Page 87 of Corrupted Deception

“You’ve got thirty seconds before the guards are back at the front of the house, Cielo. Move it,” she snapped, all vestiges of humor gone from her voice.

Rolling my eyes, I strode down the stairs and through the foyer to the mansion’s front door, counting down in my head.

I reached the door with fifteen seconds to spare and then moved along the stone front of the house to the west corner. And then I waited.

Ten seconds. Nine. Eight.

The moment the guards were back in position, I’d be able to make my way back to the bushes where Charlotte was waiting…ifshe hadn’t outright lied or screwed this up.

She didn’t,a confident voice whispered inside my head. That was interesting.

Three seconds. Two. One.

Three men rounded the east corner of the house and headed for the front entrance.

“Tell me you’re safe, god damn it,” she snapped over the earpiece.

I smiled. Maybe she was pissed, but it sounded an awful lot like concern to me.

“I’m safe,tempesta.I’ll be there momentarily,” I whispered as I took off from the edge of the house and navigated my way back under the cover of enough ornamental bushes to populate a fucking botanical garden.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Cielo Luciano

“You son of a bitch,” Charlotte seethed the moment I rounded the bushes where she was hiding and came face-to-face with a very angry woman.

“If that’s your way of saying you were worried, you might want to work on your people skills,” I replied easily.

“I’ll take that under advisement,” she said while her silver eyes grazed over me like she was checking me for injuries.

It was sweet, but I preferred it when she was looking at me like I was something she wanted to fuck.

“Time to go—unless you’d prefer to camp out in the bushes all night?” I said. Not that it was an option. There was no way she wasn’t going to be miles away from here by the time Mendoza’s guards realized their bosswas vacationing in hell. Not on my watch.

She still had her hands curled into fists, but she nodded, grabbed a black duffel bag off the ground, and strode past me.

With no sign of trouble nearby, I used the distance to grab my phone and check in with Deo.

“It’s done,” I told him the moment he answered the phone.

“Bene,” he replied, breathing a sigh of relief. “We’re just checking faces on our end, making sure no one’s been left out of the party.”

“Remind me never to attend one of your parties,fratellone.”

Deo laughed.

“I’ll catch up with you in a while,” I said, scrubbing my hand through my hair as I watched the swaying hips and tantalizing ass in front of me. “I just have to make a detour.”

“A detour? I assume that’s code for visiting your runaway?” he asked, insinuation thick in his tone.

I scoffed. “It’s code for taking Charlotte home.”

“Home?” he asked. The surprise in his voice was priceless. “You do realize that insinuates she’s there with you?”

“Si,” I replied without elaborating.

It wasn’t often Deo was left scratching his head. I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to leave him dumbfounded.

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