AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well?” I ask.
Thane’s voice is tight with fury. “The photos were created three days before they were uploaded to the cloud.”
Three days before Nicole was supposedly killed. Chiara sobbed her heart out over her dead friend. We could have spared her that if Thane had been paying attention to his goddamn job.
“Vinicius—”
“Shut up and listen to me. That girl was Chiara’s best friend and we told her she was dead because of you. You have no idea the suffering you’ve caused that girl. I pay you to work for me, not set up mutinies behind my fucking back. If it wasn’t for Chiara and what she wants, I’d kill you myself.”
Dead silence on the line.
“I know,” he says without inflection.
“If anything happens to Lorenzo or anyone else in the Coldlake Syndicate, I’ll make sure that Strife is razed to the ground and you three are driven off those streets out of pure spite.”
I wish it hadn’t come to this. Thane and I always had a good relationship. He’s always been happy—in his peculiar way—to work for me because the work I give him is challenging and interesting. I used to respect him.
“That’s fair.”
“Yes, I know it’s fair. If Chiara ever needs anything from you, I expect you to do whatever she wants without complaint.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“About what?”
“What’s it like sharing a woman?”
“You piece of shit.” I hang up and throw my phone onto the counter, cursing Thane to hell.
Lorenzo is standing in the doorway, his arms folded. Behind him, I can see Chiara and Cassius coming down the stairs.
“Thane?” Lorenzo asks.
“Yes.”
“Why is he a piece of shit?”
I consider telling Lorenzo purely for the pleasure of watching him pick up a gun and load it with a bullet with Thane’s name on it. “You don’t want to know.”
We head to the lounge and sit down on the sofas. Salvatore must have gone out early this morning, but he’s back now and he kisses Chiara.
“I was talking to my security team and briefing them about De Luca,” Salvatore says. “They’re going to keep searching for him.”
Lorenzo has a pen and he’s twisting it between his fingers and over his knuckles, and one of his heels is bouncing on the carpet. I can tell he’s wishing that the pen were his knife.
“I spoke to Nicole,” I tell everyone. “De Luca made her pose for those pictures. De Luca, and one special friend of ours.”
Chiara drops her eyes, and she says in a flat voice, “Dad.”
“Yeah. The mayor. I’m sorry, kitten.”
Chiara sighs. “At least Nicole is okay. We should let her go home to her mom.”
Lorenzo and I exchange glances and I know he’s been thinking the same thing I am. He rubs his hand over his jaw and shakes his head. “I want to hold onto her a little longer.”
Chiara lifts her eyes to his. “She’s my friend, not a hostage.”
Salvatore sits forward. “Baby, the real killer was there last night. He’s seen Nicole. He’s probably furious that De Luca and the mayor pretended to be him and turned Nicole into one of his victims. What if he takes Nicole out of revenge and really does kill her?”
