Inferno_Part 3_The Vault Read online

  Table of Contents

  Part Three Flame

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Inferno: Part 4

  E-Book Design & Format

  COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE INFORMATION

  INFERNO- PART THREE

  Copyright © 2018 T. K. Leigh / Tracy Kellam

  All rights reserved.

  2018 Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. If you are reading this book and you have not purchased it or won it in an author/publisher contest, this book has been pirated. Please delete and support the author by purchasing the ebook from one of its many distributors.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental or, if an actual place, are used fictitiously. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The use of these trademarks is not sponsored, associated, or endorsed by the trademark owner.

  Published by

  Carpe Per Diem, Inc. / Tracy Kellam,

  25852 McBean Parkway # 806,

  Santa Clarita, CA 91355

  Quotes from The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Rev. H.F. Cary translation (1814).

  Quotes from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (1592).

  Quotes from Henry VI by William Shakespeare (1595).

  Quotes from Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1623).

  Quotes from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1623).

  Quotes from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (1623).

  Quotes from Letters of Abelard and Hèloïse by Peter Abelard and Hèloïse (1722).

  Quotes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (1600).

  Cover Design: Dana Leah, Designs by Dana

  Cover Image Copyright kiuikson 2018

  Used under license from Shutterstock.com

  Print layout & eBook Design: Deena Rae, E-BookBuilders

  Table of Contents

  Inferno

  Dedication

  Part Three Flame

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Inferno: Part 4

  Playlist

  Acknowledgements

  Books by T. K. Leigh

  About The Author

  Inferno

  My life has always been a series of carefully constructed roads. Always the passenger, never the driver. Always the puppet, never the master. Always the pawn, never the queen.

  Except with Dante. He makes me feel like a princess, a goddess, a queen… His queen.

  Only with Dante does everything make sense.

  Only with Dante do I know who I am.

  Only with Dante do I believe in hope, in faith, in love.

  We met in the clouds. We bared our souls in the clouds. We fell in love in the clouds. But is our love deep enough to survive the return to earth?

  Is our faith true enough to weather even the most violent of storms?

  Is our hope strong enough to outshine the darkest of days and bleakest of nights?

  Dante made me believe in the power of fate. I need to trust that fate won’t steer me wrong now. After everything I’ve been through, after everything I’ve experienced, after everything I’ve endured, one thing remains certain…

  Fate can be as arbitrary as the flip of a coin.

  Dedication

  To Stan and Harper Leigh… Sempre e per sempre…

  Inferno

  Part Three

  Part Three

  Flame

  There is no greater grief than to remember days

  Of joy, when misery is at hand.

  — Dante Alighieri,

  The Divine Comedy

  Inferno, Canto V

  Chapter One

  One foot in front of the other. That was all I had to do. One step at a time. It was what the coin…fate told me I should do. Judging from the past ten days, I knew in my heart fate was real, that she wouldn’t steer me wrong, that this was all part of her plan.

  Then why was there a sick taste in my mouth about what would happen once I left the security area of the airport? What would life be like? Would it be the same as it was before? Was I making a huge mistake?

  When I reached the sign warning me there would be no re-entry once I passed, I hesitated. I looked from where I’d come to where I was headed. Both held uncertainty. Was one choice better than the other? Was one path easier than the other? I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was I’d tossed a coin. I had to believe fate knew what she was doing when she showed me which direction to take.

  Hardening myself for whatever awaited me on the other side, I sucked in a long breath and walked through a pair of sliding glass doors, my heels clicking on the tile. There was no turning back now. But was this where I truly belonged?

  I immediately came to a stop, closing my eyes and holding my breath, almost expecting something horrible to happen as fate’s way of telling me I’d misread her signs. But nothing did. No big explosion. No bolt of lightning hitting me. No swarm of locusts. Life carried on, hurried travelers passing me as they sought the comfort of their homes or hotel rooms.

  Refocusing ahead of me, I continued up the ramp, the fluorescent lights overhead feeling as if they were burning my skin. I scanned the crowd, watching old friends hugging after not seeing each other for any given length of time. I couldn’t help but feel like this was all wrong, like I was a stranger here, like the coin had steered me wrong. Maybe I should have followed my heart instead.

  “Ellie!” Mila’s voice cut through the bustle of bodies. I snapped my head to the left.

  The instant I saw her tall, slender frame rushing toward me, I exhaled, dropping my bags and walking into her arms. It wasn’t until this moment that reality sank in. I’d actually gotten on that plane and returned home to the pieces of a broken life. I didn’t want to be here, but I wasn’t sure Rome was the answer, either. I didn’t know what the answer was. All my life, I’d always had a plan. Now I was lost, a fish swimming upstream against a current, getting nowhere.

