Page 47 of The Wanted Prince

“Your coffee breath,” said Dom. “When you work late.”

“Your face in the mornings.” Carlo puckered his mouth.

“Is that supposed to be me?”

“You’re not a morning person.” Carlo smacked my knee, a companionable swipe. “Listen, I believe you. Dom does too, right?”

Dom nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. I wasn’t so sure when I thought you were hiding, but you were out there facing your past. No one would do that just to deflect suspicion.”

“But I didn’t find anything.” I let out a sigh. “How about on your end? How’s the investigation?”

Dom glanced at Carlo, and I knew the news wasn’t good. Carlo steepled his fingers, weighing his words.

“Someone’s come forward,” he said at last. “A known fence with a long record. He claims you’d arranged to sell him the amulet, but you never showed up for the exchange.”

All the strength went out of me and I sagged in my seat. Someone had confessed? But, how? And why? He’d be facing prison. Years behind bars. What bribe, what threat could push him to that?

“And that’s not all,” Carlo was saying. “Ramirez has been tight-lipped on the details, but I heard they have fingerprints. DNA, maybe. All sorts of forensics, all pointing to you.”

I buried my face in my hands. “But, who? Who would do this?”

“We’ll help you,” said Carlo. He patted my knee. “We’ll hire our own investigator, someone impartial. And we won’t mention to Father that we saw you today.”

“Thank you,” I said, and leaned back, lightheaded. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this tired. “You believe me, don’t you? That I didn’t do this?”

“I do,” said Dom.

“Me too,” said Carlo. He glanced out the window and pressed for the driver. “Hey, loop back around. Back to the pickup.”

Dom caught my eye. “We’ll find who did this. But we did have one question.”

I narrowed my eyes, dreading what that question might be.

“That photo,” said Dom. “Your mystery woman. Was she one of the stops on your apology tour? Or is there something you’re not telling us?” He waggled his brows. I looked to Carlo for help, but he’d gone all deadpan, pretending he was above this frivolous tangent. But I could tell he was curious from the tilt of his head.

“She’s, uh, a friend.”

Dom pounced. “A friend? What friend? You don’t have friends.”

“Oh, burn,” said Carlo. I rolled my eyes.

“Of course I have friends, and she’s a very good one. And for the sake of her privacy and her good name, the less I reveal of her the better.”

Dom’s face fell. He pouted. “You’re not going to tell us?”

“Not now, I’m not. One day, maybe.”

“One day?” Carlo’s brows shot up. “You’re saying it’s serious?”

I flapped my hands at them both. “Give over, would you?”

They didn’t, of course. They kept up with their teasing, right till the moment they dropped me off. Still, it felt good to be back with my brothers, certain once more of their affection.

“See you soon,” said Carlo, as I got out. “And, Alessandro?”

“Yes?”

“It’ll be all right.”

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