.

  “Let’s hope she doesn’t recognize you, sugar. It wouldn’t be good for your image.”

  Sabina rolled her eyes. She walked the few steps to her suite, unlocked it, went straight to the bed and fell across it. She was so damn tired.

  “Shug, you need to get undressed.” Bella’s voice buzzed in the background like a persistent bee but Sabina just didn’t have the energy to respond. She felt Bella pulling off her shoes and unzipping her silk slacks. She shifted her hips as Bella tugged on them. Gentle hands tucked the warm coverlet up around her shoulders.

  She drifted toward sleep craving it as she would a lover, wanting only to escape from Adam’s unfaithfulness and the knowledge that a mad woman wished her dead. And then there was nothing but blessed dreamless darkness.

  Off-key whistling from the sitting room woke her. She set up, yawned and stretched. She looked at the red glowing letters of the clock and blinked. Five o’clock? Surely that was five in the morning. She squinted and looked closer. No. Five p.m. Good gods. She’d slept the night and day away. She stood up and stumbled into the sitting room.

  Bella sat on the sofa, swinging a foot encased in a black backless heel and reading a fashion magazine. She looked up and sat down the magazine. “How do you feel, sugar?”

  Sabina gave it a moment’s consideration. “Better. Rested.”

  “That’s good. You needed it.” Bella smiled. “I’ll order room service while you get showered. You’re on in three hours.”

  “I can’t believe I slept so long.” Sabina shook her head then narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t drug me did you?”

  Bella snorted. “There was no need, shug. The wine took care of that.”

  “Uh, yes. Just order something light for me. I don’t like to perform on a full stomach.”

  “I know the routine. And considering that you haven’t eaten since last night I don’t think that’s going to be an issue,” Bella said dryly.

  When Sabina opened her mouth to protest, Bella held up a hand, “Fruit and yogurt for you, something more substantial for me.”

  “I don’t see how you do it. You eat like a horse and stay as slender as a reed.” Sabina smiled and shook her head.

  Bella patted her flat stomach. “High metabolism. And I run everyday. Well normally. I haven’t had much opportunity the past few days.”

  “How about if we rectify that tomorrow?”

  “Sounds like a plan, sugar. Now you go get cleaned up.”

  Sabina handed Bella her amulet then went to get ready. The pin pricks of hot water rejuvenated her. Everything was going to be all right. She’d get through this. She was blessed, part of a sisterhood that stood strong together.

  After she’d showered and eaten, Sabina dressed with care. This was her final performance. She slid a long, bell-sleeved, green velvet dress over her head. A gold brocade ribbon nestled beneath her breasts. With a few expert twists, she drew her hair up in a gold snood. She looked in the mirror. A woman from centuries past stared back at her. Perfect. Tonight she would sing the old songs to honor those who had gone before.

  With one last glance in the mirror, she turned and walked out. “Let’s go,” she told Bella. They gathered their things and walked across the street to the Odyssey Lounge.

  The hum from the audience filled her ears. She looked at the backdrop with a castle painted on it and smiled. Behind the cloth hung fairy lights making it appear as if candles shone from the windows of the gray citadel.

  Her gold, strapped, low heels clicked against the wooden floor as she stepped on stage. A hush fell. And then the crowd went wild, whistling, clapping and stamping their feet. She smiled. Her heart soared. Tonight she would give them her all.

  The moment she opened her mouth to pour out the golden notes filling her soul it became quiet. She sang and sang. When she finally stopped, they wouldn’t let her go, calling her back for encore after encore. After the fourth call back, the manager brought the curtain down and still the clapping and stomping continued.

  She nodded to t
he manager and he pulled the curtain up. “Friends,” she began and the clamor quieted. “One last song and then I must bid you good night.”

  Her hands linked at her waist, she sang about love and the pain of parting. The last note hung in the air then dissipated like dew on a rose.

  A hailstorm of flowers landed on the stage as she walked away. The clapping reached thunderous proportions.

  In the wings, she listened. She and these strangers were one. She’d sung from her heart and they’d understood, had taken her gift and cherished it.

  Slowly, the clapping died down and feet shuffled as the audience rose to its collective feet to leave.

  Bella came up behind her, gave her a brief hard hug and handed her the power amulet.

  Sabina slipped it on under her wide sleeves.

  She glanced behind her and stiffened. Adam stood in the shadows talking to the man they’d met in the bar last night. As her eyes met Adam’s, her jaw tightened and she turned away.

  “Ms. Comti,” a high quavery voice called. Sabina looked up. Bowed over, leaning on his cane, the old man from the hotel approached, his steps halting.

  His cane thumped as he walked. He stopped and bent at the waist. The action nearly toppled him into the sheet the backdrop was painted on. He fumbled with the bottom of the curtain.

  Sabina, with Bella right behind her, hurried toward him afraid he’d fall. After a moment, he pushed himself upright. He waved an ink pen. “I dropped it. Clumsy of me. I was hoping you’d give me an autograph.” He stood panting, waiting for them to come to him.

  With trembling hands, he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. “Would you be so kind? You’d make this old man mighty happy to have the autograph of such a famous singer. Who knows, it might bring me a fortune if something ever happens to you. Not that I’d want that. And you’re so young and healthy. You will of course outlive me by many years.”

  Sabina plastered on a smile and tried to drown out the droning voice. The high- pitched quivering tones hurt her ears. “Who do I make it out to, sir?”

  “Pryor. Pryor will do.”

  She scrawled hurriedly, Best Wishes, Pryor. Sabina Comti then handed it to him. Their hands touched for a moment and she recoiled, withdrawing hers hurriedly.