  “I really hoped I wouldn’t see you here today,” Mila lamented, rubbing my back. Her own voice sounded as pained as I felt.

  “It’s for the best,” I struggled to respond through the lump in my throat, pulling out of her arms as I swiped away the few tears that had escaped.

  Squeezing my biceps, she peered at me with comforting green eyes. �
��Why did you come back?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” I shook off what she was insinuating. “I had a round-trip ticket.”

  She shrugged. “So? That doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Mila,” I sighed, my shoulders falling. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Like I told you earlier in the week…” I grabbed the handles of my bags, rolling them toward the automatic doors leading to the busy pick-up area of the airport. “It was just a vacation fling.” My voice faltered. Nothing could be further from the truth. I didn’t want to rehash everything I’d felt, everything I’d experienced with Dante. The wound was still too raw, the ache in my chest still too painful, the memory of his skin on mine still too real. “Nothing more,” I finished, the words barely audible.

  “Whatever you need to tell yourself, Ellie. I won’t beat it out of you today, but I’ll get you to talk about it one of these days.”

  “And I’ll talk about it, but not yet. Right now, I just want to pretend the last few months…hell, years of my life never happened.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  I met her stare, my lips lifting slightly at the corners. “You’re right.” I sighed. “I don’t.”

  As much as my heart ached from the memory of Dante, he’d shown me how it felt to be free, to be loved, to fly. He gave me my wings. He changed me. Regardless of what the future held, of how much my soul wept without him, I would always be grateful to him for that.

  When we reached the crosswalk, I slowed my steps, soaking in the familiar ambience of Los Angeles International Airport. I used to find a sense of comfort whenever I landed back here. The smell in the air. The heat of the sun. The sound of the cars whizzing by as they fought to find curb space to pick up a waiting passenger. Now all these things just made me long for the serenity of rolling green hills, beautiful vines, and warm arms holding me with more love and devotion than I thought possible.

  “Feels good to be back home, doesn’t it?” Mila remarked, noticing my distant expression. “Or maybe this isn’t home anymore.”

  Biting my lower lip, I stared straight ahead, a heaviness in my limbs. “This is home,” I answered, my flat, emotionless voice anything but convincing. “And yes.” I faced her, smiling a fabricated smile. “It’s good to be back…where I belong.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  I sucked in a breath, giving her the only answer I could. “I’m not sure about anything right now.”

  She wrapped an arm around my shoulders, leaning her head against me. “I know. I hate that you’re going through this, but we’ll figure it all out.”

  “Thanks, Mila,” I offered. “You’re a good friend. The only friend I have.”

  She lifted her head, her expression lightening as a playful smile built on her mouth. “Correction. I’m the only one you need. Let’s go.” She gestured toward the parking garage across the street. “Car’s this way.”

  Once we were situated in her SUV, she drove away from the airport, past several blocks of hotels, finally merging onto the freeway. Red brake lights met us immediately.

  “Only in LA,” I muttered.

  “Why would you want to live anywhere else?” Mila mused, repeating a line I’d said so many times in the past, words I once believed with every ounce of conviction I had. I’d always loved Southern California. The food. The climate. The landscape. The majestic mountains that gave way to miles of pristine ocean. The culture. The diversity. Now it all seemed lacking. It was all different. It was all wrong.

  “Why would you?” I mumbled, leaning my head against the window. I felt Mila’s eyes on me, studying every move, every facial expression, every breath. Instead of giving her an opening to push more about my time in Italy, I turned to her, my voice bright, masking my pain. I’d spent the last twenty-eight years of my life pretending to be someone I wasn’t. This was no different. “So, tell me, anything exciting happen this week?”

  “Nothing nearly as exciting as your week.”

  “Which I don’t want to talk about just yet. So make something up to take my mind off everything, okay?” I looked at her with pleading eyes.

  She studied me for a protracted moment, then turned her attention back to the road. “Well, Harley decided to say ‘Goddammit’ over and over again this past weekend.”

  “There are worse things she could say.”

  “During church.”

  I laughed, picturing both Mila’s and Steven’s horrified reactions. I was certain neither one of them were able to keep from laughing, although I was sure they wanted to.

  “Let’s see. What else?” She tapped a finger on the steering wheel. “Oh, Ashlyn says she has a new boyfriend. Some little kid we see at the park from time to time. But he’s six. Apparently, she has a thing for older men. It’s probably a good thing, though. Boys do mature at a slower rate than girls.”

