Page 24 of Heart's Temptation

An hour later Niki entered the theater. Her smile was locked in place, but her eyes told another story. Whatever had happened, she was wrung out, exhausted from her confrontation with Gio and avoiding eye contact with me.

Right on her heels was Remo, a huge enforcer that had been part of Vincent Vitale’s detail before he’d passed. He was the same age as Romeo and had been part of the Vitale’s inner circle since his teen years. His huge frame was almost comical next to the tiny ballerina, but the others appeared intimidated, except several of the male dancers who appeared to be discussing the size of his penis.

“Dancers,” I muttered under my breath.

Remo followed Niki to the front of the stage, his eyes constantly roaming for danger as she and Sergei spoke. When it came time for rehearsal, the two of them disappeared backstage along with Han, to get changed. Half an hour later, Niki and Han took the stage to practice a duet.

Without an audience to perform for, you could see the animosity between the two lead dancers. Han had been on my suspect list since the beginning, but there was no evidence to prove he had anything to do with the threats Niki had been receiving. He’d been with her when most of the so-called accidents occurred. Despite coming off as a total prick and a complete show-off, it was unlikely he was the threat looming over Niki.

He tossed her high, catching her so low to the ground I flinched. A flashback from Niki’s cheerleading days in high school assaulted my memories. I’d heard rumblings in the locker room about a coup to remove Niki from the team. Apparently, a couple of the cheerleaders had been very unhappy about her taking the lead in the squad when her abilities outshone theirs.

Later that week she’d fallen at practice, but remained unhurt, luckily. Two days later, I stood discreetly watching as they rehearsed their half-time show. The moment Niki was tossed into the air, two of the four girls who were meant to catch her stood back. I linebacked my way through the group and caught her in my arms just in time to keep her from hitting the ground. Even then I’d been a big guy, but I literally towered over the cheerleaders like a menacing bull. The two scattered and Gio shared with his father what had been going on, attributing their actions to petty jealousy. Luciano had a couple of his guys go by the homes of the two girls and suggest they switch schools. The families moved away, and we never saw or heard from them again.

A failed plot often led to revenge…

Revenge… The idea niggled in my mind. What had been happening to Nicolette now, was reminiscent of what she went through as a cheerleader. I’d thought several times that this could be the work of a woman. It had to be revenge, but for what? And from who? Simon had checked everyone, and they’d all checked out. We had to be missing something.

The revelation brought me to a place of hyper-vigilance. My gaze traveled the room and over those in it with new eyes. Someone here had to be guilty and really good at covering their tracks, or they were doing the dirty work for someone else.

Niki and Han leapt across the stage in the direct path of a glassy spot on the floor. Another ‘accident’? When the hell had that happened?

“Stop!” I yelled, rushing to the stage. Remo had his gun out, roaming looking for the guilty party. Han was holding Niki in his arms in an assisted pirouette when I yelled, and they came to an abrupt halt.

“Lock the place down, now!”

The theater manager rushed off with Bruno, who I’d put in charge of the security for the dancers while they were in town, on his heels.

Niki looked bewildered. “What’s going on, Marko?”

“A rat, that’s what’s going on. Sergei!” I roared.

The little Russian director rushed over.

“No one in or out until every person is accounted for. One of your people is responsible. Who did you tell our location to?” I wasn’t at all convinced that he wasn’t responsible himself.

“No one. I told no one, as Mr. Vitale specified.”

“Marko, it could have been anyone posing as staff here, or one of the drivers, hell anyone who had a key to this place.” Niki intervened, standing between me and the director. She had a very good point and keeping the dancers and staff here wouldn’t help me learn the truth. Besides, I now felt this was indeed an act of revenge—call it a gut instinct— but the who and why remained, and I wanted to talk to Gio in private before setting a plan in motion.

“Fine. Until proven otherwise, we’ll assume you’re right, Niki, but,”—I gave a hard look at the facility manager who’d returned from ensuring the place was locked down—"I want a list of who was here tonight and video footage sent to my IT guy.”

The manager gulped. He should be afraid.

“If anything is amiss, I can assure you heads will roll.” My gaze traveled to each person within the small circle that had gathered around. “Bruno, I want a security sweep of the shuttles before anyone steps inside. Load everyone up as fast as possible and take them back to the hotel.”

I quickly barked out more orders and put in a call to Giovanni when everyone scattered to do my bidding.

“What?” he answered.

“It happened again, Gio, someone purposely put liquid on the stage right in the path of Niki. Had she landed in it, who knows what would have happened to her.” I doubted very much that Niki would have died, but she could have broken a leg quite easily. “We had ten guards in place and there have been lots of people milling about the stage. It could have come from anywhere, but I have a feeling when we question them, we’ll get the same answer as we did about the black roses in New York—no one saw anything.”

Gio swore in Italian for a solid minute before calming down. “Lock everyone down at the hotel. I’m calling Romeo on this. He may need to sweep our staff. Someone has gotten through our ranks.”

“Agreed. I’ll make sure Niki and the rest are settled and I’ll meet you at the club.”

“Marko, watch your back, and keep a guard with you at all times, you hear me, brother?”

“Loud and clear, boss. I’ll see you soon.”

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