Page 47 of The Art of You

“How’s she doing now?”

Despite her bruises, which killed me to look at, she didn’t seem in pain. Well, from what she’d told me. “She’s fine, I guess.” Maybe he should’ve been asking her this, though.

“What about you?” He angled his head, eyes narrowing, likely preparing for me to lie to him.

So, I went ahead and gave him the truth. No sense in hiding it. “Feel like someone played whack-a-mole with my chest, face, and back.”

“Sounds pleasant.” He smirked. “You should be taking something stronger than Advil.”

“Says the guy who can’t even handle cold medicine without acting drunk.”

He rolled his eyes before glancing at the open door. I started to close it, assuming he wanted more privacy, but then opted to leave it slightly cracked.

The idea of leaving Bella asleep and alone with Jack from TheShining, even if he was on screen, didn’t sit well with me. As crazy as our weekend had been, I was prepared for the impossible to happen. For fictional characters to come to life. The dead to start walking. Pigs to actually fly. And Constantine to tell me he’d love having me as a brother-in-law.

I rubbed my eyes at the last thought. That one definitely snuck up on me. It had no business being in my head. Time to switch gears. Kind of. “You hear from your brothers?”

“Constantine texted that he’d rather go over everything with us in person. He and Enzo should be here in an hour or two.” He pushed away from the wall. “Not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.”

Same.

“Anything from your dad?”

After unleashing a disgruntled sigh, the mere thought of my father souring my mood, I shared, “If the Feds learned anything helpful from their interview of the two suspects, they’ve yet to talk to my father about it. So, unfortunately, nothing on my end to share.” My gaze flicked to the bandage still on my arm, the memory of the car accident and the fact I could have lost Bella still far too fresh. “Where are you at with looking into that valet? Enzo turned that job over to you, right?”

“I’m still looking into the both of them, especially the one that first parked the Porsche when you arrived. Nothing conclusiveyet.”

It’s probably a waste of time.

“Eduardo and Chris knew you were coming to the party, but they didn’t know the real reason why since the ambo kept them in the dark. They thought you fell for the trap to draw you away from where the real ransom drop would take place. Sounds like they had a contingency plan set in place in case things went south like they did.”

“The truck at the gas station and that valet for an assist, you mean?”

“They could have easily recruited that valet. Told him they had concerns about a potential threat to the ambassador and tasked him with tagging your vehicle.”

No one should’ve been able to get any kind of drop on me. I’d been unfocused. Not only with Bella at my side, but with the ghost of an old friend in the back of my mind.

“The kid may have even thought he was helping protect the ambo from you.”

“The kid?” I arched my brow.

“Now that I’m forty, anyone under twenty-five feels like a kid to me.”

“Fucking same, which is why I didn’t even check out Bella?—”

Alessandro’s arms fell at the same time I realized what I’d almost confessed, fortunately cutting myself off and finishing that thought in my head.

And where the hell did that come from, anyway? I did the math in my head. Shit. She was twenty-five when I started calling her Bella. Seven years ago. It should’ve been hard to pinpoint an exact date, but it’d been a memorable evening. She’d come home from London for her birthday, and since our travel schedules never seemed to align, it’d been the first time I’d seen her in two years.

Her family threw her a party worthy of royalty, and I’dnever forget the moment I set eyes on her walking into the hotel ballroom. She was suddenly all grown up. The way her fitted black gown clung to her golden-tan skin, it appeared to have been glued to her body. Her hair had been pinned up instead of wild and down like normal.

After I’d picked my jaw up off the floor, the name Bella rolled from my tongue when I’d told her happy birthday.

I hadn’t looked back since, or thought about why I’d used that name, until Adelina mentioned it this morning.

I blinked, remembering where I was. I hauled my ass from the past to the present. “So . . .” I cleared my throat.Focus.“Even if that valet tagged the Porsche, he’s still more than likely not our shooter, which brings us back to square one.”

Alessandro stole a look at the theater room, and I wasn’t sure if he was about to press me on my earlier unfinished thought. He wound up going in a completely different direction than I expected and said, “I’m guessing Izzy hasn’t been on her phone in the last thirty minutes. I know you rarely use social media, but she does all the time.” His gray eyes slipped down between us and to the floor. Shoulders breaking forward yet again from the weight of whatever he planned to share.

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