Page 64 of Corrupted Deception

I glanced at my watch. If he thought the cavalry was coming, he was going to be sorely disappointed. By now, Deo would have had our warehouse guarded like the Pope himself had come to visit.

Usually then, I would have ignored him, used pain to focus his attention where I wanted it. But not today. My gut was telling me there was more to it.

“It’s thirty-seven minutes past six.”

Even as he grimaced, the corners of his lips twitched.

“My job is done,” he wheezed.

“What job?” I asked, keeping my voice cool and calm despite the way my heartbeat had picked up.

“To keep you distracted,parce.” His lips curled in a sinister smile.

Me. Not Deo.

A cold sensation prickled down my spine like shards of ice as Charlotte’s face flashed behind my eyes.

“A distraction from what?”

“From theputa,of course—the one you’ve been following around like she’s in heat.”

My heart pounded harder as I took hold of his chin and forced his head up, meeting his eyes, searching for whether he was telling the truth.

“You’ve got a real hard-on for her, don’t you?” He scoffed, then looked down at the stumps of his fingers.

He looked back up slowly, pain etched in hard lines across his face.

“That’s too bad,” he said, as a flicker of triumph darted through his dark eyes. “Because we’ve got her now, asshole.”

Chapter Nineteen

Charlotte Santoro

Aurelio set my laptop down on the coffee table and sat back, eyes lost in concentration.

“From what you’ve told me about your father, I think it’s highly unlikely he would have offered up information about you, no matter the… pressure he was under.”

My stomach roiled. I knew damn well what he meant by ‘pressure’.

“Whoever is responsible for your father’s disappearance knew about your connection to him prior to whatever took place in Venezuela,” he continued like he was quite certain of it.

“No, that’s not possible,” I argued as I stroked Ray’s back.

Ray and I were sitting at the opposite end of the sofa, as far from Aurelio as Ray could get while keeping his protector nearby him at the same time.

I shook my head. “My dad only entrusted that information to people he trusted.” There had to be something else that explained how the cartel had figured out the link between Madison Finley and Charlotte Santoro.

Aurelio sighed. “It is sometimes the people we trust the most who cut us deepest with their betrayal.”

He was looking at me as he spoke, eyes conveying their own message. It wasn’t the first time we’d circled this subject today

“Why do I get the feeling you’re talking about two different things, all with the same words?” I asked.

“Because you’re a wise, young woman.”

Okay, so apparently, we were done dancing aroundthisconversation. “This is about my leaving a decade ago?”

He nodded.

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