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I leafed through some files as I watched over her. She glanced over at me and quirked an eyebrow. “What’s that, Aiden?”
“It’s what I’ve collected on the Belladonnas. And you in particular… you are my favorite.” The other Belladonnas had dramatic ways of killing their targets, though we hadn’t identified all the different Belladonnas at this point. But Selena simply shot her opponents. She didn’t play around.
And she was a very good shot. Which was hot.
“Lucky you that I showed up at your door, then.”
“Lucky indeed.” I meant it at the moment.
Then with a few final last taps, she pressed the enter key and leaned back. There was a glint of satisfaction in her gaze.
“Tell me about your code,” I asked when it seemed like she had reached a lull.
“I've tried to figure out what my parents were involved in that someone would have wanted to kill them,” she said. “All the evidence the police collected was lost.”
Her jaw tightened at the thought. “Their laptops, their cell phones, everything's gone. There was some DNA collected at the scene, and there wasfinallya match in the police records—but now that’s gone too. Someone wiped it out.”
I was surprised she was telling me this much, but it seemed like her coding had relaxed her. And she looked at me as if she realized she’d begun to open up, her brows arching slightly in surprise. Her face was beautiful in a regal, old-fashioned way, with a long nose and rounded cheekbones, full, pillowy lips. She looked elegant.
“This is all I’ve wanted for years. The chance to find their killers.” Her lips pursed. “What I do is valuable to the Belladonnas, but I didn't gain these skills for them. I learned them for my parents.”
“And what happened? What's your lead now?”
“I hit a dead end,” she admitted. “It didn’t lead me anywhere. Whoever did it covered their tracks successfully… but something else happened.”
“What?”
“Someone accessed my parents’ email. They were going through their banking records. And I need to know why.” Her big, brown eyes met mine. “I need to hack into my parents’ bank.”
“You'll get them,” I promised.
She didn't look entirely hopeful. “Now tell me something personal about yourself so I don't feel like a complete loser for telling you my life story.”
She hadn't exactly gotten into the depths of personal things, but I understood how she felt. I nodded. “Were you wondering why I care so much about making my father happy enough to hand over the reins to me without bloodshed?”
“Very much so.”
“He's a bad man but a good father,” I said. “I have a little brother, Gabe. He's been through enough... he escaped the family business, but I don't want him to be orphaned. And our mom... As terrible as Gavin can be, he really loved my mom. It just seems like a betrayal of her memory.”
“But you'll let me kill him,” she said flatly.
“Well, I don't like it,” I admitted. “But if you do get to him, it won't be my fault. And anyway, perhaps he does deserve to pay for what he's done.”
“Do you deserve to pay for what you've done?” she asked smartly.
“Are you seriously getting self-righteous with me? You're an assassin.”
She acquiesced with a faint smirk coming to her lips. “Fair enough.”
The two of us were sitting so close together, with the gorgeous pool spread out in front of us. I'd opened the patio doors, so the cool night air floated over us. She looked at me with curiosity and those bright, beautiful eyes, and as much as I wanted to kiss her, I had the feeling she wanted to kiss me too.
I knew better than to try to pursue a real relationship wrapped within my fake one.
But she had to learn to pretend to be my girl, to look at me with the kind of affection that would convince my father. He saw through people as well as I did. She wasn't going to fool him with a display like the one with my friends last night.
He would kill her without a second thought if he believed she was duplicitous, pursuing me for her own reasons.
So really, kissing her was just a sound business decision.
