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I don’t ask how she’s looking at them right now. Not when this information is exactly what I need. “Anything else?” I ask eagerly. “An apartment rental, or plane tickets. Something out of his usual routine.”
“Ah, here it is,” Charlie says. “He’s booked on a flight to Venice in the morning. And it looks like he’s been paying for a rental apartment there for the past week.”
“That’s it!” I exclaim, excited. “I knew it.”
It has to be Sebastian.
“Can you send me the rental address?” I ask, stepping out in the street to hail a cab. If Saint thinks he can hide Sebastian away, he’s got another thing coming.
Next stop: Venice.
14
SEBASTIAN
Venice.The city of love. I should have picked a better place to wait for my forger to be done, but who am I kidding?
There’s not a place I could go in the world that wouldn’t make me think of her.
Avery…
I pace the small apartment, feeling like a caged animal. Her face haunts my every waking moment—and at night, she fills my dreams. Where is she now? I wonder obsessively. Is she out there cursing my name for leaving her, or does she understand by now, that it was the only way?
Dammit.
I don’t like to think of her off somewhere, without me. Waking up alone. Going about her day. Slipping between the sheets at night in an empty bed.
Or even worse, with company.
Fuck. No. I can’t think that way. I’ll tear this whole damn place apart. I look around, needing a distraction. It’s a comfortable vacation rental—Saint set it up for me—with stylish antiques and Italian décor, but right now, it feels like I’m trapped in purgatory: the waiting room between heaven and hell.
The heaven of my life with her. The hell of a world where she isn’t by my side.
Are you sure there isn’t a way…?
The whispers of doubt rise up, taunting me, so I grab a coat and head out, losing myself in the bustle of crowded streets and picturesque canals. I should be laying low in case anyone recognizes me, but I can’t stay cooped up there with my own thoughts a moment longer.
She’s safer without me.
I repeat the mantra as I pace the cobblestones, telling myself that I have no choice. Someone was willing to blow up that jet to get to me, which means Avery can never know peace with me in her life. The sooner we both put our twisted love affair behind us and move on, the better. Once my papers are back, I can disappear forever: It’s not just a simple passport I’m waiting on, but a whole new identity crafted by the best black-market forgers around, with an online trail and paper dupes planted in government offices around the world that will never be questioned. Sebastian Wolfe will cease to exist, leaving nothing but headlines and dark scandal in his wake.
I’ll be free. Reborn. But until then, I have nothing left to do but wait.
Wait, and go mad with wanting her.
I walk for hours,lost in the hum of the city and my own dark thoughts, until a text comes through from Saint that he’s arrived. I’m in no hurry to be cooped up in the flat again, so I suggest meeting at a discreet restaurant nearby. When I arrive, the place is packed with the late-night crowds: Waitresses darting around with trays in their hands and so many customers talking that it all blends into a buzz of sound. I spot Saint sitting in the back in a corner booth. I make my way over, and he greets me with a hug, and a slap on my back.
“Good to see you,” I say, meaning it. There’s not a single other person I would dream of reaching out to at a time like this, but Saint came through for me without a word of hesitation.
But plenty of wry jokes.
“I can’t say the same about you,” he cracks, waving the waitress over and ordering a bottle of wine and enough food to feed an army. “You look like hell, mate. Anyone would think you’d died.”
I roll my eyes at his quips. “Funnily enough, fleeing for your life takes a toll on a man.”
“Psh,” Saint says with a grin. “Don’t ruin the illusion. I thought life would be one big adventure when you’re a man on the run.”
“Sure,” I respond dryly. “It’s round-the-clock excitement here.”
