Page 42 of The Art of You

“He was a mess. Desperate. And, um, my refusal to be hismuse sent him over the edge. He grabbed me pretty hard.” She touched her arm as if remembering.

And now so was I, finding myself back in her office the day I’d noticed the mark and asked her about it. “The bruise you had in August . . .?”

She quietly stared at me, seemingly surprised I’d recall that moment. Of course I did. I paid attention to everything when it came to this woman.

“He shoved me to the ground, but the second he realized what he’d done, he took off. I called his mom that night to let her know I was worried about him, and she convinced him to check into rehab. So, I think we can rule him out. I didn’t want to bring this up because I didn’t want you to lose your mind. Or my brothers.”

I stepped back, my gaze shooting to the fallen stool, and I mindlessly righted it. “What if he has someone keeping tabs on you while he’s in rehab, and he discovered we’d been spending a lot of time together? He could be jealous.” I highly doubted this theory, but I had to be certain of his innocence when it came to the photo. “Pablo may have chosen to have someone deliver that photo because it was the only one he could find online of us together. He wanted to remove me from the picture to make his point. To scare you.”

“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Bella lifted a brow.

No. But fucking A, I hate this man.

“I’ll look into him. Check who’s visited him as well. Obviously ensure he’s also still in rehab,” Adelina said softly, speaking for the first time in what felt like hours’ worth of seconds having stretched by.

“Thank you.” I nodded to Adelina, trusting her to handle Pablo’s innocence or guilt regarding the photo since this was her area of expertise.

Bella rubbed her hands up and down her denim-covered arms, keeping quiet.

“I wish you’d told me when this happened.” Defeat cut through my voice. “At least, told your brothers.” I slid the stool back in place beneath the marble overhang. “Things could’ve gone much differently with him, and?—”

“I know.” Tears filled her eyes, more than likely remembering Bianca now, the same as I was. “Secrets get people killed.”

Chapter 15

Isabella

“I thinkI should let you two finish the conversation. I’m going to check in with the others.” Hudson nodded at Adelina, avoiding eye contact with me. He started for the hall, only to pause in the doorway. Lifting his good arm, he set his palm inside the doorframe. “What drug was he on?”

I set a hand to my stomach at the gnawing-like pain there. “Fentanyl. His mom told me that was what he’d become addicted to.”

His back muscles tightened, and he bowed his head ever so slightly, then he walked away.

It took me a few seconds to gather myself before facing Adelina. “I’m sorry about all of that. You probably feel like you third-wheeled a heated exchange between two friends. But trust me when I say Pablo isn’t guilty. Not of this, at least.”

Adelina motioned for me to sit. Instead of acknowledging my opinion about Pablo, she said, “That conversation couldn’t have been easy.”

“Easier for me to say than for him to hear. He’s overprotective like my brothers.”

“Not sure if that’s all it is, but . . .” She let that “but” hang there like the echo of a bell, and she couldn’t continue until it was done. “I may not work for BAU at the FBI, but I can still profile someone from a hundred feet away.”

Finally planting my ass back on the stool, my legs like rubber, I pressed, “And that means?”

“That you’re not just a friend to him, and he’s lying to both of you if he says you are.” She’d stepped right in it. No holds barred. No hesitation. “I only bring this up because, as I told him earlier, someone may be jealous of your relationship.”

Well, as of thirty or forty minutes ago, Hudson made it clear there would be no relationship.He gave Constantine his word. And he’d never go back on that. But I didn’t need to unburden my thoughts on her.

“I have a few more questions, and then we can wrap this up.” She was waving the white flag, choosing not to push a stranger into divulging more.

Thank God.

The next thirty minutes were a blur as I went back through my history. She was thorough, wanting to know pretty much everything about my life, worried that even the least significant detail could be important. From my rebellious years in high school to the moment I found my sister murdered on her apartment floor, up until yesterday—all of it.

Once we were done, I was more exhausted mentally than physically. “I just don’t think I have a stalker. And that woman’s date really could’ve just happened to be looking out the window Friday night at that exact moment I went outside, yada yada yada, right?”

She arched her brow as if surprised I’d make light of the situation. Maybe the tripleyadaswere a bit much. “Possibly.”

“This still could be Kit’s doing. She’d have expected I’d tell Hudson about the picture and that someone photoshopped himfrom the background. Then when we bumped into her at the party, I’d assume she sent it, and she’d been trying to screw with us, then she’d get the spicy headline she wanted,” I rambled, hoping it all made sense. Ineededit to be her. “Kit would probably know my reputation, and I call shit out when I see it. I lack a filter, if you haven’t noticed. She was hoping for a scene.” Only it didn’t come, because we were on an op.

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