Fallen Rose by Amelia Wilde

Author:Amelia Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Dangerous Press
Published: 2021-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Leo

I’m in my office planning a party for a Constantine when the text arrives. The last of the daylight is fading in the courtyard. A bird from the trees taps at my window. “There’s new birdseed,” I tell it, though it can’t hear me. “Go away.”

It flutters off the sill as I pick up my phone.

A message from Eva.

Turn on the TV—channel 9

I loathe the sound of live TV and rarely require background noise to work, so I don’t have one in my office. There’s one in the den. It spends most of its time hidden by a panel above the fireplace. “Gerard,” I say as I open it. I know he’s nearby. I heard him in the hall.

“Sir?”

“Is Haley upstairs?”

“She is.”

She went up to read an hour ago. Some days, she prefers the smaller space and the deeper quiet in the private library. I wasn’t fucking around about my plans for the room on the first floor, but I haven’t had time for full-scale renovation yet.

Gerard steps into the den as the TV flickers to life. Channel 9.

It’s a news channel. And a news broadcast. And a very familiar face. The chyron at the bottom of the screen reads KIDNAPPED CONSTANTINE BRIDE.

“What the fuck.”

Rick stands on the sidewalk in front of the Constantine compound, camera lights competing with the dying sun. He has one hand in the pocket of what looks like a brand-new overcoat and a fading black eye from where I punched him. The other hand clutches a piece of paper.

“—engagement announcement was a painful day for the family. In all the confusion, no one thought to stop it from being printed. But Haley had already been taken. I’m here to ask for her safe return.” His eyes come up to the camera, and he takes a big nervous breath. I hate this motherfucker. He’s right to be nervous. “I’m so worried. We’re obviously—we’re offering a reward for her safe return.”

“When did you last see her?” one of the reporters calls. A press conference. Caroline planned this. Every detail. It’s not just that she wants him to kill me. She wants to set it up first.

“I haven’t seen her in almost two weeks.” This is the truth, and my stomach sinks. They’re going to run the same play as before. The one that made Haley cry. They said things that were close to the truth. Rick Joseph Jr. is going to stand on live TV and tie the truth in knots. “I was attacked, and she was taken.”

Fucking clever. He was attacked, and then I took her back. Gerard makes a sound off to my side. I can’t see him. My vision is going dark with rage, and if I’m honest, if I am fucking honest, if I am doing penance and opening my goddamn heart—

Fear, too.

“Do you know where she’s being held?”

“No,” Rick lies, and he’s almost convincing in this. “I didn’t get a good look at my attacker and I don’t know where Haley is.

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