I don’t need to shower. I’ve never been so clean in my life, actually, after getting tongue-polished by Alessandro Castellani himself again this morning…
My knees go a little wobbly as I stomp upstairs, the memory thrilling me with desire. But the pain follows shortly after.
I have to blink away angry tears again. What is he doing right now? Is he even thinking about me? Was I just making up the connection I thought we had?
When I get to my room, Idotake a shower after all, because if I’m going to cry, I’d rather do it where I can pretend I’m not really crying, that it’s just the water running down my face, not tears. But when I get in there, my dick gets crazy hard as I think about Alessandro’s hands all over me, and hismouth…
I jerk off mechanically, sinking into the fantasy with only a little push.
Fantasy is much better than reality right now.
* * *
The first thing I do after my shower is check onCute Crims. My messages are all banked up, but I’m relieved to see that moderation has been continuing pretty smoothly.
I filter through the messages, mostly demands to know if I ever followed up on their wild suggestions about Ciro Castellani’s murder, but one from Pepperoni_lover stops me in my tracks.
Pepperoni_lover:I hear Lina L will be at Roxanne R’s engagement party - with a new boyfriend
Lina Lamond has a new boyfriend? ABernardiboyfriend? Because that’s who Roxanne Rochford is engaged to, right? I check the site quickly to confirm. Yes—Gino Bernardi is her fiancé. So Lina Lamond has switched teams?
I need to get a message to Alessandro about this.
But first, I need to hideCute Crims. I send out an alert to all paying members that it’ll be back soon, and then I make the site private and unsearchable for now.
That should satisfy Don Castellani. And once he hears this news about Lina Lamond, I’ll talk him into letting me put it back up. How will he be able to refuse, with such good intel coming through?
But how am I supposed to get this message to him in the first place? He told me he needed a week. He made me promise that, unless it was a matter of life or death, I’d give him a week.
A week to get things “sorted out.”
I feel sick again as I wonder if he meant Julian. And what about Jack?
Jack…
That gives me an idea.
CHAPTER34
SANDRO
I was not preparedfor the sense of desolation that hits me after Teddy leaves. I’ve become accustomed to his presence after only seven days. He made this empty place feel a littlelesslonely. My mind follows him down the long driveway, replaying over and over the way he turned to look at me through the back of the car…
But I have to clean up this Family mess. My first call is to Lombardo, to see if he’s found out anything.
“Ms. Lamond was extremely offended when I asked her about a potential breakup,” he reports. “She said that she and your father were utterly devoted to each other, and reiterated that she did not seek out the stipend or the house from your father, but that he insisted. And that, I am sorry to tell you, is certainly true. Your father wanted her provided for—or if he’d changed his mind, he didn’t communicate it to me before his death.”
“I see,” I murmur. The stipend is a mere pittance; it’s a drop in the bucket for the Castellani estate, even as weakened as my father left it. I don’t care about that, and if my father wanted her cared for, I’ll honor his wishes.
I picture Teddy’s face when I suggested a stipend for him. That was a mistake. He didn’t like the idea at all. But I must not think of him now. “So she was under the impression that the relationship was…intact?”
“Yes, sir.” He hesitates. “Don Castellani…Sandro. May I speak freely?”
“Go on.”
“This business needs to be put to bed. The Family needs leadership. I don’t mean this Lina Lamond—”
“I understand what you mean.”
