Page 88 of Scorned Beauty

Her walls were back up. Bianca and I exchanged a look, and she gave me a shake of her head. That irked me. What? Like I couldn’t read the room? Sera, though, gave a knowing look. She’d seen me in mafia sit-downs handle business and negotiate the upper hand. Frequently, it was the women in my life who put me at a disadvantage. I was determined to win Sloane over, but for my sanity, she had to understand that it was going to be a compromise because of my position.

Her independence was at stake, and I had to show her I was worth the risk.

“I like Sloane.”

I was on a video call with Lucy. After the discovery of the tracker a week ago, Sandro had arranged a new phone for Sloane with the necessary encryption so she could communicate with us, including checking on Ginger. I appreciated my sister for taking the time. Apparently the two were hitting it off.

“I have good taste,” I retorted.

My sister cackled. “I don’t think she returns the sentiment.”

“Thanks for stating the obvious.” Ginger was sitting on her lap. Apparently, the cat was also looking forward to the video calls.

“Meow.” She pawed the screen.

“Ginger misses you both, though,” Lucy said. “She’s haunting the penthouse at night with her cries. She’s looking for you or Sloane.”

“It’s me she’s looking for,” I said confidently. Hell, I needed that morale boost, at least. There was no sign of a thaw fromSloane. After Bianca, Sera, and Sandro left, she never responded to my texts. I wondered if she blocked me. I continued to watch her in my remaining video surveillance, and when Sloane was in the kitchen, sometimes she’d give me the finger.

That got me hard.

If she was trying to discourage me by giving me the cold shoulder, she would know soon enough that it would only make me try harder. I was a De Lucci and a Moretti. I had obsession on one side, and cunning on the other. Although I refused to be manipulative like Luca because that only bit him in the ass later. But I was getting desperate to get her to a more secure location.

The feds arrested Kolya Petrov for the murder of Elyse Bailey. It was his DNA that was on her body, but even I knew Grigori was the one who planted it. And Sloane could be a witness. But why let her go?

“If you say so, dear bro.”

“Are you on my side or not?” I grumbled.

“It’s entertaining to see you floundering for once when it comes to women.” She tickled Ginger’s chin, and the feline started purring. “Oh, by the way, Sloane and I put two and two together.”

“What? Like how you two hate my guts?” Maybe that was why Sloane wasn’t softening toward me. Lucy was only magnifying my shortcomings. I knew it was a bad idea to put two of the most independent and stubborn women in my life together. They were ganging up against me.

“I don’t hate you.” She rounded her eyes in all innocence. “No, this is related to Elyse’s case.”

“Lucy, I told you to leave that alone. They arrested Kolya. And we all know he’s like a brother to Kirill.”

“Your penthouse is like Fort Knox and De Lucci soldiers surround the building, not to mention Dad had hired private military security.”

“Maybe you can convince Sloane to move in with you.”

“I floated that idea to her,” Lucy said. “But wait, you’re distracting me. So Sloane was one of the nurses who was working when Wade was brought into the ER.”

“Your lawyer friend?”

“Yes.” Foreboding and rage tightened my grip on the phone. That was the night Sloane broke up with me.

The night she was attacked.

“She saw this Anton guy in the ER.”

“One of the Russians who works with Grigori,” I growled. “God fucking dammit. It was him! He was the one who strangled her.”

“Elyse Bailey?”

“No!” I was shouting now. “That night that happened, I went to Sloane’s apartment because she wasn’t answering my texts. She had strangle marks around her neck. She…” I broke off as the magnitude of my failures stabbed my chest with a crippling blow. Breathing became a chore.

I put bodyguards on her, but I sidelined her instead of getting to the bottom of her attack. Though she broke up with me, our boundaries were merely an excuse for me to justify putting mob business first. She would never believe I was falling in love with her given my past behavior.