Page 27 of Dangerous Deception

And it would need to be a legitimate cause.

“Anything from Pascal?”

“I called him,” Vito says. “Kept it casual. He hasn’t heard from her.”

“Don’t tell him anything,” I say, my words snapping out around the tension in my jaw. “I don’t need this getting out.”

“Understood. Here it is.” He sends me a file through the airdrop. “She called her friend Marie.”

“Driver!” I bark, causing the man to turn around with a snap. I hold up the tablet. “Take me here.”

“Understood, sir.”

The drive to Marie’s place is torture. I can scarcely sit still and spend more of my time calling Adelina’s phone in the hopes that seeing my name so much will eventually make her pick up. Each time it rings out, my heart beats faster and faster until it’s just a blur of sensation in my chest.

I’m not typically a nervous man, but something about this is different.

Something about Adelina is different.

Most days, I can’t get her out of my head. I see her every time I close my eyes. I can’t stop watching her when we’re together.And I have no idea why. I’ve entertained women before, but something about her is so different. Maybe it’s because she gave me a taste and then went right back to hating me. Does that make her more attractive to me, the fact that she wants nothing to do with me beyond the business deal?

And then she pulls shit like this. There had better be one hell of a fucking good explanation or I’m tying her to the bed for the rest of our marriage.

Arriving at Marie’s apartment, we pour from the car and hurry up the steps. I pound on the door so hard that the latch bounces with each impact from my fist until an alarmed voice yells from inside.

“Hold on! Jesus Christ, I was asleep!” The door cracks open and a bleary eye peers out over a gold chain keeping the door from opening too far. “Who the hell are you?”

“Marie,” I bark. “We need to find Marie immediately.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I fucking asked you, that’s why!” I yell, raising my fist to the door once more. Vito swiftly steps in, dragging me back down the steps and taking my place.

“I’m sorry, but we think someone is in trouble and they were last in contact with Marie. We’re really worried, so if you could please direct us to where Marie is?”

“She, uhm…” The person groans softly. “She went out drinking with a friend, I think.”

“When?”

“I don’t know. It was three hours ago, maybe?” The person sighs. “You could try Revenge. She likes drinking there a lot.”

I’m already springing down the steps toward the car. Revenge is one of my clubs. I own every nightclub in the city, at least in the wider radius, so if Marie and Adelina went to a nightclub, it shouldn’t be too hard to track her down.

“Raffaele, you gotta watch it,” Vito warns as he hurries back into the car with me. “You can’t lose control.”

“I’m not going to lose control,” I snap, logging into the club mainframe that connects all of the club networks.

“Really? Scaring a civilian at six in the morning is you in control?”

My attention snaps up and I glare. “You know as well as I do how this looks. Losing my wife a month after we got married? This act of rebellion makes me look fucking weak and I don’t need that shit if the Irish are getting bolder.”

“That’s not why you’re angry,” Vito says, his voice frustratingly gentle.

“Oh, really?”

“You’re worried something’s happened to her.”

“Stop fucking psychoanalyzing me and get every available man scouring all the footage from every club we have a hand in,” I snap angrily. “Someone had better find something or it won’t just be the Irish floating up from the fucking river.”

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