Page 75 of Cruel Hearts

“She’ll hardly be a blip,” Denton points out. “She’s your ex. She was in a relationship with an Italian prince, it doesn’t matter if it was fake or not. She won’t pop out of the news that fast.”

He hates the idea, and it shows in the anger on his face. He’s going to have to get used to the fact I’m in the picture. I love her, and I won’t be letting her go so easily this time.

“All the better then. The more real it is, the more believable it is.”

“I don’t like it.” Denton leans against the table and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Do you have a better idea?”

“She can stay out of the way.”

As much as I like that idea the best, I know Stella will never go for it, and she doesn’t.

“No.” She jumps up. “I want to help, and you need me. I know the Blacks’ skyscraper from top to bottom. That place is like a castle, full of secret hallways and rooms. If we need something in that building, I’ll know exactly where it will be.”

I admit, even I don’t know Ash’s building that well, though I knew Clayton had a penchant for that kind of thing. Clayton and Ash love to know they’re capable of misleading people to the point they’ll believe anything they say. Like Clayton speaking at my dinner. Like Ash telling everyone he loved Zarah and wanted to marry her, and an hour later selling her to the highest bidder.

“What do we do?” Denton asks grudgingly.

“Stella and I will go to dinner. People will be curious to see us together again, and the paparazzi will post our pictures all over the gossip sites. We get mugged, but I’ll resist, and Stella gets shot. My driver will rush us to the hospital where she’s proclaimed DOA. Mel picks her up in the back.”

“It might work,” Denton says slowly, rolling through the plan, searching for holes. “She’ll be safer dead.”

“Yeah, she will.” I look at her, and her tired eyes meet mine. She escaped Ash only a handful of days ago, and since then, she’s been through so much. I want to hold her, keep her safe, but I’m the last one who will ever have that privilege.

Maybe after all this is done, Denton and Stella will vanish to live out the rest of their lives, cursing the Blacks and Maddoxes every night like a prayer before they go to sleep.

He watches for her reaction, but all she does is blow out a breath and sink back onto the couch.

“You said we need to hang out somewhere better?” Max asks, breaking the silence.

“Somewhere Ash won’t think to look for you.”

“Only us?”

“I still need to go to work. Play nice with Ash and pretend everything’s normal. It’ll be like a magic trick. Keep his eyes over here,” I lift my left hand, “while we take him down over here.” I lift my right. “I told him I’m in love with Nathalie. If we go out with him socially, he’ll believe it.”

“How do you explain you and Stella going to dinner?” Max asks.

I shrug. “She wants to get back together. I’m telling her to fuck off. No one is going to question that.”

Denton sighs. “Do you have a place in mind?”

“I just finished renovating the Crowne Royale Suites and Spa. It’s not open to the public yet, and I can hold off on that. No one will think to look for us there.”

“I’ll write a list of the things we know, the things we kind of know, and the gaps we have and what we’ll need to fill them in. You kill off Stella,” Max says.

He’s only joking, but it’s not funny. Not to me. If Ash’s men hadn’t been so inept, if Hal hadn’t dropped the job, if Denton hadn’t rescued her, if Ash hadn’t tipped me off to the kind of man he is when we were at Quiet Meadows, if I hadn’t found Stella’s ring in his desk...it’s a miracle she’s standing here.

Max continues, “We need resources. Richard’s car was destroyed when that asshole pushed him and Stella into the river, and they lost their phones.”

I nod. “We’ll get everything we need after we relocate.”

We sit at the kitchen table and form a plan. Scatter and meet at the hotel at different times using different modes of transportation.

“Stella can come with me,” Denton says, gripping her arm.

“Stella comes with me,” I say, rising off my chair.

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