Page 32 of Traitor

He slapped her ass and my head almost blew through the fucking roof.

Char cleared her throat. “Are you thirsty, Mr. Emiliano?”

Lorenzo dipped down to her ear. “You have permission to look up at him when asking him a question, sweetie.”

He gripped her hair and yanked her head up, and when I saw the caked-on makeup around her eyes my heart leapt into my throat. I’d never seen her wear so much of it, but when I saw the yellow coloring that trickled down over her cheek and all the way to her jawline, I signed Lorenzo’s death warrant in my head.

I’d make him pay for this.

And I’d make it slow, too.

“I would love a drink, yes. A glass of wine would be nice,” I said.

Lorenzo shoved her back into the house. “You heard him. Go get it.”

I drew in a sobering breath, but I saw his bodyguards reach for their guns. I knew they sensed the tension rising in me. The hatred and the anger that I had for this man was bleeding through, and I had to keep it under control. For all of our sakes. My eyes watched Char as she stumbled back into the darkness of the house before Lorenzo ushered me inside. And after walking through what seemed like a maze of hallways, we finally came to his kitchen table.

Where Char was standing next to my glass of wine.

“Thank you,” I said.

Her eyes fell back to her feet. “If you need anything, all you have to do is ask.”

Lorenzo sat down and patted his thigh. “Come here, sweetheart. Take a load off.”

The meeting was painful, to say the least. I tried to focus on what Lorenzo was talking about so we could discuss plans, but all I saw were his hands rubbing her thighs. His fingertips, dancing up the dip in her waist. I saw Char batting back tears and as her shoulders slumped.

Fucking hell, she didn’t even roll them back anymore.

Your entire empire will burn for what you’ve done to her.

“So, any questions?” Lorenzo asked.

I cleared my throat. “A few, yes. How did you get ahold of your brother’s work schedule?”

He shrugged. “Simple. Our schedules are tapped into one another. He has his own calendar network that he hired someone to create for him, and everyone that’s employed for him in any fashion has to keep their schedule up-to-date on it.”

“This meeting isn’t on it, correct?”

He shrugged. “There’s a meeting on there, yes, but not with who.”

I nodded slowly. “So, you’re under the impression that he doesn’t omit anything from his schedule at all?”

He leaned forward. “On the contrary, I know the code to his schedule. I know how he plans it, how he labels it, why he labels it that way, and what the color-coordination means.”

I saw Char’s ears perk up as she trained her eyes on Lorenzo, and I wondered what was going through her head.

She’s onto something, that beautiful wonderful woman.

I cleared my throat. “Color coordination? Are we in elementary school?”

Lorenzo barked with laughter as his grip around Char’s waist tightened. “It’s simple, really: red means urgent and usually pertains to a last-minute meeting, purple is royalty and usually pertains to a meeting with another family-head he works alongside, green means money and thatalwaysmeans he’s on his rounds to the businesses he owns to cash in, and black means… well, death.”

I blinked. “Right. And those are the only colors he uses?”

He shrugged. “For his schedule, sure. Then, he’s got orange for platonic outings because the man has to decompress at some point in time, no color means it’s a simple reminder for him and there’s usually something in the ‘notes’ section of the schedule, and yellow is for legal issues because the sun always shines on an innocent man.”

I saw Char’s brow tick and I knew that was what she had been looking for. I saw her shoulders roll back and I tried not to smile so myself. So, she was still trying to work against this man even though she was obeying him.

---