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“The fuck?” I stormed past him. “What do I pay you for?”
“I thought I was the butler, sir,” he called after me.
CHAPTER19
Who is Ava?
Donata
We took one step forward and three steps back. I thought we were finally making progress. I would definitely consider the sex, the shower, and the breakfast progress. But that was the thing about Luca. He was too afraid to let me in. I punched the pillow on his side of the bed. I should be happy that at least now I was in his bedroom. And I would be if he hadn’t locked me in here like some spoiled brat.
It pissed me off that he kept treating me like this. I strode into his closet and went through his drawers until I found a pair of boxer briefs. I had gone commando before, hoping our breakfast would turn into sex, which it almost did, if it hadn’t been for this super-secret visitor. A pang of jealousy hit me square in the gut every time I thought of how protective Luca had acted toward this visitor.
The more I thought of it, the more I wanted to meet her. Or at least see her face. And yeah, sure, see how we compared. Because in all the time I’d known Luca, I’d never seen him with a woman. I had no clue what his type was. For the longest time, I thought maybe he was into guys instead. That was wishful thinking on my part after he downright rejected me when I threw myself at him—the first time.
I’d been so angry. But I distinctly remember him getting hard for me. Again, that could’ve been wishful thinking on my part. He almost touched me that day, which had given me the idea to tell lies about him. Okay, fine. Luca Gallo had every right to treat me like a spoiled brat. That aside, I still wanted out of this room. I wanted to meet his mystery woman.
Donning the underwear, I scanned the room, looking for something I could use to work the lock. Then I remembered I’d worn my hair up last night and I’d left a bunch of hairpins on the nightstand. With my heart racing, I darted to the other room and gathered my tools. I got to work, blindly shoving two hairpins into the lock the way Santino had shown me.
The trick is to feel for it. Close your eyes, he’d said while he worked on Aunt Vittoria’s bedroom lock.
At the time, I’d been looking for my iPad, the one time she had decided to ground me with no devices. Her response had shocked me that day because she didn’t subscribe to any of that parenting stuff. To her, it was her and me against the world.
I closed my eyes and did as Santino had said, feeling around the lock with my hairpins until I had it. When I flipped it, the door gave way.Thank you, Santino, I mouthed.
I was still flying high from my great escape when I reached the landing. The angry voice coming from two floors down stopped me in my tracks. Shit. Luca’s visitor wasn’t a hot, mysterious woman. His uncle was here. I shivered. That guy gave me all kinds of bad vibes. I didn’t care what he had to say. Luca was right. Don Gallo couldn’t see me here. I darted back upstairs.
Suddenly, two floors didn’t feel like a good enough distance, so I kept going to the fifth floor. From my days of stalking Luca, I knew there was a terrace with an incredible view of the city up there. At the top of the stairs, I came face to face with the glass door that led to the outdoor garden. But when I made to head for it, the room to my right caught my attention. I ambled to it and gently pushed the door open.
Luca’s office was so him—filled with books and wood furnishings. I could see Luca in here with his brows furrowed, putting together lessons and presentations. Smiling, I ran my hand over his large desk. Everything on it was perfectly arranged and organized. When I turned to survey the rest of the den, my jaw dropped.
In high school, Enzo, Rex, Santino and I were always pissed at the adults for not including us in their business dealings. We felt that as the next generation of Dons, we had the right to know how things were done. So we spent a great deal of time going through conspiracy theories. I knew a murder board when I saw one.
The question was, what the hell was Luca doing with this. I shot a glance behind me to make sure I was still alone and approached the wall the same way I would creep up to a wounded animal. The name of the victim sounded familiar. Who the hell was Ava Conti? And why was Luca investigating her death?
I started on the right, reading the notes Luca had neatly written on sticky notes. I followed the first clue of a newspaper clipping, where her death was reported as an accident. That note had a string going to another sticky note. Where the article talked about Ava being drunk and losing control of her car before she drove into a tree. The note below read: Ava didn’t drink. The next note had a cut-out from what looked to be a medical report. No alcohol was found in her blood.
So she was murdered? Why? More importantly, why did he care? I sat on the chair facing the wall. When something poked my butt, I reached behind me and pulled out a ring box. I flipped it open and stared at the humongous rock. Omigod. I covered my mouth as my mind conjured a few scenarios before I landed on the one with Luca sitting in this chair, crying over Ava’s death, while holding her engagement ring.
And then it hit me. I’d seen Ava’s name before. The day I went to Luca’s office the first day of the seminar. He had been looking at her files. I jumped to my feet and darted to his desk. Sure enough, the folder was neatly stacked in one of the drawers.
“What’s your deal, Ava Conti?” I asked as I opened her file.
Some of the pictures in the folder were copies of the ones on the wall. I grabbed the whole thing and walked back to the murder board. I wanted to know what Luca was looking for. The first picture was of Ava’s arm with a stamp like mine. I brought up my wrist and compared it to hers.
Fuck.
She was the reason Luca had gone to the club. I went through more of the papers until I found the medical examiner’s report. Ava was killed the same night Aurora was killed two years ago. The date was highlighted with a big question mark next to it. Did Luca think the two murders were related?
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” Luca practically barked the words at me.
“What?” I spun around so fast, my fingers fumbled with the file. Before I knew it, the papers were sprawled on the floor, and I was on my hands and knees, trying to gather them closer to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“This is private, Donata. I didn’t say you could come in here.”
“Who is Ava?” I showed him the ring. “Do you propose to all the women you sleep with?”
“Jesus.” He slow-blinked, then snatched the ring box from me. “No.”
