Page 48 of The Art of You

“No, her phone is in her bedroom. Why?”

“Since Callie and I have spent all afternoon in the depths of social media hell poring over posts connected to the party . . .”

I’d never get Bella’s remark about ellipses and their emphasis out of my head. I swore I could visibly see the three dots rolling between us as I waited for Alessandro to continue. “What is it that’ll make me want to actually commit murder?” My nerves were toast at this point.

He reached into his pocket and unlocked his phone. “Your name is already a trending hashtag on X. Videos are spreading like wildfire across all apps. You’re going to wantto punch a few people. I did. I may have spent more than a few minutes swinging at the heavy bag in the gym.” He kept his hand curled around the phone. “I’m sure your father will be blowing you up with calls the second his campaign manager lowers his blood pressure. Probably throw a glass instead of a punch like I did.”

My stomach was already doing motherfucking cartwheels, why not turn them into rings of fire? “Just hand it over.”

He finally set his phone on my open palm. “Start with X. It’s where Kit published her story. And it’s the origin of this mess.”

I stared at the image Kit had posted of me. It was the photo she’d taken of us outside the party when I’d been distracted. “Twenty-seven million views in thirty minutes? Is that even possible?”

Alessandro shrugged. “The internet is a strange beast.”

I forced myself to open Kit’s article, and it took me less than two seconds to understand why Alessandro expected me to snap.

Kit severed my arteries with her words, and I’d bleed out in no time.

I had to breathe as steadily as possible through my nose as I read her article, doing my best to remember to keep control.Who the hell told Kit this? And why now?

Kit claimed to have a reliable source who shared the real reason I left the Navy. Her source claimed my father had lied about why I truly left, choosing to use my mother’s cancer as a way to garner sympathy and support for his campaign rather than acknowledging my career as a SEAL ended in 2010 because of a disastrous op the government covered up as a training exercise gone wrong.

Everyone on my team had been ordered by Command to keep our mouths shut about what went down that day. That op had been fifty shades of motherfucking classifiedby orders of Joint Special Operations Command. And JSOC had taken their orders from Congress.

“It gets a bit more . . . gross. The accusations,” Alessandro warned after recognizing I’d paused only a few lines into reading.

Because there I was, right back in Afghanistan, surrounded by both gunfire and buildings ablaze.

“Hudson?” He gently set a hand on my shoulder, pulling me from my past hell and into this new nightmare.

I forced myself to continue reading, and my stomach dropped even more. “I didnotsleep with your sister,” I hissed. “You believe me, right?” My eyes burned as I fumed at the accusation that I’d slept with Bianca Costa and had moved on to my next target:“The last female darling of one of New York’s wealthiest families.”

My hand holding the phone shook as I read someone’s comment to her vile story.

“Son of the governor is trying to manwhore his way into becoming a billionaire.”

“Of course I know you didn’t sleep with Bianca.” Alessandro’s words had me peering up at him, and he slowly removed his hand from my shoulder. “What about Izzy?”

“I didn’t sleep with either of them, dammit.” The deep drop in my voice did me dirty. While it was the truth, I felt guilty how desperately I wished that I could sleep with Bella.

He cleared his throat, not even close to being subtle about it. “I meant, does Izzy know you never . . . with Bianca? You and Bianca were close back then, and if she reads this article, she might wonder.”

Jesus.“It never really came up in conversation,” I drawled, unsure if I meant that sarcastically or in anger at this entire situation. We already had too much to deal with, and we didn’t need more. But the fact Kit published the story had me moreinclined to believe she was connected to everything, just as Bella had first assumed. “Maybe the photo really was from Kit.”

“I guess we’ll know more when the guys get back.”

I handed him the phone. “I can’t look at this any longer. It’s all bullshit.”

“So, you don’t have a thing for my sister?” He lifted a brow as he pocketed his phone. No humor there, just an honest question. One I couldn’t answer.

I tightened my mouth into a hard line, unable to bluff my way out of this. I was too unhinged. He’d see right through me. “I would’ve left the Navy to take care of my mother, that’s true,” I said instead, finding myself wrestling with guilt, my least favorite emotion. “But what you don’t know is I also handed in my trident and didn’t re-up because of what happened on that last op.” My stomach roiled as I stared at the floor between us. “Kit’s anonymous source either came from Command or someone in Congress. That, or someone from my old team talked.”

He paused. Processed. Took it all in, then surrendered a quick, “Fuck.” Another long pause. “I’m sorry. But, uh, assuming it’s not someone from JSOC or Congress, any idea who from your old team may have a grudge against you?”

My body locked up, the tension mounting. I hung my head, giving in to that wicked emotion of guilt again, and admitted, “Yeah, probably everyone.”At least those still alive.

Chapter 18

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