Page 13 of Runaway Queen

“Mr. Sloane, good morning.”

“How many times have I asked you to call me Edward?”

“You’re paying me to do a job for you, so I’d really prefer not to.”

He leaned his hip against my car, crinkling his thousand-dollar suit.

He had commissioned me for a custom art piece a month ago, and I was slogging my way through it. It wasn’t a labor of love. I was doing it purely for the cash. He had adored his recently deceased mother, his only redeeming feature, and was having me paint her portrait from a photograph.

In my free time, I painted, but rarely portraits. Well, that was a lie. I had plenty of portraits, but they were of one person. No one had ever seen them. He was my ghost with the silver eyes.

The man who I had betrayed. The one who’d never forgive me.

Nikolai Chernov.

The rest of my paintings were landscapes. They were unfailingly dark and ominous. Why, exactly, Edward had chosen me to paint his mother’s portrait, I had no idea, and didn’t want to look too closely at. If he was doing it to get in my pants, he’d be sorely disappointed.

“If I’d known that we couldn’t even be on a first-name basis while you were working for me, I’d have asked you out before starting the painting.”

I smiled uncomfortably, grateful that Leo was already in the car. “And I’d have had to say no. I don’t date, and I’m not interested in starting.”

“You have your hands full with Leo.” Edward nodded, like that could be the only reason I wasn’t interested in going on a date with him.

“Yes, and I’m just not interested in meeting anyone.”

Edward’s eyes flickered down to the simple silver band on my ring finger. “Even widows have to move on sometime, Sophie.”

“Not this one.”

My absolute tone only made Edward smirk. Declaring myself a widow had seemed the fastest way to avoid awkward conversations, I’d decided early on. Even more, there was a piece of my heart, deep down and secret, that felt like one. I’d lost the love of my life and could never see him again. I felt like a widow.

“I won’t stop trying to change your mind. I think we could be great together. One day, you’ll agree,” he said. It sounded like a threat.

“I should have the next stage of the painting by the weekend, if you want to look at it,” I said firmly, crossing my arms over my chest.

A slight tic of irritation in Edward’s jaw was the only sign that I’d pissed him off. He was one of those men whose fragile egos couldn’t take the slightest knock, like being interrupted or refused. He reminded me of my father and Silvio.

“Sure, that would be good. I’m not paying you the big bucks for nothing, am I? Can you bring it by the house? I want to see it in the right light, in the place where it would hang.”

“It’s not at that stage yet,” I protested mildly.

He grinned. “What about the customer always being right? I’m sure you’ll indulge me.” There was something slimy about the way he lingered on the words.

“Mom?” Leo asked from inside the car.

“Hi there, buddy.” Edward poked his head just inside the door.

I fought the urge to pull him back. I didn’t like anyone except myself, Chiara, and Angelo getting too close to Leo. Even a simple cold was hard for him to fight off sometimes.

Leo stared at him. “Hi.” He sounded as enthusiastic as I was when dealing with the local hotshot.

“Wouldn’t it be nice for your mommy to get dressed up and go out with a grown-up and have fun sometimes? I bet if you told her that, she’d stop feeling guilty about wanting to do grown-up mommy things.”

Leo looked at me, confusion etched on his little face. Anger filled me, white-hot. These days, I had a hairlike trigger and was hotheaded as hell. I was always walking a fine line between being okay and completely losing my shit. Angelo told me it was anger. A deep-down fury at the way my life had turned out. Resentment at my father, rage at how everything in my life had only trapped me and hurt the few people I cared about. He was probably right. Maybe one day it would overflow my tired heart, and I’d knife Edward Sloane to death on the hood of his fancy damn car and cackle maniacally while they arrested me.

Sometimes, it felt like the only thing stopping me from that fate was Leo.

I had to hold it together for him.

---