AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Look, I can appreciate what you’re trying to do,” he mutters, his voice slightly softer now.
Wait, what?
“I-I’m sorry?”
He sighs, giving me a look. “Eloise, I know that Massimo is tight with Roberto Chinellato.”
I blink. “I…he’s…”
Alistair shrugs. “He’s asked Taylor, Gabriel, and me about a hundred times each how the case is going, and if there’s anything he can do to assist with it. I mean, I doubt they’re friends, but I assume they have business together.”
“He…yeah,” I mumble. “They do.”
“I also know there was all sorts of bad blood between Massimo and Federico Lombardi.”
Federico Lombardi is the guy who was murdered, allegedly by Roberto Chinellato. It’s why the alibi that puts Roberto nowhere near Federico when he was killed is so important. The racketeering charges rest on the murder charge. If there’s no murder charge, the whole case falls apart.
“Alistair—”
“I understand,” he growls. “Massimo almost certainly has dirt on Federico, and you want something that puts even more distance between him and Roberto to help with the case.” He studies me. “But this is not how you do it.”
I stare at him. He thinks I’m helping him right now?
I wince as something twists painfully in my chest.
“There’s a process, Eloise, you know that. When you don’t follow it, whatever evidence you introduce becomes inadmissible. Worst case, it results in a mistrial,” he continues. “So whatever you’ve just found there”…he nods past me to the stack of purloined evidence I’m hiding behind my back…“just put it the fuck back. Trust me.”
“Alistair…”
I want to tell him. I need to tell him. I have to tell him.
…I don’t.
Because I’m a coward.
Instead, swallowing the lump in my throat, I turn, shove everything back into the file folder, and slip it back into the drawer where I found it. Then I turn, sitting against my hands as I lean against the edge of Massimo’s desk, facing Alistair.
“I’m shocked,” I deadpan. “Since when are you the good guy?”
He smiles darkly. “What would ever suggest to you that I’m the good guy.”
“What you literally just came in here to stop me from doing.”
Slowly, he steps toward me.
“Except that’s not why I came in here.”
“It isn’t?”
My face burns at the squeak in my voice. Alistair keeps moving closer, his eyes never leaving mine as he starts shrugging off his jacket.
Heat pools in my core and my thighs clench as my nipples harden against the shimmery silk of the black and silver cocktail dress.
“W-what…” I stutter, my skin prickling as Alistair drapes his jacket over the back of the couch and takes another step toward me. “What are you?—”
“I’m not the good guy, Eloise,” he murmurs quietly as he stops right in front of me. The spicy-clean scent of him washes over me. The heat of his body teases against mine. And the way he rolls his sleeves up to mid-forearm…
I mean, Jesus Christ.
