Page 145 of Mine Again
Isa’s brow climbs toward her hairline. “Wait. You were watching me in the restaurant? Are you serious?” Her voice sharpens. “Luca, you realize that’s not normal.”
I shrug, unapologetic. “You keep forgetting I’m not normal.Extraordinaryis a better fit.”
She doesn’t laugh or blink. Just levels me with a look. Right. Not the time.
I refocus. “His behavior raised red flags,” I say, angry all over again that he could get that close to Isa. “He and his friends arrived just afteryou did. The hostess was escorting him to a different corner of the restaurant, nowhere near your table. But he pointed across the room, to the one opposite yours, and slipped her a bribe to get seated there.”
Her head tilts, brows drawn. She’s trying to replay it, to stitch together a moment she thought was spontaneous.
“So me bumping into him on the way back from the restrooms… that wasn’t an accident?” she asks, though it lands more like a realization than a question.
“No, he timed it… made sure you’d cross paths.”
I watch the truth settle in her eyes. First disbelief, then the twist of betrayal. Her body goes still as it sinks in that she was being played from the start.
She rubs her neck, fingers pressing into the same sore spot she touched yesterday at the lookout. The movement is small, but she flinches.
I’m sorry, farfalla. But also, I’m not.
I have no remorse for cutting Isa’s night short. They had finished dinner anyway. Even if Sebastian hadn’t come across as too calculated, I’d have intervened. I’d be damned if I let any man get close to my butterfly.
Her eyes lift back to mine, wounded and questioning.
“Then why didn’t you stop him when he came back into my life a few weeks later?”
“Because I couldn’t.” I drag a hand through my hair. “I was on a job in Brazil. Remote location. Spotty connection. No way to monitor you the way I normally would. If I had known how limited I was going to be, I wouldn’t have taken the job.”
The more I think about it, the more it burns.
I had given my client a firm list of requirements to get the job done. He assured me that I would have everything I needed. When I got there, I found barely enough to make it work.
The timing wasn’t a coincidence, and in hindsight, it’s obvious the Jackal planned it that way. He waited until I was blind and out of reach, then made his move.
And somehow, in less than four weeks, Sebastian Moretti convinced Isa to marry him.
“How?” I snap, the question coming out harsher than intended. “Why did you agree to marry him? You barely knew the guy.”
“I did my due diligence,” she says, folding her arms defensively. “I ran a full background check. Everything came back clean. He seemed… normal enough.”
I exhale hard through my nose. “Because the Jackal manipulated the data. He gave you exactly what he wanted you to find.”
Still, credit where it’s due. At least she tried. She didn’t just fall for a pretty face. She researched him, the same way she did that accountant. The one who, thankfully, hadn’t been too hard to… relocate.
“We flew in Sebastian’s cousin’s plane to Vegas,” she says quietly. “That was the Jackal’s, wasn’t it?”
I give a curt nod, jaw locked. He wasn’t on board. I checked the CCTV. But I would bet anything he was monitoring the flight, making sure everything unfolded exactly the way he wanted.
Not on my watch.
I don’t even want to imagine what could have happened if I hadn’t finished the Brazil job early. The Jackal must have counted on it taking longer. For anyone else, it would have. But he still underestimates me.
“The plane had Hale Enterprises painted on the side,” Isa says, stopping me from spiraling any further into what-ifs.
“Yeah,” I say, bitter to the bone. It’s not jealousy. It’s disgust that the world believes he’s a good man. “Carter Hale. Silicon Valley wonder kid. Glamorous billionaire philanthropist CEO by day. At night, he becomes the Jackal. One of the most dangerous, most unscrupulous hackers alive.”
Isa looks like she’s trying to piece together a puzzle she never realized she was holding.
“So what did he want with me?” she asks, quieter now. “Why did this Carter want Sebastian to marry me? And why did Sebastian agree? What was in it for him?”
