Scorned Love: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Scorned Fate)
Scorned Love: Chapter 27

“I don’t like this,” Trevor muttered behind me.

“Unless you physically restrain me, I’m going to meet her.”

“This is all shady shit. It’s like the fucking CIA.”

Thankfully with us being on the third floor, it was a quick ride to the ground level. My bodyguard was mumbling about rolling car meetings. I was feeling pretty covert, but it was the first time today that I felt I was doing something for Nico instead of waiting around for news.

When we exited the building into the humid summer evening, I spotted the Benz. Trevor was still cursing when he followed me.

“Don’t be obvious,” I threw over my shoulder.

When I was a few feet from the vehicle, the driver came out and opened the door for me.

I stuck my head inside. “Can Trevor come in with me? He’s my bodyguard. And anything you tell me, I’ll have to relay to him because he’s the one helping with Nico’s case.”

“You trust him?”

“With my life. And so does Nico.”

“Fine.”

I gestured for Trevor to come over. Marie glowered before she made room for both of us.

“Evening, Miss Pierre,” Trevor drawled.

The chauffeur shut the door, rounded the vehicle, and slid back into the driver’s seat. The luxury blacked-out vehicle pulled into traffic.

“See,” Trevor said. “Like the CIA.”

The corners of Marie’s mouth tipped slightly in a smile. “You can say the fashion industry is full of corporate espionage. The ego from one designer to the next is insane.” She pushed a button and the privacy screen went up which let us know her chauffeur wouldn’t hear anything we said. Not that I thought Trevor or I would reveal any Archer or trade secrets.

“What’s so important and secretive that we have to do all this undercover stuff? You said you have proof that Nico is innocent.” This made little sense at all.

“Now I don’t know for sure”—she was staring ahead and side-eyed me—“if your man is innocent. What I do know is everything stinks of a conspiracy.”

“Okay, let’s hear it.” Trevor leaned against the leather seats.

“I never meant to snub your collection. I was very interested in it from the beginning.”

“You were?”

“Yes, but Edward told me to hold off contacting you.”

“What?”

“Now that’s interesting.” Trevor angled forward.

“He’s been after you to come to him from the beginning,” she said. “When things started looking up for your label, you got hurt.”

“Are you saying it’s Edward who sent those men who attacked me at my loft?”

“No. I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s suspicious, especially since you’re connected to the De Luccis. But…when you and Nico came out in public with your relationship, Edward became erratic with how he wanted to handle your fashion show. He wanted me to put your collection at the bottom of our edits.”

“That asshole.”

“Then there was that altercation between Joseph Rossi and your boyfriend that was in the news. Then it suddenly hit me…”

“What?”

“That man? Joseph Rossi, right?”

“Yes.”

“Edward would have special dinners at his apartment when he’s in town. He’d invite the Glamourique staff. In the past few weeks, we had four dinners there. Twice, I’d seen Joe Rossi come in for a chat with Edward. They would do so behind closed doors.”

“Holy. Fucking. Shit,” Trevor breathed.

I was speechless. The cogs in my brain switched gears. “Edward and Joe are responsible for everything that happened to me.”

“Maybe. I don’t know, but there’s something to look into there.”

“There sure is,” the Arrow beside me muttered.

“But how would that clear Nico?”

“At face value, it doesn’t. But you have all that I know. And given how Edward manipulated the events and compelled you to go to him, how sure are you he isn’t doing it again?” Marie gave me a chilly smile. “I’ve given you enough ammunition against my boss. Think about it.” She hit the button for the privacy screen. “Return to the De Lucci building.”

The Benz deposited us at the back of the building. And by the time Trevor and I got out, I already had a plan.

“Absolutely not,” Trevor growled. “Nico and Daniel are going to skin me alive,” he added. “If not all the De Luccis.”

I huffed. We were back in the studio trying to hash out a plan. “But you said there is a way that you could clone the hard drive of Edward’s laptop if you can get close to it.”

He scrubbed his face in frustration. “Yeah, but only in the movies do those plots end well. What if he suspects you’re playing him?”

“You doubt my acting skills?”

“I’ve never seen you act.”

“All I have to think about is that Nico needs us to find everything we can to help him avoid an indictment.”

Trevor scrolled on his phone. “They haven’t charged him yet. And from what I’m hearing, the witness has reneged on his claim that it was Nico he saw.”

Okay, the De Luccis might have gotten to him.

But I wasn’t one to wait for the next ax to fall. “But the police are going to find something else to throw at him. Edward has deep pockets and could be paying them off. We just have to find proof.”

“Could be cash in a paper bag. No paper trail. Now that’s like in the movies,” Trevor said. “As for Joe Rossi, he would have covered his meetings with Sinclair. He probably handed him cash or deposited to an offshore account.”

“Offshore banking would leave traces on his computer, right?”

“It’s too risky.”

