Page 99 of Beautiful Dangerous

We look at each other, and we smile, and I allow a tiny sliver of hope to pierce the ensuing dark thoughts. “Together, Lucca. We’ll fix this.”

She’s right.

We will.

Together.

And it really does need to be sooner, rather than later…

Nineteen

Olivia

Javier didn’t come home last night. He didn’t call, didn’t leave any messages and when Lucca tried to make contact his phone went straight to voicemail. Am I worried? Maybe I should be, he told – instructed me – to wait up for him. And I did, for a while, before tiredness got the better of me. But in reality I was relieved. I actually slept well, for the first time in a long time, considering everything that’s going on. And when I woke this morning my head was clearer than it has been in a long time. I have to keep control of all of this, and that’s hard, when you don’t know who to trust anymore, but I have to stay strong. I have to play along until the time is right for Lucca and I to make our move, and that’s the only thing that’s pushing me forward now, the thought of a new future with a man I didn’t even like all that much, in the beginning, but now – now I’m in love with him. And that’s the only certain thing in my life right now, my feelings for Lucca.

“We need to talk, Olivia.”

His voice startles me, and I jump up out of my chair and spin around to look at him. My “dead” husband. “Where were you last night?” I might not care where he was but a good wife would at least have the decency to ask. To feign concern. Appear worried.

“Sit down. Please.”

I slowly sit back down, and he takes the chair opposite me, at the table set for breakfast underneath the bougainvillea-covered pergola.

“Javier, where were you last night?”

He drops his head, his hands clasped together on the table. And when he looks at me I don’t know what to think. I can’t read him, his expression is almost impassive.

“It’s not what you think.”

I narrow my eyes slightly. “WhatdoI think?”

“That I was with another woman?”

The thought hadn’t actually crossed my mind, I hadn’t even considered it because, in reality, if hehadbeen with another woman, I wouldn’t have cared. I wouldn’t.

Is this what it’s come to? You actuallywantsomeone to take him from you?

It would be a blessed relief. Yes.

If he’d admitted to cheating on me, it would’ve given me a reason to back away. An excuse to feign hurt. I don’t have either of those.

“You weren’t, with another woman?”

He shakes his head. “No. I was in a meeting. With Fidel Pino.”

I sit forward, because I can’t believe I’m hearing this. “What kind of meeting?”

He briefly drops his gaze, but I don’t take my eyes off him. “We’ve decided to call a truce.”

I sit back again, turning my head away from him. “You decided this alone? Without talking tome? Without talking to Lucca?”

“It has nothing to do with Lucca. And you don’t get to make decisions like this one, Olivia.”

His voice has an edge to it now, but I don’t give a shit anymore. I really don’t. “Decisions like, what? Hmm? The kind I had to make becauseyouweren’t here? I thought we were running this cartel together now, Javier.”

“That was never really going to happen.”

It takes a second for his words to sink in; for me to realize that, all of a sudden, things are changing, all over again, and my stomach sinks to the floor.

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