Page 134 of Wicked

Will I ever find love again? Or is love like fire or a blade?

Exciting, dangerous, and cruel.

And is it safe or designed to hurt?

Dante’s eyes come to me, and I shake my head and dive under the water. Screw him and his possession of me. I need to purge him from my mind, forever. It’s unhealthy. He is unhealthy… No one should be that… charismatic. And no one should be able to make me come that much and that hard.

Forget him.

Forget him.

Forget him now!

56

DANTE

I work all night as fast as I can. I push the Italian PR team hard and also some private investigators out of NYC. The PIs look into the company Raven was working for, and they do it lightning fast.

My legal team have walled me off, legally. There is, personally, no way anything can come back and bite me. My fashion company is also now safe and iron clad. It’s how I work when at war.

There is good and bad news, but it is what it is as the sun rises outside the castle.

Using a questionable ex-intelligence hacker, now on the move, they find the juice. Raven’s boss had pushed Raven to write a negative article on Italy. Raven appears to have been reluctant to do so but had to.

The idea makes me sick, yet happy. Sick I did not trust her, but relieved she has a soul. Also, relieved she is who I thought she was.

Perfection.

I also find out the chain of events. Raven sent the article to her boss, as required. Soon after, while in the castle with me,she wrote and dispatched a positive article on Italy. In the email I have been forwarded, she clearly asked for it to replace the negative article.

Raven’s poisonous boss then seems to have tricked up the damning article before it was released.

As the last information comes in, I pace in front of the castle fire with an expresso.

Tito watches me closely, and he senses something is up. I have to make a big decision, and I have to make it fast. I’m good at planning ten steps ahead, and I enjoy being back in CEO mode, working around complex obstacles, solving problems, and protecting what is mine.

Even if I miss Raven more than I like, it is what it is. I will not live without her.

How can I?

I pace for a few seconds longer, then suddenly, I’m throwing things on the four-poster bed. They form a pile, and I move whiplash fast.

I grab my go-bag, and I throw things inside. I hit my phone and Thomas’ contact.

“Go,” he says, already on standby.

“Location of jet?” I ask coldly.

“New York.”

“Send it to Rome immediately. I also need a passport for someone called Tito. They’re a dog. And no, I’m not kidding.” There is silence. “You get that?”

“Of course, but…”

“What?” I grunt.

“Your jet is being serviced. We need two days.”

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