Page 139 of Pink

TWENTY-SEVEN

“I WENT on a boat yesterday, Daddy!”

Arely’s excitement on the phone had Lev smiling despite the emptiness in his heart. He didn’t know how the rage that constantly kept him company over the last two days could leave him feeling empty, and yet it did.

“That’s great, baby,” he replied. “I’m glad you’re having fun with John and Siena.”

He would forever be grateful to Andino’s cousin and the man’s wife for taking Arely out of state with a handful of bodyguards just in case when Nessa hadn’t been able to do it. While he knew the best place for his daughter was far away from New York, it didn’t make it any easier to be separated from her.

Especially now.

Turning away from the man eyeing him at the other side of the metal table for a better sense of privacy as he talked to Arely, Lev told his daughter, “So hey, Daddy loves you. I know you asked John when you could come home … but it might be a little longer, okay? Sometimes, we have to do this.”

“But why?”

That wasn’t an easy answer. And not one she could understand. Lev didn’t even try to simplify it for his child, he simply replied, “Because that’s what’s best right now. You understand?”

Arely sighed loudly on the other end of the phone. “I guess. John wouldn’t let me watch Gigi on the TV, Daddy. I saw her on it. How come she was on the TV?”

“Why,” he corrected, the habit impossible to break. “And because that’s part of her job sometimes.”

It was all bullshit.

He knew exactly what Arely was referring to because he had already been filled in by the man who had come to visit him in jail and also brought a cell phone along for him to make a safe, secure call to his daughter that wouldn’t be recorded like on the payphones here. The bullshit charges the cops leveled on him after the show for the punch he threw were apparently going to stick if the officials had anything to say about it. Whatever they could do to get a Marcello associate behind bars.

Little did they know this was the last place he needed to be. Not that he thought the cops cared or even understood what was happening outside of the jailhouse. Even Lev didn’t know everything but what he did know … well it was enough to make him want to get out.

Now.

Yesterday.

As soon as fucking possible.

Video of Gigi leaving the show with Jensen Todrey—and a security guard who was later found dead on a dirt road that led off from the freeway—through a rear entrance looking out of her mind, totally wasted, had been released to the public the very next day. Statements made by Gigi’s agency and management team made it seem like they didn’t have any idea why she did what she did by leaving the show early or the reason for her obvious intoxication. Photos of that first lunch date between her and Jensen had also been released, making it seem like there had been some kind of relationship between the two that explained their … disappearance together.

It was almost like Gigi’s team wanted her gone, and they were willing to say whatever the public needed to hear to justify behavior that didn’t match up to her character or previous actions.

Lev just needed to get out of this fucking jail. That was it. Then he would go through each and every single stupid fuck that he needed to in order to get to Gigi. Wherever she was.

I’m coming, babe. I am.

“Daddy?”

Arely’s soft call for him dragged Lev from his thoughts. A place that had become a prison of sorts for him lately. It was a bad thing when a man like him had nothing to do except think. He knew every failure he made that led to this. He understood how this was his fault. They hadn’t done enough; hadn’t planned for everything. He fucked up.

And look what happened.

“Yeah?” he asked, swallowing the lump in his throat.

“John says I have to get off the phone. Lunch is ready. I’m having poutine.”

He laughed, as weak as it was. “What’s that?”

“I don’t know but it looks messy. Love you, Daddy. Say hi to Gigi.”

God.

That hit even harder.