Page 131 of Pink

She finally looked … better.

Happier, maybe.

Lev hoped it wasn’t a lie.

• • •

Lev stayed safely hidden behind the tinted windows of a rented BMW while he watched Gigi be led through the hoard of photogs waiting outside The Plaza. With large sunglasses hiding her face and an army of guards surrounding her and the team, they certainly didn’t get a picture worth taking let alone an answer to their questions. The screaming fans shoving magazines beyond the gates of the metal barriers didn’t seem bothered that their icon hadn’t paid them any mind as she was directed past their spot.

As fast as she came out of the hotel, she was shoved into the back of a black limo before the others piled in right behind her. By the time the car sped off, less than two minutes had passed.

Well done, he thought. The less time she spent outside four walls right then, the better. Or rather, the safer she would be.

In his ear, a familiar voice spoke, confirming something he had been waiting for all day. “Marco is not engaging. The last message I received from him came through this afternoon to my uncle—because that wouldn’t piss me off at all—and only said he had washed his hands of this mess.”

Lev considered that, but it only left him with more questions when he asked his boss, “What mess is that exactly? Because I would say his hand has been just fine stirring this damn pot up until now. What, two days ago he was willing to reach out and today he’s decided to fuck off? Something isn’t right, Andino. Something is—”

“Wrong,” Andino interjected coolly. “That’s become painfully obvious.”

“Did we wait too long? Are we beyond a point of no return here where we can stop whatever he’s planning to do, or is this just going to become another waiting game now?”

A loud sigh crackled through the speakers.

Lev knew that feeling too well.

A thought that had stayed with him from the moment he knew Gigi’s mother had been attacked in the hotel room came back to the surface, bothering him more than ever. “It’s not what it seems on the surface—this is personal. You don’t do what they’ve done and then blame it on someone being pissed about business. This is beyond a failed partnership.”

“I would be inclined to agree.”

“I’m glad we’re on the same page. That also does absolutely fuck all to help—”

“Because it’s one hour to the next right now, Pink,” his boss said, the no-nonsense tone reminding him that at the end of the day, he still had a job to do and a man to answer to. “And today you’re making sure the men get Gigi through her runway walk, then we get her the fuck out of the city.”

“Oh, she’s going to love that.”

Sarcasm was still his friend.

Andino chuckled dryly. “Sometimes, women just … have to make it difficult. Nonetheless, once she is out of the way and safe, we’ll move to the next stage.”

“He looked at her like he bought her. Like something he owned.”

“Who?”

“Jensen,” Lev muttered. “And the way your ex-partner is acting up in Cali right now, it makes me think washing his hands might just mean protecting him.”

“This is hard to deal with when we have a spotlight shining on us, you know? We have to consider every move we make. We cannot rush into anything without knowing that each hit we make will land on the target.”

“So help me fucking God, Andino, if Jensen Todrey—or someone from Marco’s side of things—steps out of line tonight, I don’t care who watches. I will murder him.”

“It’s a terrible thing, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“How they always seem to go after our women. Instead of us, the people who can answer them back. No, they go after the links they see as the weakest.”

“She is anything but weak.”

Only with him.