Page 11 of Vice

It can’t.

If I couldn’t be more obvious, I add, “You’ll have to tell me more later if we have the time today.”

And then I see it flash in his eyes. The moment he decides he wants to fuck me, and that he’s going to take the first opportunity to do it. The moment he decides to taunt me back.

“Maybe I will. Today. If there’s time.”

I grin, knowing full well that there is no maybe involved. We’re going to find a way.

I turn my attention back to Pray as though I haven’t just propositioned his righthand man in front of everyone, ignoring the tight look in Bella’s face.

I can’t ignore Bella once we’re back in the car, following behind the black suburban carrying Pray. He offered to let us use one of his own cars and drivers, but the Italian mafia is nothing if not paranoid and both Bond and Isabella declined the offer at the same time. There was no way to discretely check for car bombs on a car that wasn’t yours.

“Do you have any shame?” Bella snaps.

“Isa,” Bond says, his pronunciation making the affectionate nickname sound like “Eesa.”

Bella ignores him. “What do you think you were doing? You know how dangerous this is. All so you can—”

Bella abruptly cuts herself off. Because while she knows and is very aware of the fact that Viper and I are still in contact, Bond doesn’t know. He doesn’t even know that I’m working with him to take down Pray. He just thinks Viper and I had a clandestine affair behind Phae’s back and that Leon and Lady were the result.

“We didn’t know he would be here,” Bond says.

Bella glares at me because maybe Bond didn’t, but I knew there was a chance. And I decided to take it. Because Viper is no danger to me.

Bond then asks gravely, “Did he recognize you?”

Because that’s what really matters. I start to say no. But then I think of how that would sound to Bond with the information that I’ve given him. I can’t lie to him. Not totally.

“I think he did,” I admit.

Bella frowns at me, clearly wondering what I’m aiming at.

“But he’s not going to tell.”

“What makes you so sure of that?” Bond asks, leaning back in his seat.

“Because if he was, he would have immediately told Pray, and why would they take us out to lunch in such a public place instead of taking us to some conference room where he could trap us and have us whisked away?”

“He still can do that. We still have to go to legal and sign the papers,” Bond reminds.

“Not unless he also wants to kill his entire legal department. Good, dirty lawyers are hard to find,” I say. I should know. It took ages to find mine. Then, “Adrian’s not going to tell. He let me go when he first became Pray’s enforcer. As long as Pray doesn’t recognize me, and there’s no reason he should, we’ll be fine. If Pray hasn’t recognized me sitting in his face for two hours, he’s not going to. If anything, I only added to the persona of Addy Bianchi. Flirty socialite and one of America’s most notorious playboys. It’s perfect.”

Bond looks contemplative, and for a moment, I think he’s not going to buy my bullshit story. But then shrugs and says, “Who knows? Maybe she can use this to her advantage.”

There’s a reason that Isabella Uccello is the one who runs the Uccello-Bianchi Mafia family. She didn’t fall for my stories so easily.

“Bond,” Bella says tersely.

He shrugs. “They want to fuck, who are we to stop them. She can buy his silence and some—”

“He is going to be the death of you,” Bella interrupts looking directly at me. And she’s not just talking about this pretense we’ve both got Bond under. She’s talking about… everything else.

“He could have killed me before, and he hasn’t.”

“Not yet. As long as his feelings for you don’t outweigh the power he covets from proximity to Pray,” Bella declares with a huff before sitting back in her seat.

Bond exchanges a look with me, knowing as well as I do that there’s no use arguing with Bella when she’s made a decision about something. Just as there no use arguing with me once I’ve made up my mind about something too.

And my mind is made up about Viper.

At least about this.

I’ll have no shame for indulging in my vice.

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