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Victor locked eyes with me before he left the room.
My father took a long puff of his cigar before he set it in the ashtray. A cloud of smoke left his lips and rose into the air, infecting the fabric of the furniture and the rugs. “Who?”
I took a seat, the one Victor had just vacated. When I looked at my father, I didn’t know how to start, how to be the recipient of that hard gaze. It felt wrong to tell him this, to betray Bartholomew, but then I remembered he was the one who had betrayed me first. He knew everything about me the moment we met—and he’d never intended to tell me. “My boyfriend…Bartholomew.” Or my ex-boyfriend, I should say.
His eyes narrowed further, and he said nothing.
I waited for the line of questioning, but it never came.
“I should have known.”
“Do you know him?”
“I know of him. Cruel. Ambitious. Maniacal. But I didn’t think he would step into our territory.”
He did more than step into it from what I’d heard.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because…” I’d been played like a fool. “Once I figured out what he was doing, I had to tell you.”
“You didn’t know?”
I shook my head.
“He used you, Laura. What did you tell him?”
“He’s never asked me anything. I think he intended to use me in the beginning, but then our relationship changed.”
“Men like that don’t change, Laura.”
Well, he changed for me. Or at least, it seemed. “I confronted him about my suspicions, and he told me the truth. Once I knew…I couldn’t be with a man intent on destroying my family. I know we have our differences…big differences, but I couldn’t look the other way on this.”
“Because you’re loyal.” His hand moved to my arm on the couch. It was a touch he hadn’t shared with me since I was a little girl. His fingertips were callused from gripping the metal of guns, but they were warm with affection. “It’s in your blood.” He left his hand there for a while before he withdrew. “Tell me everything about him.”
“I honestly don’t know anything. He’s never shared the details of his professional life with me, and I never asked. But I have witnessed his power and his command. I know he’s the kind of man you’d be stupid to fuck with.”
“He’s sabotaged my relationship with my producers. Paid off everyone else who could help me. He’s isolated me, and I know he’ll make his move shortly. You’re the only leverage I have against him.”
“Leverage?” I asked.
“The only thing that might make him reconsider.”
“And how would you do that?”
His intelligent eyes bored straight into mine, but he seemed to be thinking about something else, his mind in the distance. An unnecessary silence stretched. That was how deep his thoughts sank. “Ask nicely.”
* * *
A knock sounded on my bedroom door.
“Come in.” I sat on the pillows in the window seat, looking at the lights of the city in the darkness. My bedroom happened to face the direction of Bartholomew’s home. I could tell by the placement of the Duomo. I wondered if he sat in his study that very moment, drinking and smoking, wondering if I was thinking about him at the same time.
Yes, I was.
The butler stepped into my bedroom. “Victor is here to see you. Shall I let him in?”
I was in leggings and a baggy sweater, my makeup wiped off my face. But I was too sad to care about my appearance right now. The tears would just ruin my makeup anyway. “That’s fine.”
