She smiles and my blood turns so red hot, it’s acidic, burning its way through my veins.
“This is a new start,” Lucian says more to her than to me, “and we need to watch what’s going on in the mafia world now that word’s breaking about de Santis.”
“On it,” Vittoria mutters, turning, her long hair whipping at me as she does so. She’s got talents, I’ll give her that. Vittoria heads for the elevator. “I’d keep her locked up, preferably down below.”
“Noted,” he says, not even looking at her.
The elevator dings, but I’m unable to tear my gaze from him. “Have you found out anything about Kayla? You said?—”
“Not yet.” But his gaze sweeps just left of me.
I step up to him and put my hands on the fine wool of his vest. Those blue eyes shift back to me. “That’s a lie.”
“It’s not. This is a huge company. People move about, move interstate, overseas, for different roles. People quit.”
But I don’t let it go. It’s the last thing I have left of who I was before. Kayla keeps me tethered to humanity.
Otherwise…what is there for me? Lucian should understand that.
“Kayla wouldn’t quit. She wouldn’t move without telling me,” I say.
He swallows, fingers slipping through my hair, and I’m still super close to him when I don’t mean to be. It’s like he calls and I’m there, always. It makes my stomach flip and clench with disgust.
“The thing is, Monty, our world—yours now—operates differently. We glamour and mesmerize to make things easier, to make things cleaner, to help erase things that shouldn’t have been seen?—”
“Easier?” I spit the word. “Cleaner? Erase? What in gaslighting hell is this shit?”
“Thisshitis to keep killings to a minimum. If she saw something, it’s easier to mesmerize or glamour her and set her up elsewhere. Did you think of searching for her beyond here?”
“No.” Resentment creeps in.
He shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. Even if she was working here on the floor below you?—”
“She was in the TV part of VMR,” I interrupt. “Point the way, and I’ll go and ask around. You won’t have to do anything.”
He takes my arms. The hold is firm but doesn’t bite like before, and yet I know I couldn’t break free if I tried.
I don’t want to try.
“Monty,” he whispers my name like a sigh, and my heart flutters.
“She’s my friend,” I say. “She’s the closest to family I have. And you can’t keep me locked up forever. That’s cruel.”
“I need to trust you to let you roam freely.” He lets me go and straightens. His face turns into an unreadable mask. “I have meetings.”
“You’re leaving me again?”
A ghost of a smile touches his lips. “Be aware, the elevator has guards on every stop.”
Before I can snarl choice words at him, he draws me to him and kisses me. My mouth opens beneath his of its own volition.
A hunger rises, taking over everything. I can’t help myself, melting into him like I’m ice under an intense sun.
He smells the same, but deeper, more compelling, like there’s an addicting scent beneath the one I know.
The kiss he gives and cajoles out of me is pure devastation, and I fall into it, into him, mating my tongue with his in a slow, sinful dance.
The kiss tastes to me like forever—and love—and that’s a lie. Nothing but a fallacy, and something I reject. I don’t want soft with him.