  “Yes, they do.” I settled into the seat, listening to Mila talk about whatever popped into her head. Being the good friend she was, she kept talking, not letting any silence fill the air. Thankfully, she was careful to avoid discussing my failed wedding, Italy, or Dante Luciano.

  Finally, after a longer than normal drive, thanks to the notorious LA traffic, she pulled into her driveway in a suburb north of Hollywood.

  When I walked into the foyer of her home, I furrowed my brow, the place alarmingly quiet. “Where are the kids?” I expected to be bombarded by a flurry of activity and small voices.

  “They’re spending the night at their grandma’s,” she answered, helping me with my bags. “And Steven’s working. I figured you could use a little peace and quiet. Plus, we haven’t had a girls’ night in ages. Probably since your lame excuse for a bachelorette party.”

  I shot her an annoyed look as I lugged my suitcase up the stairs, heading straight for one of the guest bedrooms.

  “What?” she exclaimed. “You only get married once…unless you’re Elizabeth Taylor. You’re supposed to go big for your symbolic last night of freedom. You’re supposed to wake up the next morning, preferably in Vegas, and wonder what the hell happened, not be in bed before ten PM.”

  “It couldn’t be helped,” I responded. “Brock and I had a fundraiser to attend the following morning. He would have flipped a gasket if I’d shown up hungover.”

  “Which is exactly why you should have done it. No woman deserves to be with a man who treats her the way that asshole treated you. I’m just glad you finally opened your eyes and realized that.”

  I stepped into the small guest bedroom, looking around what was to become my new home for the time being. The only furniture was a bed, a nightstand, and a tiny dresser. I doubted anything else would fit. Approaching the bed, I lowered my laptop bag to the floor with a thump, the weight off my shoulder a welcome reprieve.

  “That’s all in the past. None of it matters anymore.” I faced her as she leaned against the doorjamb.

  “I think it still does,” she observed thoughtfully. “If it didn’t, I don’t think you would have gotten on that plane. I think you would have stayed in Rome.”

  “Mila, that’s crazy.” I looked everywhere but into her eyes, not wanting her to see the truth I sought to hide from everyone, including myself. “No one moves their entire world for someone after just—”

  She held up her hand, interrupting me. “Not now. Like you said, we have plenty of time to talk later. For now, I’m sure you’d love a shower and a nap.”

  “My hair definitely feels a bit…greasy.” I ran my hand through my dark locks, cringing at the oil that had built up over the past day of travel.

  “Do what you need to do. I have piles of laundry to catch up on.” She sighed. “The joys of motherhood.” She grabbed the knob, about to close the door, but stopped herself. “By the way, I’m glad you fixed that horrendous blonde. You weren’t doing yourself any favors with that
color.”

  “Thanks, Mila.” I rolled my eyes playfully, then smiled. “It feels good to finally be me again. Whoever that is.”

  “I think you know exactly who that is, but you’re too stubborn to admit it.” She paused, allowing her words to sink in, then closed the door, leaving me alone with just my thoughts to keep me company.

  Exhaustion setting in, I collapsed onto the bed, relishing in my solitude. Almost instantly, the sound of my phone alerting me to a new text ripped through the silence. A glimmer of hope rushed through me at the idea that maybe Dante had tracked me down and sent a message to tell me he was currently standing outside Mila’s front door. Instead, all I saw was a short, curt text from my mother.

  I understand you’re back in California after your little “trip”. We’re hosting a dinner party Friday night, as usual, in case you’ve forgotten. I expect to see you there. 8 PM.

  Groaning, I tossed the phone onto the bed. I had no desire to see my parents anytime soon, or ever, especially with the knowledge my father may have had a role in what happened to Dante’s daughter. But a nagging voice in my head reminded me that fate must have wanted me to come home so I could tie up all my loose ends. This was all part of finally stepping out of my parents’ shadows. If I didn’t face them, if I didn’t tell them everything I’d kept at bay for years, I would never be able to close this chapter in my life. So, instead of ignoring my mother, I picked up my cell and shot off a quick text, wishing she could hear the sarcasm in my tone.

  Looking forward to it.

  With a sigh, I placed my phone back onto the mattress, then stood. Opening my suitcase, I took a sharp breath, completely unprepared to be faced with a physical reminder of my time in Italy. I ran my hand along the silk robe lying on top of all the clothes Dante had bought me. I had almost left everything that would make me think of him and Italy there. In the end, I was able to fit it all in my luggage, with the exception of the gown I wore to the gala, which still hung in Dante’s closet in Rome. I wondered what he thought every time he saw it hanging there, if it made his heart ache just as much as mine did at this moment.