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I hadn’t caught her footsteps from my vantage point outside. Her voice reached me as clearly as Elwort’s had, though. “Are you still working on that one? I thought you were finished the last time I came by.”
Elwort sighed and lowered the palette. “Sometimes you need to let the image sit for a while before you can see everything it needs.”
“Yeah, yeah.” The woman crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you at least have the others ready for me to photograph? You promised at least five new ones. I have clients asking about your work, you know.”
Elwort waved toward a stack of canvases to his left with a distracted air, his gaze still fixed on the landscape on the easel.
The woman looked as if she’d let out a sigh. “All right, I guess I’ll set them up myself. It wouldn’t kill you to get a proper studio instead of this godforsaken warehouse.”
The man stiffened, his gaze jerking to her. “You know I have to keep a low profile.”
“But you could be making so much more of yourself! If you’d let me set up a single gallery show, you could bring in a hundred thousand in one night, easy.”
“I’ve told you before,” Elwort growled. “It’s not about the money. All this… it isn’t something that goes well with my other line of work.”
The woman shook her head. “Yes, yes, your mysterious day job. I’m just trying to domyjob as your agent—as much as you let me act like one.”
“If you don’t want me as a client anymore, then drop me. But as far as I’m concerned, what you manage to do is enough. The pictures get homes. I don’t have to worry about my stash getting too big.”
“Whatever you say, Louie.”
The woman dragged a few of the pictures over to where the light hit them better and took out her phone to snap a few photos. I stared, absorbing the conversation I’d overheard.
These paintings really were Elwort’s. Work he cared about enough to keep doing it in secret even though he obviously felt his regular colleagues wouldn’t react well to the pastime.
I guess art isn’t really encouraged in criminal circles.
That shouldn’t have surprised me after what I’d heard from Lou about her mother’s insistence on squashing her passion for skating. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t gotten plenty of attitude for simply being amanand going into a career many saw as emasculating, let alone a man who was meant to present an image of toughness and danger.
But if Elwort cared about his artwork so much he’d risk discovery to keep doing it… then I’d found exactly the point of leverage Lou and Rafael had been hoping for.
A spark of triumph lit in my chest. All the furtive stalking had been worthwhile. And now I could return home victorious and be done with cheap beer and hockey games.
I pulled back from the window and rushed away from the building as fast as I could go while staying quiet. I didn’t slow down until I’d put a few blocks between me and Elwort’s warehouse.
As I pulled out my phone to summon an Uber, my high spirits wavered. The memory rose up of Elwort’s eager intentness as he touched up his painting.
Were we really going to destroyhisartistic passion?
Even knowing what he did with the rest of his life, my gut clenched at the thought. I set my jaw and shook off the momentary guilt.
Lou didn’t want to actually destroy anything that mattered to these people, only to make them think she would. And she wouldn’t have needed to go even that far if they hadn’t attacked her in a far worse way already.
Whatever happened to Louis Elwort after I turned this information over was on him and his gangster colleagues, no one else.
EIGHTEEN
Luciana
I only letmyself skate over to the boards when every inch of my body was aching and my breath coming in pants. Jasper trailed behind me.
“The adjustments are really looking nice.” Niko offered us each a water bottle. “I think that with a little more work, the free skate will be even more stunning.”
“It would have been absolutely stunning last time if I hadn't screwed us over,” I grumbled. “I’ll be more in the game next time, I swear. It’s just —”
Jasper laid a hand on my shoulder. “You have a lot going on. We know. Don’t worry about it, Punk.”
I took a long sip of water, my body releasing its tension at his touch. They were both so confident in me, so sure of my abilities. If not for them, would I have ever realized the true depth of my abilities?
