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I don’t bother responding, I just stand with her in my arms and head for the staircase.
When we’re back in our room, she bursts into tears with her face buried in my shirt. I ease onto the edge of the bed and just hold her until she’s still and quiet.
“God, this is embarrassing,’ she murmurs after a long moment of silence.”
I kiss the top of her head and rub her back. “It shouldn’t be love. You’ve had a lot dumped on you today. Hell, the last week and a half you’ve been bombarded. There’s no shame in being upset by that and needing to let it out.”
She lifts her head and gives me a wry smile. “Thanks. I’m just proud of the fact that I can keep my composure in almost any situation, but I guess we found one where I couldn’t.”
I chuckle. “We all have our limits. Tell me what you need right now?”
“Just some tissues and maybe my Kindle. I know you probably have more to talk about down there, and I think I just want to be alone for a little while.”
Easing her off my lap, I stand and kiss her forehead. “Stay right there.”
In the bathroom, I wet a washrag for her face and grab some tissue off the counter and hand them both to her when I’m back in the bedroom. While she cleans up, I find her Kindle and hand it to her.
“I won’t be down there too late. Try not to dwell on any of this too much.” I bend and kiss her, then leave before I’m tempted to crawl into bed with her and help her forget everything for a little while.
Matteo is kissing Skylar at the foot of the stairs when I come back down, and I maneuver around them. Skylar pulls away from him and stops me.
“Is Zara OK?”
I smile and reach out to squeeze her hand. “She will be. Everything just hit her all at once and she needs a break.”
Skylar nods and returns to kissing Matteo.
As I walk away, I hear them say goodnight, and then Skylar walks upstairs.
Matteo catches up with me as I’m heading back into the den and claps a hand on my shoulder. “How do we want to handle this?” he asks.
“First, I want to hunt Pratchett down and make sure he never hurts another woman ever again.”
Matteo’s disapproval is palpable, and I turn and glare. “You’re telling me you haven’t thought about having Skylar’s old man murdered in prison?”
“Oh, I think about it all the damn time. But he can’t hurt anyone there. Pratchett may be harder to send to prison, but we have dirt on him if we want to use it. All I’m saying is let’s try to avoid the violence if we can.”
He’s right. I hate that he’s right. Pratchett is better off rotting behind bars than rotting wherever I would find to dump his body.
“We just need to figure out how to leverage things against him without showing all our cards.”
“You know, Hunter Novak is hosting a governor’s ball at the Elysium in like four days,” Owen says. “I’m betting Pratchett is on the invite list.”
My brow wrinkles as I stare at him quizzically. “And? How does that help us?”
“I’m not sure yet. But it seems like pertinent information.”
“Sounds like a good time for the top guy in security to be on the floor,” Victor says. “And it might not be such a bad idea for the guy in charge of VIP services to be there, too.”
We all stare at him until he continues.
“People drink way too much and say things they wouldn’t normally say at these things. If Matteo is in the room and he’s paying extra attention to Pratchett and making sure he drinks plenty, he’ll just think it’s because Matteo is being accommodating because of our relationship. And Owen being there will allow us to hear some of Pratchett’s conversations.”
“Four days may be too far away,” I say. “It feels like a long time to wait to talk to him when we could just confront him.”
“And say what, Luke? Did you out my hooker girlfriend to a gossip site so my father could find her?”
I lunge for Matteo, but Owen steps between us. “That’s enough of that.”
