Page 43 of Unresolved

Enzo frowned as he searched my stare.Then he stood and strolled out of the bedroom before his tread disappeared into the studio.

Terror threatened to overwhelm me but I held my nerve while I waited for Enzo, my brother, to return.

He stepped back into my prison AKA bedroom a handful of minutes later.“Who painted you?”

I lifted my chin.“I did.”I couldn’t let them know Evander was the artist.My senses screamed that it’d be a mistake to tell them the truth.“My pseudonym is Chase Holland.”I snorted belligerently.“No one has ever suspected I’m a woman artist.”

“The portraits are good,” Enzo conceded.“Verygood.But your ego appears to be getting the better of you.”He chuckled darkly at my perplexed frown.“Is there a reason you only painted yourself?”

My mind whirled.Shit-oh-shit-oh-shit.“I-I didn’t have a choice.Evander forced me to paint me, myself and I.”

“A bit obsessed, isn’t he,” Enzo mused.He cocked his head to the side.“Not that I blame him, you have this certain look about you, one I can’t quite put my finger on.”

Son of a bitch.

I shrugged.“No one knows who the real Chase Holland is.It’s part of my marketing.My mystique helps my paintings sell as much as my talent does.”

I wasn’t lying, not really.Evander might betheChase Holland but no one else knew that, certainly not Enzo or his soldiers.I hoped to keep it that way.Just as I hoped to keep Enzo and his crew from knowing I was related.

I didn’t doubt for a second my lovely brother would use me in some way to show his men how far he’d go to prove his worth as don.Going by Tommy’s earlier attitude, Enzo mightn’t have a choice.

“So whose are the landscapes?”he asked.

I flushed, caught off guard.“They’re mine too.”I cleared my throat, my fingers fluttering.“I use my real name for those.Evander gives me permission to paint landscapes when I’ve been agood girl.”

Ugh.I was getting too good at this lying business.But desperate times called for desperate measures.I just had to make sure I didn’t get stuck in the web of lies and deceit I’d created.

Enzo smirked.“Perhaps I’ll have you paint for me,” he mused.

“I’d gladly do that if you promise not to keep me chained up like an animal.”

His eyes glinted, his smirk disappearing.“Do you really think you’re in any position to negotiate?”

I pushed a hand through my hair.“Do you think I’ll just roll over and surrender?”

He laughed then, a belly laugh that rolled off his tongue like smooth whiskey.“You and me, we aren’t so different.We don’t back down from a fight.”He nodded.“I like that.”

Bang.Bang.

My brother froze, his eyes then swinging to mine.“Seems like Evander isn’t prepared to give you up just yet.”He withdrew a gun from his holster and pressed himself against the wall near the doorway.His grin was sadistic, his eyes alight with anticipation.“May the best man win.”

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