Page 251 of Mine Again
I shift to see her face, angling it toward me. Her cheeks flush, but she won’t meet my eyes.
“Isa?” I press, my heart constricting with unease. What the hell wasHale up to?
She swallows hard. “Were you in Rome at any point last year?”
The question blindsides me.
“What? Of course not. It would’ve been suicide with De Marco’s men everywhere. And if I had braved that, I’d have come for you. What is this about? What did he show you?”
Her voice wavers. “Hale fabricated proof that you killed my father.”
My body jolts awake, exhaustion gone in an instant. Fury scorches my veins.
The fucking bastard.
Isa rushes on, as if to keep me from exploding.
“The pictures, Luca… they were gruesome. They’ll haunt me for a long time. Close-ups of my father’s body. His face, his wounds. And then… there were images of you. Dragging him out of some warehouse.”
My stomach twists. Hale hadn’t just played dirty; he’d gutted her with lies.
“I knew it couldn’t have been you,” she says quickly. “You would never… But I was in such shock. For the briefest second, I believed it. I’m so sorry.”
Her face contorts with shame.
I catch her chin gently, forcing her eyes to mine. “Isa.”
She shakes her head, whispering, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to doubt you.”
Her eyes shine with tears. Hale will bleed for this.
“But then I asked myself, if it came down to it, who do I believe?” Her voice steadies, pulling me back from my rage. “And there was no question, no doubt.”
Her gaze holds mine, fierce through the shimmer of tears.
“I’ll always believeyou.”
The words nearly undo me.
“That’s when I forced myself to really study the pictures. There were inconsistencies, tiny ones, things that didn’t line up from one frame to the next. Proof he faked it.”
Pride surges hot through my chest, overwhelming the fury. I wrap my arms around her again and press a kiss to the top of her head, holding her as close as possible.
“That’s my girl.”
I don’t say more. I’m too tired, too furious… too full of love for her.
Her voice is quiet against my chest. “What’s going to happen to Hale now? Is Maximo handing him over to the authorities?”
“Eventually,” I answer, not wanting to think of the asshole anymore. “But not before I avenge you properly. He’ll look a little different by the time they get him.
“The authorities will need time anyway to verify what I put together in Tangier about his attack on Delaware. I’ve got the proof he did the Berlin hit too. Once I knew exactly what to search for, it was easy. The proof is airtight.”
She lifts her face to me, pride shining in her eyes. I drink it in like nectar.
“After working at it for twelve hours straight in Tangier, I was pumped when the evidence finally came together. I rushed up from the cellar to tell you…”
The memory still haunts me, and I hold her with a fierceness I can’t soften.
