Page 18 of A Love So Deadly
But it has made this journalist focus on us. On the real power. And he had pretended to be a delivery man who got lost to try to get into the building, and while he didn’t find anything, he clearly, according to his notes, wants to return to VMR.
All because someone who now works for Vinnie was once a bodyguard for a famous girl. One that is being interviewed by one of our talk show hosts soon.
It all falls together. What I see here, what I read on my computer. Vinnie’s man wasn’t even working for Vinnie yet. But he happened to transition a week later from bodyguarding the starlet to body-breaking for Vinnie.
A key scrapes at the lock.
The man steps in. Goodlooking, shaking rain from his coat. It takes a moment too long for him to see us.
When he does, Vittoria has him hand around his throat. Not tight but so he won’t be able to escape.
I stride over as he gasps for air. “You’re going to write new notes, Mr. Hutton. You’re going to remove VMR from all of them,” I say. “We prefer not to be in the limelight.”
I’m close now, mesmerizing him.
“Yes,” he breathes, body relaxing in Vittoria’s hold. His pupils dilate as my command sinks in. “And after that?”
“Dinner,” Vittoria says. “After that, you’ll be dinner.”
Chapter
Five
Elliot
Lucian Vale makes me jump, again causing me to drop the pile of mail I had in my hands. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to someone so silent on their feet.
He says something but my ears are roaring, and I don’t clock the words.
I push a hand to my chest. He didn’t give me a dress code, and after so many strange dreams last night, dreams that bordered on X-rated sex, I decided a long-sleeved light sweater top in red and black pants were the way to go. Covered from throat to ankle with flats on my feet and my hair pinned back should be making me more relaxed, feeling…safer, except I can still feel the burn of his hand on my thigh.
The worst thing about that? I don’t even know if I dreamt his hand or if it really did happen.
That’s messed up.
He wasn’t here at three-thirty-five when I came in to learn the ropes from his pregnant assistant who made it clear she wanted her job back.
I came early not because I’m desperate to make a good impression, but to hopefully snoop and pump Emily for information. But I quickly realize I shouldn’t.
She’s not hostile. She’s sweet, even letting me know the job I hold is only temporary, but she’s also strangely loyal to Lucian and even benign questions like ones about his love life are met in the same blasé way. She brushes me off with a smile and just says, “Mr. Vale is Mr. Vale.”
Maybe she signed some sort of NDA.
Maybe she’s in love with him.
Or maybe she’s been brain scrambled by the same pod-person drink Kayla clearly drank…
I have no idea.
But I’m glad I came early, gladder still he didn’t arrive at four because I got an alert on my phone when Emily left.
Josh Hutton’s dead. Killed it seems while conducting an investigation into Anton Baroni, an ugly crime boss who’s known for wiping out any threat to his business. Only this had backfired.
For now.
Baroni’s made of Teflon, so no doubt he’ll get away with it.
His apartment was a bloodbath. An attempt, the VMR news alert said, to make it look like someone else committed the crime.
