Page 44 of In Her Blood
Evelina smiled and wasted no time peeling the necessary amount of cash free from her gawdy money clip. She slid that across next and let her arms fall to her lap. “The woman I need you to find for me should be in the Newark, New Jersey area. Her name is Eleonora De Salvo. The sooner—”
“De Salvo?” Campo had gone still, but Evelina didn’t realize it until his wary question cut through her words.
She blinked, taking in the subtle changes about the man across from her. His expression had entirely locked down, giving away only the caution she’d heard in his voice and a firmness that made it hard to probe deeper. His sudden guarded edge sent alarm bells ringing in her mind and she tightened her grip of her purse. She didn’t understand what was going on,so she chose to answer cautiously, with eyes wide-open. “Yes, that’s what I said. She’s in her—”
“No.” Campo shoved to his feet and tossed her money back at her. “Get out. I can’t work with you.”
Evelina balked, feeling as if she’d been slapped in the face. “Excuse me?” She stood as well and planted her fists on the desktop, anger sparking through her. “What the hell do you mean, you suddenly can’t work with me? What did I say that was so terribly appalling?”
Campo ripped the toothpick from his mouth and tipped forward at the shoulders. “Are you taking me for a fool, or is it you who’s the idiot here, Ms. Nikolaev?”
She felt Otto’s energy shift like a tangible thing and snapped her arm up to hold him off. She never removed her glare from the bizarrely angry PI in front of her. “What the hell is your problem? We were getting along just fine.” She heaved a breath and gathered up her money. “You have a hell of a way of treating your clients, Raul. But whatever. Someone else will take my money.”
“Then it’s you.”
She shoved the cash haphazardly into her purse and took a step from the desk. “Whatis me?”
His lips curled in a sneer. “The idiot.”
Her eyes narrowed. If they were in Chicago, she could let Otto pummel him for that. But they didn’t have resources this far east to depend on. She sure as hell wasn’t sticking around to clean up all that blood. And she wasn’t quite inclined to outright kill the asshole for his attitude.Still…“Iwould advise you to stop being so rudely disrespectful to me. Otto doesn’t like that language.”
Campo scoffed abrasively, scrubbed a hand across his head, and scooped up the papers she had just signed. “You don’t get it. Fuck, this is a nightmare.” He shook his head and stepped toward what looked like a trash bin with a slotted bar across the top. “Listen, I’ll get rid of this for you. But do yourself a favor, Ms. Nikolaev, andneverpoke your nose into the De Salvo family again.” He pressed a button, powering the shredder on. “The only thing that gets any of us is dead.”
Evelina stared at him, shocked briefly speechless at his response.Thatwas what had set him off? Her aunt’s name? She glanced down at her purse, where a couple of forty-year-old pictures and one never-delivered letter were safely tucked inside. She’d brought them in case even an outdated image was useful, and in case the address proved to be at least a rough starting point. Or maybe she’d brought them so her mother could be part of this moment, she wasn’t entirely sure.
Regardless, she’d never expected a hole-in-the-wall PI inIndianato have any kind of reaction to the name De Salvo.
Gathering herself, Evelina looked up at Raul Campo again. “Why shouldn’t I?”
He scowled at her. “Take my advice or don’t. It’s your life.” He jerked his chin sharply to the side. “But do whatever you’re gonna do somewhere else.”
She had half a mind to smack him. But on the off-chance he decided to really be a dickwad and press assault charges after she left, since he would have glimpsed her information onthat contract, Evelina shouldered her purse properly and spun away from him instead. She was so angry.
And she wanted to cry.
How was she ever going to keep her promise if she kept slamming into these walls?
Chapter fourteen
Cristiano
“Are you really sure?”
Cristiano turned his focus down to his beautiful wife, who’d tucked herself under his arm again and was staring up at him with wide, searching eyes like she didn’t already know he’d do fucking anything for her. “Yes, Foxglove. I’m really sure.” He cupped a hand over her cheek, keeping his otherarm locked around her waist. “I never should have pushed to move us back into the tower. I’m sorry, baby.”
Felicity smiled and stretched her arms around him. “It’s not that I won’t miss the penthouse. It’s just … being underground when those bombs went off freaked me out, you know?” She pressed a kiss to his palm. “That doesn’t mean you have tobuildus something, though. There are plenty of houses.”
Cristiano lifted her properly into his arms and turned them toward the car at the edge of the lot. “Fuck that. I promised you whatever you wanted.” She’d had too many nightmares from that day. One fucking day of chaos, where both of them had nearly died. In the immediate aftermath, all he’d wanted was to heal up and get his home repaired so he could get out of his cousin’s house.
She hadn’t admitted until after they’d moved back in, when the nightmares kept coming, that so many of them were from how close she’d come to being crushed by the building they were living in.
He felt like an asshole for making her go back.
“Hey.” Felicity grabbed his face with both hands as he came to a stop beside the car. “I’m okay. I’m okay, and you’re okay, and that’s what really matters to me.”
Cristiano tightened his grip of her until he was able to steal a short, wet kiss. “I know, baby. But I’m still gonna get you a fresh start, on solid ground, like you deserve.”
She giggled, dancing her fingers over the back of his jaw. “A very sweet, yet ironic thing to say while you’re holding me like five feetoffthe ground.”
