Page 66 of Sins and Secrets

I look down at the blood stains on his shirt, wondering whether they are his or not. My heart jumps in my chest as a lump in my throat threatens to choke me. I sit on the arm of the couch beside him, pressing the cloth against his cut.

“I found the men who were with Paolo. They won’t be giving you any problems.” Alessio grabs my hand and stops me from cleaning the blood from his face. “Billie, you should have told me the moment that happened this morning. I would have dealt with it then.”

“I can appreciate that, but he didn’t hurt me. He tried to scare me, and it didn’t work.”

“Cutting you is hurting you.” Alessio shakes his head and lets go of my hand. “I didn’t find Paolo. He’s long gone. Shane has been looking for him for the last several hours, but we’re sure that he’s on a flight out of Florida.”

“You should have just left it alone. You did exactly what he wanted you to.”

“It doesn’t matter if I left it alone or not. Paolo came after you. I’m not going to allow that to happen.”

“He came after me because he’s watching us. I’m sure that he thinks there is something between us. We haven’t been careful enough while we’ve been in Miami. I don’t know what he’s seen and what he hasn’t.”

Alessio sighs and nods. “When we get back to Atlanta, this has to cool off. Arturo is living with us, and Paolo is watching.”

“Once we get back, we have to keep our distance from each other.” I put the bloody cloth on the table and flick the collar of his gray dress shirt. “Is this your blood?”

He looks down at the stains and shakes his head. “It’s not. I’m going to go get cleaned up. You should get some rest. We have to leave early in the morning.”

Alessio gets up and leaves the room, heading for his own bedroom. I watch him go before grabbing the cloth and taking it to the sink.

This is where things have to come to an end between us.

22

ALESSIO

It’s been a week since the plane landed back in Atlanta and I keep thinking about that week in Miami. It felt good to spend time with Billie, enjoying each other’s company and not worrying about other people seeing us together.

Since we’ve been back, I’ve been avoiding her as much as possible. Not that it’s hard to do. When I’m not at the casino or checking on things at the compound, I’m running around the city and digging up any lead I can find about Paolo.

Since last week, he’s gone into hiding. Him and all his men. There is no sign of them anywhere, even when we light his businesses on fire. We’ve been destroying every business and operation of Paolo’s that we can find, but he still doesn’t come out of hiding.

I’m getting tired of looking for a ghost. I want this to be over as soon as possible.

These games are getting old, especially with Billie getting hurt.

I’m doing everything I can to protect her, but it still doesn’t seem like it’s enough. I doubled her security detail, but I still worry about her constantly when she’s not with me.

Paolo has gotten to her twice already. The next time he gets to her — and I’m sure that he’s going to try — could be the last.

I sigh and push myself away from my desk. I’ve been trying to do paperwork at the casino for the last hour, but I can’t focus. The only thing I can think about is everything else going on in my life. Thankfully, I have a good team at the casino who is capable of keeping things running if I need to take some time off.

Billie knocks on my door frame, a stack of binders in her arms. My gaze drags down her body, taking in the faux leather skirt and the dark blue shirt with billowing sleeves that cinch at her wrists.

If there is one thing I’ve realized about Billie since giving her a job at the casino, it’s that she’s going to dress up for work every day.

She’s beautiful.

Her heels click against the floor as she walks into the office and drops the binders on the corner of my desk. “You know, you could have less reports to go over. Year end isn’t until December. Why do you want to go over all these numbers now? The quarter isn’t even over yet.”

There is curiosity in her voice as she comes to stand beside me while I grab the top binder and open it up. Sometimes I forget that she is here to learn.

Though I want to kick her out of the office before I make yet another bad decision, I don’t. She leans a little closer to me, the vanilla scent of her perfume wafting around us.

“Alright, well, this is the book of vendors that we use for the hotel portion of the casino and the three restaurants that are on the property, as well as the club. The other binders are filled with vendor information for the clubs I own downtown. I think the last one in that pile should be for the real estate company I’ve just recently purchased.”

“Diverse portfolio,” she says, pulling over a chair to sit beside me. “Why do you review the vendor books?”

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