Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
8
DANIELA
Later that afternoon, Raven returns. When Vinnie is done working for the day, he asks all of us, including Robin—Belinda is still with Natalie—to sit in his office.
“All right,” he says, after filling Raven in, “we’re here to sit down and make a list of every person in your past, Daniela, who might have a grudge against you or your father.”
I haven’t actually told Robin and Raven everything about what my father did to me—or rather, what he made me do—but Vinnie knows. By the identical nauseated looks on both Robin and Raven’s faces, I’m pretty sure Vinnie filled them in. Or they figured it out on their own.
I’m embarrassed that I tried to seduce him on my father’s orders. Thank God he turned me down.
Most of my father’s business associates weren’t so scrupulous.
I slowly nod. “I’ll try. Some of them were just blurred faces to me.”
“Yes, but there were ones you ‘entertained’ more frequently. The ones who were more enamored with you…” Then he shakes his head. “God, the whole thing makes me want to puke.”
“Same here,” Raven says. “Dani, you’re the strongest person I know.”
“I think you should look in the mirror,” I say, “I may have had horrible things done to me, but I was strong and healthy while they did it. But you… You had an illness ravaging your body, and you fought back.”
“I had a lot of help and support along the way,” Raven says. “You had none of that.”
Vinnie clears his throat. “I don’t think we can say that one of you is stronger than the other. You’re both incredibly strong women, as are you,” he says to Robin. “What’s important now is figuring out who is targeting Daniela and putting a stop to it. So let’s make the list.”
I hate thinking of all those men, but I take the legal pad and pen that Vinnie hands me.
The first on the list is, of course, the man I was promised to.
Diego Vega.
And there were others who came more than once.
Derek Wolfe.
Declan McAllister.
More, more, and more. By the time I come to the end of the first page, I can’t think of any more names.
I hand it to Vinnie.
He peruses it.
“Derek Wolfe is dead. He was murdered a couple years ago. Declan McAllister is also dead. So is Diego Vega.”
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“I’m sure.” Then he nods. “I’ve seen photographic evidence.”
“Let’s see it then,” Raven says.
“It’s pretty graphic,” Vinnie says.
“Do you think that scares me?” Raven scoffs. “I’ve been through the worst of cancer. Nothing you can show me can turn my stomach.”
“You won’t recognize what you’re seeing,” he says.
“I won’t,” she says, “but Daniela will.”
“Do you think you can handle it?” Vinnie asks me.
I scoff. “Are you kidding me? I hope he was tortured.”
He pulls the photo up on his computer monitor.
It’s not graphic at all.
“Vinnie, I think you got us all upset about nothing.” Robin says. “He could be sleeping in this photo.”
“No,” Vinnie says. “Look at the angle of his neck. He can only be dead.”
“I thought you said you had him poisoned at a soccer game.” Raven says.
Robin widens her eyes. “Christ, there’s so much I don’t know.”
“You deserve to be brought in on this, Robbie,” Raven says. “Should we tell her, Vinnie?”
“Yeah, we’ll bring her up to speed. But first, let’s—”
“Hey!”
The door has opened, and Belinda stands there.
“Bee,” I say, “where’s Natalie?”
“She said she had a dinner date. I told her it was okay to go since you guys were home.”
Vinnie hides his computer monitor.
“Yeah, of course, sweetie,” Raven says. “Come on. Let’s go to the kitchen and I’ll get you a snack.”
Raven looks back at the rest of us, nodding for us to continue.
“So, the soccer game?” Robin says.
“That was the initial plan, but apparently Vega caught on and the assassin—who I trust implicitly—had to get his hands a little dirtier than originally anticipated. He had to break his neck.”
“Are there any more pictures of the body?” Robin asks.
“No. This is it. He was cremated shortly after.”
Robin cocks her head. “Are you sure this is him? And that he’s dead?”
“I trust my people,” Vinnie says.
I nod. “I trust Vinnie too. He saved me from my father.”
Robin smiles at me. “I can’t even imagine everything you’ve been through.”
I’m not sure what to say to that, so I just smile. But it feels forced.
Vinnie goes down my list.
“Do you know if any of these people are still alive?” he asks me.
“I can’t be sure, but I think Marco Ramirez, Dietrich Klein, and Isabella Valentini are all alive.”
“Isabella?” Robin says.
“Yeah,” I say. “The one woman. She was at least comparatively kind to me.”
“We can probably rule her out as a suspect,” Vinnie says. “Women don’t tend to be murderers.”
“Oh no.” Robin shakes her head. “If this woman was associated with Daniela’s father, she’s just as capable of evil as the rest of them.”