I watch as the Elsa on camera laughs and moves into my arms, pressing her perfect body against mine.
I remember the taste of champagne on her lips as I made sure she wasn’t too drunk. The kiss heated up as our hands started roaming. Well, her hands started roaming. Mine were busy keeping her pressed against me and trying to unlock the door.
It took me two tries to unlock the door, then we disappeared behind it with a slam.
Then the hallway is empty again.
A button is pressed and the tape rewinds, pauses with my hand on Elsa’s waist. Her head tipped back, laughing.
I don’t realize I’ve curled my hands into fists until my knuckles ache.
Roberto’s voice comes from behind Caterina, quiet and dangerous. “Tell me you fucking didn’t.”
My jaw tightens. I swallow once, slow, like I can choke the truth back down.
“Would you believe me if I did?” I ask dully.
Roberto explodes, cursing. It’s very rare for him to lose his temper like this.
Roberto’s hand slams into Caterina’s desk hard enough to make the wood whine.
“Don’t get cute with me,” he snaps. “Of all the selfish—"
Caterina’s voice cuts in, sharper than his. “How could you do this, Tio?” Her eyes are bright with fury. “This acquisition was important. This wasNorthstar. This was—”
Roberto is still going off on his own tirade. “—a war we’re trying to prevent on our turf,” he says viciously.
And that’s what gets me.
I stand and slam my own hand against the desk, fire back in my blood.
“Hey, don’t hit me with that bullshit,” I snarl. “You can see the date on that video just as well as I can. We didn’t know the Bellandis were involved until the next morning.”
Roberto stills like I’ve thrown a knife at him.
For half a second, the room goes dead quiet.
Then he takes one slow step closer, the kind of movement that’s more dangerous than shouting.
“You don’t get to hide behind a timestamp,” he says, voice low. “You knew Northstar wasin play. You knew we were walking into a negotiation that could shift territory. And you still took a risk you didn’t have to take.”
“I didn’ttakea risk,” I bite out. “I met a woman. I—” The words snag in my throat, rage tangling with something uglier. “I didn’t even know who she was.”
Caterina’s gaze snaps to mine, sharp as a blade. “You didn’t knowElsa Nilssonwas Elsa Nilsson,” she repeats, like she’s trying to make sense of the information I’ve given her. “Or what? You didn’t even bother to get her name before you dragged her into that room?”
“First,” I bite out, “I didn’t drag her, as you can very well damn see. She went quite willingly. Second, I got her first name. You told me Nilsson. NotElsaNilsson. And she wasn’t even supposed to be there that night. Her flight was delayed, remember?”
Caterina blinks once, then twice, like the memory is rewinding in her head.
“That—” she starts, and the anger on her face shifts into something else. “Yes. Her flight was delayed. They told us that at the gala. They said she wasn’t coming.”
Roberto’s eyes cut to Caterina. “You told him ‘Nilsson’ and nothing else.”
“It didn’t seem relevant,” Caterina snaps, then immediately looks like she wants to swallow the words back. “We weren’t expecting him to”—her gaze flicks to the screen, to Elsa laughing in my arms—“to dothat.”
Roberto’s jaw works. He drags a hand over his mouth, thinking fast, recalculating. When his eyes land back on me, they’re colder.
“So you’re telling me,” he says slowly, “that you didn’t target her.”
