Page 148 of The Bad Wedding Date

Matteo ran a hand over his jaw before dropping it and pushing it into his suit trouser pocket. “You’re making an awfully bold assumption that I’ll keep you alive that long.”

That time, my knees began to knock together, and I was unable to hide the trembling of my hands as I reached for my clutch bag, just for something to hold tightly.

“Don’t forget, Charlotte, that I have the ability to get rid of every single person you know and love, and you can rest assured that I’ve done my homework on you since that night when your beloved man tried to end my life while I slept. The more you tell your father, the more you put him in danger, too—”

“Enough,” I whispered, closing my eyes, unable to take his vicious words a moment longer.

Matteo took a step towards me again, his voice low. “Open your eyes.”

I did as he asked, taking him in.

“What happens next is up to you. Cause a scene tonight, and you decide how your man dies. He’s going to die anyway, but you get to choose whether I make it quick and painless or slow and agonising. In the meantime, enjoy the party, dear Lottie.”

He walked away, straightening his suit jacket down, and leaving me to fall back against the wall with a thud, not knowing what the hell to do or who I could talk to anymore.

The only thing I knew was that Fraser’s life was in danger…

And that mattered to me more than anything else.

Anything.

* * *

I didn’t think about speaking to anyone as I walked through the crowd quickly, seeking out the man who’d just walked away from me but who was nowhere to be seen. Had he been a figment of my imagination? Was I going crazy? Or did Matteo simply have the ability to become a ghost yet somehow let his presence linger.

One look at my father smiling at my mother and sister, and I knew I couldn’t burden him with any more of this. Matteo’s threat still echoed in my ears.

The more you tell your father, the more you put him in danger, too.

If Fraserwason some fool’s errand, I had to hope that Wade, Dean, Joey, or Ray weren’t there with him. Not that I knew how to get hold of them. I didn’t have any of their details, and I hadn’t once been to their headquarters in Soho, even though Fraser had told me about it during our time together. I knew roughly where Fraser’s mother Keira lived, but I didn’t have any actual contact details for her, either. I couldn’t even recall seeing a building name on the apartments he’d taken me to.

The only number I had at hand was Fraser’s himself.

I didn’t even have to give it a second’s thought. His life was more important than my pride, and so I found his number in my contacts, and I hit the call button, unable to think of anything but telling him what I’d found out.

The phone rang and rang and rang until it rang out, my shoulders sagging in defeat as I pushed my way through the crowd of the bar and made my way outside to the surprisingly quiet streets of London. No doubt my family had paid to have this area cornered off so my sister and Lucas could have some privacy after the wedding had been such an affair with the latest gossip magazine on the block.

When the noise of the bar drifted away behind me, I hit dial on Fraser’s number again and waited until it rang out once more.

I stared at the phone screen, willing him to call me back, somehow knowing he wouldn’t.

I’d told him we were over. I’d begged him to leave.

He didn’t owe me a damn thing.

I was about to hit him with a text to explain everything when a black car pulled down the street on my left, drawing my attention up to it when it slowed in front of me.

Whoever had arrived late to the party didn’t need to see my miserable face when they opened the car door, so I turned around, hoping to avoid having to talk to whoever it was, only for my body to slam into the rock-hard form of another.

When I looked up at the man in front of me, I recognised him as one of Matteo’s security guards from Emmie’s wedding.

His slow smile crept to life, and I heard a car door open behind me.

“Don’t scream,” the guy said, and before I could find my voice, he’d clamped a cloth over my mouth and filled my lungs with a taste that sent my eyes rolling into the back of my head.

I tried to fight him off—I did—but my bones were turning looser by the second, and my vision blurred around the edges, making the world go fuzzy around me.

Fight, Charlotte. Fight!a voice screamed inside my head.

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