Page 88 of Beautiful Desire

I hear him hum into the receiver at my response. “Okay, I guess I’ll let you go then.”

“Wait. What’s up?”

“You sure? I don’t want to interrupt anything,” he says playfully.

“Cut the shit, man. I’ve had a hell of a day.”

“Well, it’s about to get even worse with what I’m going to tell you.”

Groaning, I push the palm of my hand into my eye and take a couple of deep breaths. “Hit me.”

“Nero ran into Elle,” he says matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, I kno—wait, how do you know?” I’m confused as to how he could know when Enricojusttold me.

“Elle told me. How doyouknow?” he asks, just as confused.

“Enrico just told me. When did Elle tell you? What did she say? Is she okay? Did he hurt her in any way?”

My mouth won’t stop with the rapid word-vomit I just spewed at Fabi. My breathing picks up, and I can feel the beginning of a panic attack coming on.

Instead of making fun of me, he must sense what’s happening, because he speaks in a calm tone. “Breathe, man. Everything’s okay. She’s okay. Take a couple of deep breaths for me.”

Doing as instructed, I take a couple more deep breaths and keep repeating,she’s fineover and over until my breathing is back under control.

“You good now?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

“Good. As I was saying before you started to freak out on me…” he says, and we both chuckle. “Elle is fine. He didn’t harm her or even lay a finger on her. When she got here, I walked in when she was talking to Gia, and she told me everything. All she kept saying was that he was standing really close to her, he creeped her out, and she still has an uneasy feeling.”

“Fuck,” I breathe down the line. “What the fuck is he doing sniffing around Elle, andwhythe hell is he still here?” My chest heaves up and down as anger courses through me.

“I don’t know. I was going to ask you the same thing. Maybe he could smell your scent all over her and is trying to take her for himself.”

“My scent isn’t ‘all over her.’” I do air quotes, even though he can’t see me. “He met her one time,briefly,in my office when she…”

I stop as I remember why she came into my office. Over the note I wrote with the flowers I sent her.

“When she what?” he asks, enjoying hearing me squirm.

“That’s beside the point. Why the hell is Nero making contact with Elle? Has he tried anything with you?”

“I don’t know. He could have just been in the same place at the same time, and no, he hasn’t been stupid enough to try anything.”

“Do you really believe it was just a coincidence that he ran into Elle today?”

Without hesitating, he answers, “No, I don’t.”

The problem is, I don’t either.

“What was your conversation with him about when he showed up at your office?”

“You,” I say as I think back to what was said. “He wanted me to do myfinal jobfor him, which was to kill you. I told him no and explained how I had the hard drives with my blackmail erased, so I would no longer be doing what he said. He said this wasn’t the end before he stormed out.”

“Hmm,” is all he says.

After several long seconds of silence, he speaks again.

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