“You know I can’t give his name.”
“Then tell him you killed the girl, and it’s done.”
He dropped the cigar on the ground and stomped on it just the way Carvel had stomped on his. This time, when he exhaled a breath, it was warm vapor from his lungs. “Luca, you know I can’t?—”
My gun was out and pointed at his head before he could finish the sentence.
Carvel glanced at me but didn’t dare question me.
Vein didn’t raise his arms, but he stiffened like he knew this wasn’t a bluff. “I came unarmed because I thought there was trust between us.”
“I’m about to blow that trust out of your brain unless you do what I say. Don’t do what I say, and I’m still going to blow out your brains. So think clearly, Vein.One exception—one time.”
He didn’t take a step back, but he drew a slow breath. “You win, Luca.”
I dropped the gun and nodded to Carvel.
“As a thank you for your cooperation…” Carvel pulled out his phone and made the transfer. “Funds have been deposited into your account. Aliénor is dead. You shot her in the shower, stuffed her body in an oil drum, and sent her on a cargo ship to Shanghai. We’re done here.”
It was sometime after ten in the morning when I arrived home. Andre greeted me with a nod, his silent cue to prepare my dinner before I went to bed. I took the elevator to the third floor then showered in my bedroom. I did a quick towel-dry and put on my boxers and sweatpants. The black-out curtains were closed over the windows to block out the light, a false premise of night.
I downed a quick shot of whiskey to remove the taste of toothpaste from my tongue and headed down the hallway to her bedroom. My heart didn’t race at our approaching meeting, but I felt a tightness in my chest, a small surge of excitement but also nerves. I felt numb to everyone around me, except for Bastien and Fleur and a few others—and she seemed to be one of those exceptions. If I saw a sexy woman across the bar, I got in the mood, but I didn’t feel anything particularly exciting for her.
It was different with Aliénor.
I had no idea why.
I walked into her bedroom without knocking because every inch of this hotel-turned-villa was mine. I didn’t need to announce myself before I entered any room, especially when she was barely a guest. I wasn’t sure what she was.
The dining table had her used plates on the surface from her breakfast, probably because Andre would pick them up after he delivered my dinner to my bedroom. Aliénor was seated on the couch with her laptop on her thighs, hair and makeup done, her green eyes glowing like jewels as the morning light flooded her bedroom. A glimmer of emotion swept across her eyes rapidly, passing quicker than a songbird in the garden. She closed her laptop and gently set it on the coffee table and gave me her full attention. Her eyes were locked on mine, like she refused to look anywhere else.
I sank into the armchair across from her, elbows on the armrests, feet planted apart.
She spoke first. “How was your night?”
She’d never asked me anything like that before. It felt…domestic. No woman had ever asked me that before, probably because they weren’t invited over for an extended time. I had regulars, but I didn’t do sleepovers. Aliénor had been in my house longer than any woman ever had. “Fine.”
She waited for more, and when I didn’t oblige, she gave a slow nod. “Do you work every night?”
“My schedule is all over the place.”
“But you work every single day?”
“Not every single day, but most days.”
She nodded again like she understood. “Before we met, I was working as a waitress at Septime and then a bartender at another place. Never had a day off. Guess we have that in common.”
A food service job was a walk around the Louvre compared to what I did, but I kept my mouth shut.
“I don’t understand you.”
My eyes were already on hers, but they hardened just a little more.
“I know you when we fuck, but when we talk, I don’t know you at all.”
My eyes wanted to flick away, but they remained steady. I knew exactly what she meant. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that criticism. “Never been good at it.”
“Don’t you have to talk to people at work?”
