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Cesare shakes his head. “It wasn’t the right time to start asking questions.”
I nod because he deserves his time with her. They both do and, dragging up what happened can wait until she’s stronger.
We stop outside my penthouse and take the elevator to the private floor, wondering what Abi’s friend is going to think when we burst inside. She has also been through hell, but I can’t forgive a traitor and she is the worst kind. A best friend who sold out her sister for personal gain. She is the worst kind of human in my eyes and being female isn’t going to help her now. Abi may have forgiven her to a degree, but I never will because she put my wife’s life in danger and took her to a place she may never shake from her mind.
My soldier on duty jumps to attention when we head into the room and I say gruffly, “Where is she?”
“Sleeping, boss.”
I nod and stride to the bedroom, slamming open the door, causing her to jump up with a panicked, “Fuck! What’s happening?”
I kick the door shut and Cesare moves to the bed and pulls her out roughly, forcing her to sit in a chair by the window.
Her eyes are wide and fearful as I sit on the bed and stare at her hard.
“Jefferson.”
“What about him?”
Her lip trembles as I hiss, “Call him and tell him you’ll meet him back at your father’s apartment. Tell him Mario’s dead and you’re frightened.”
She nods, biting her lip with nerves and I growl, “Get dressed.”
Cesare releases her and she almost runs to the closet and returns minutes later dressed in one of the outfits that I keep for visitors. This place has often entertained prisoners, people I need to remove from life until I can deal with them. The odd whore who I fuck to keep me calm and the occasional woman who charms her way into my bed for one night only. Women like Demelza who use their cunning to trap a beast but end up used and abused and sent on their way desperate for more. Daughters of men who owe me favors, who I seduce and send back to daddy broken and yearning to repeat the experience. This place is pure business, and I will never bring Abi here. She is pure pleasure and will be the only woman I fuck for the rest of my life.
I can tell Clarice is scared shitless, which is exactly what I need her to be and so we stand either side of her and retrace our steps, this time heading for her apartment not far from here.
The journey to her apartment is interesting when she says fearfully, “I can’t believe he’s dead.”
“Best place for him,” I growl, and she stutters, “Aren’t you scared?”
Cesare laughs out loud at the foolish statement given who she sits between, and I say with amusement, “Why? Should I be?”
“But his father. He’s the Supreme Dark Lord. He’s wicked.”
“That makes two of us then.”
I move suddenly and grip her face so hard it makes her eyes water and growl, “What was Jefferson’s plan the night of the gala?”
She shakes and as I release her, she whispers, “I was to make contact with Abi and lure her away from you. Jefferson and Mario would be waiting and steal her from under your nose.”
My eyes darken and she begins to shake.
“Jefferson told me it was for her own good. She was to marry Mario under the orders of the Dark Lord, and you had stepped in the way of that. He was angry and if I helped put her where she belongs, I would be rewarded.”
She gulps. “Jefferson promised to marry me instead, and I would enjoy what came with it. He was so persuasive and made it the most desirable thing in the world and I believed him. He told me he had always wanted me but was going along with the plan until Mario was in place. He never wanted Abigail, he wanted me, and I was the fool who believed every lying word.”
I don’t even feel sorry for her and shake my head at how foolish she was. “So, you sold your own friend for personal gain. You wanted what she had and didn’t even consider it was wrong.”
“I thought it was right.”
She shakes her head sadly. “They told me you had stepped in the middle and needed to be removed. Her father had agreed to the arrangement and was pissed you ruined their carefully laid plans. What was I to think? I have lived in that world my entire life and understand how it works. Relationships are made for business, nothing else and I thought Abigail knew that too. We are expected to know our place, which is heading up the household of a powerful man. Being the trophy wife who never questions her husband and plays the model wife in public, while allowing her husband to do what the fuck he wants. To turn a blind eye and deal with it behind closed doors. This is our fucking life, and I thought Abigail accepted it.”
Cesare stares at her with scorn and, if anything, I hate her even more. She has none of the fire and brave heart of my wife which certainly makes this easier.
We reach her father’s apartment and head inside, the doorman turning his head in the other direction when he notes the company she’s keeping.
We step inside another penthouse, and I growl, “Call him.”
