Fatal Alliances [✓]

37

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

ROMI

I KNEW MY FRIEND THOUGHT ME A TRAITOR THE MOMENT HIS EYES MET MINE. It was easy to understand that he was furious and felt incredibly betrayed, with that emotion that flashed in his eyes as he stood at the core of the hall, biting back his hurt.

Naturally, I didn't miss how his face contorted with something like hot, suppressed rage when he realised the woman he'd started to actually develop feelings for had slipped away —though he wasn't going to confront those feelings of his.

Because of someone else's spite, she slipped out of his hands and for a split second he thought I was liable —I was sure of it. He had assigned me as a shield from the very beginning, from the moment he'd stationed me at Rome and had me watch out for her.

He was paranoid since the car accident happened, and he was burdened with grief, but he didn't show it, and after he recuperated, he claimed he was going to avenge his father's Consigliere's murder.

He'd scoured France for Rio with all of his resources, but he'd never found out anything until one hotel sought him out eagerly and was rewarded for the effort. That's when she first caught his eye, and he officially acknowledged her existence, that tape and the picture that started it all.

The tape —that Mateo also wiped out the moment after he had shown it to her, despite what she must have been thinking since the point of blackmail —was the only copy too. The hotel owner who recorded the footage had also mysteriously disappeared after the entire ordeal.

From the minute he went looking for Madam Janice, for intel on her, to stationing me in Rome, spying over her and her friend and befriending them —he was on a mission to find out what was beneath the surface of that woman and if she had more to share.

She was only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which led to her meeting Rio in the first place; she wasn't susceptible of much more.

Once in front of him, full of witty remarks and a challenging nature like no other, her long, whimsical hair and twinkling eyes, was now nowhere to be found. Malia Sofia had been taken.

Mateo Izaac held up her anklet and wrapped his fingers around it, as I met his eyes and apologised profusely for everything that happened and he seemed to vanish along with Aiden, Vincent and Hashim.

Even if I had mostly managed things, he had departed before I could remedy the problem or reassure him that outsiders could not have been let through, unless they could declare themselves at the gates and their registered property, with a marked invitation curated for guests only.

The traitor had to be among us.

"Where are you going?"

Imaani Nurr stood in front of me, her hands balled into fists by her side furiously, her brows furrowed across that expressive face of hers.