Page 38 of Wicked Sinner
“A couple more weeks. Well, I hope you’re enjoying Miami while you’re here.”
“I am.” She smiles. “Maybe you could show me around a bit.”
Unwittingly, she’s given me a clue into how long Konstantin intends for this song and dance to go on. Konstantin wants me to make a decision in two weeks, then. Two weeks to figure out how I’m going to make Bridget my wife instead of one of the three women laughing and making small talk around the table.
The entire dinner bores me to tears. It’s enough to make me wonder again if I should just take my father’s money that was willed to me and go, leaving Konstantin to pick up the pieces ofthe Genovese empire and do what he wants with it. And maybe, before everything changed with Bridget, I might have given in to that desire.
But now, things are different. If I were to run away again, I’d have to leave. Truly leave—no one who takes over from me is going to leave me to live in Miami in peace. And if Bridget won’t agree to be my wife and start a life with me here, she’s not going to run away with me.
I’ve made my choice, and I need to see it through. But I have every intention of doing that with the womanI’vepicked by my side and the heir she’s carrying as the son who will inherit, not any of these women here or the children they could give me.
After the dinner, Konstantin hangs back, a clear signal that he wants to speak to me. “I gathered these three women were the ones you liked the most at the party,” he says, once the others have left the room. “Was I right?”
I nod, irritated that he read me so easily. “I don’t particularly enjoy Isabella’s company,” I say smoothly, choosing for now to leave the subject of Bridget alone. “But she is beautiful, and she has enough to keep her occupied that she won’t bother me too much. The other two I like better.”
“Enough to pick one of them as a wife?” Konstantin’s gaze sharpens, and I force my expression to remain bland and smooth.
“I’d like to get to know them a little better. Make sure that I’m making the right choice. I’ll prioritize it,” I say quickly, before he can argue that there isn’t time. “Catherine said she’s here for the next two weeks. I’ll let you know by then.”
Konstantin’s lips press together, and I wonder if he’s irritated that I so easily sussed out his time frame.Good, I think to myself. He’s not the only one capable of maneuvering, plotting, and planning. I was raised for seventeen years around all ofthis, and my life since hasn’t been one of smooth sailing and nonviolence.
I’m just as capable of playing this game.
“Two weeks,” Konstantin says finally. “I expect an engagement announcement by then. In fact, I’ll plan an event for you to announce your bride. I look forward to it.”
He walks past me, striding to catch up with his wife, and I follow behind, my stomach tightening with anxiety. I’m well aware that two weeks isn’t going to change things with Bridget and me significantly—at least, I don’t think it will. But I’ll have to figure it out somehow.
I have to convince her.
The valet brings my car around, and I head home, wondering if I should try to speak to her tonight or just leave it. As I drive, I feel a prickle of awareness down my spine, and I glance in my rearview mirror.
There are headlights behind me—nothing odd for Miami streets this time of night. But as I make a turn, I see that the car follows me. Another turn, and it’s still behind me—a silver sedan that might be following me… or might be just someone headed in the same direction.
I want to get back to the penthouse and check on Bridget, but if someone is following me, I’m well aware that I can’t just lead them back to her. I grit my teeth, reaching for my cell phone as I take a different turn, watching to see if the lights follow me.
They do. I drop my phone into my lap and tap Marco’s contact icon, putting the phone on speaker as I make another turn, heading toward the water.
“Caesar?” He answers brusquely.
“Has there been any trouble at the penthouse tonight?”
“Other than the woman you’re keeping here?” He chuckles, and when I don’t respond, his voice turns serious. “No. Nothing is happening here. What’s going on?”
“I think I have a tail.” I grit my teeth. “I’m going to try to lose them. Keep an eye out.”
I take a series of turns, pulling back out onto the highway with the silver sedan following me. As I turn down another side street, they start to fall back, and after ten more minutes have passed, they’re no longer in my rear view. I have a feeling that they finally realized I’d caught on to them.
Knowing they could still be out there, I don’t head home immediately, regardless of how much I want to. I check in with Marco once more, with him assuring me that all is quiet there, and then finally head back toward the penthouse, my nerves jangling.
Who the fuck could be tracking me?Did Konstantin put someone on my tail?I don’t think it’s that. Konstantin is an up-front kind of man, diplomatic for as long as he can be and violent only when necessary. I don’t believe he’d do something as underhanded as put a tail on me.
But Tristan… my jaw tightens as I consider that possibility. Would he do that? I don’t know him at all—he came to Miami after my father was dead, and before I returned home. I know almost nothing about the Irishman, except that Konstantin brought him in to take over after Russo’s betrayal.
Konstantin clearly trusts him, and I’m aware that he’s a good judge of character. I’d be surprised if Tristan went behind his back, especially knowing how his predecessor ended after betraying Konstantin. But I can’t shake the feeling that there might be something to that.
That Tristan might be tracking me, if only to see if he can find some weakness, some way to convince me to leave. I have no doubt he wants to consume my father’s legacy along with Russo’s. That would make him a power equal to Konstantin in Miami, rather than the second fiddle.
I’m tired by the time I get back. I park the Ferrari, shrugging off my jacket and loosening my tie as I walk into the building and to the elevator. Marco is waiting for me just inside the penthouse, sitting at the bar with his handgun next to him, and I nod at him as I walk in.