“I can just visit him. Stay overnight.”

Trevor groaned as if I was torturing him. “Woman, should I just hand you a rope so you can hang me?”

But I was more determined to confront Edward. “I can appear to be distraught. After the fire, Edward messaged me and said, he’s at my service for anything I need.”

At that time, I thought nothing of it. Just the comfort that I had another person willing to offer help. Boy, was I wrong. The bitter acid of betrayal coated my tongue. Though deep inside I knew Edward had not changed, I never expected he would take extreme and desperate measures to get me back.

I opened my memories of my past with him. Of what would make him believe my need for him was authentic. “He still believes I’m fragile. He can’t bear to see me stronger. He believes he can break me.” A malignant narcissist. “The fire only strengthened my relationships with the De Luccis, who supported us through this. The outpouring of sympathy from the fashion industry was overwhelming. Edward isn’t anything but strategic. He saved the best for last. Getting Nico arrested for murder was his endgame. But he didn’t anticipate how the De Luccis would band together around their son and me.” Another idea occurred to me. “But what if we make Edward think that the De Luccis hate and blame me?”

“No.”

A diabolical feeling made me smile. “Yes.”

How do I play a woman who Edward has finally broken after all his diabolical manipulations?

First, it had to look like I’d been crying my eyes out. Make my eyes swollen, and my nose red, and my upper lip puffy. Chopping onions would do the trick. I always had a low tolerance for the vegetable’s fumes. Xander and Trevor kept me company in the kitchen, shaking their heads, their grim faces sometimes cracking with a smile at the extent I would go through to make things look plausible. The finishing touch was to drink just enough alcohol to make my already puffy face blotchy, but not too much that it would affect my wits.

Xander gave token resistance at having me go through with the insanity. Either he trusted my plan to work or he was morbidly anticipating the results. The worst that could happen was I’d just spend the night at Edward’s apartment. I promised Trevor I wasn’t taking unnecessary risks, but I had to do this before Nico got out because I couldn’t risk him stopping me from going to Edward. Nico would always protect me, but he was mine too, and I protect my own. Additionally, I had an incessant need to find out if all the bad luck we’d had in the past few weeks was manufactured. And if the DA charged Nico, and he was denied bail, the more imperative it was for us to move faster before Edward erased the evidence.

But I had a feeling he wouldn’t.

Edward Sinclair was a sadist and a malignant narcissist. I didn’t know if those two personalities went hand in hand, but it had taken me years to realize he misunderstood what it meant to be a Dom. I’d never been a sub, and he manipulated me in the relationship to satisfy his own desires and selfishness and delusions.

And to hold on to those delusions, he would hang on to the trophies of his manipulations. He would keep a trail. It could be pictures or transactions or messages that he could bring up from time to time to validate how his actions had controlled people’s lives.

However, if Edward had an inkling that we were on to his relationship with Joe Rossi, he might destroy the pieces of evidence or keep them in a place where we would never find them.

So first step of the plan? I texted my former lover a picture of me looking tragically defeated.

He responded immediately.

When the elevator doors opened to his lavish residence, Edward was already standing in the foyer. Knowing that his machinations had led up to this point, I saw past the sympathetic mask he put on and discerned the gleam of sick triumph in his eyes.

It made my stomach roil.

It made me want to sneer in disgust.

It made me want to say fuck it to the plan and get back into the elevator.

But I kept my eyes on the prize.

My goal of finding evidence that he was behind the attack on me, that he manipulated the fashion show and framed Nico for Joe Rossi’s murder, propelled me to step out of the elevator.

“Kitten.”

He opened his arms, and I was so glad my physical reactions to onions and alcohol disguised my genuine expression as I stepped into him. “Edward.”

His arms came around me. He was wearing a scent of myrrh and sandalwood, a scent I had liked on him. Since we broke up six years ago, he hadn’t worn it until now. But the smell I used to adore on him was striking a dissonant chord in my brain. This time it smelled of his gloating and underscored how the wrong arms were around me. My entire being screamed for Nico’s comfort of leather and cedar, the smell of his skin.

The man in front of me was an impostor.

I lifted my gaze. “I’m very confused.”

He smiled warmly. “Very understandable after what you’ve gone through in the past few days. To have losers burn down what you’ve worked so hard for and then to realize the man you’re with is a murderer.” It was freaky that once you saw the evil behind a man’s eyes, it was impossible to unsee.

He must have sensed the stiffening in my body, so he backtracked. “But of course he’s innocent until proven guilty.”

“He is innocent,” I insisted. “He’d been with me all night.”

Edward’s eyes flickered with contempt, but it was quickly disguised with fake sympathy.

“What I’m saying, pet, is that you’re not built for handling that kind of uncertainty. You need someone to take care of you. Of all your needs.”

“Edward,” I sighed. “I just came here because I knew you could give me comfort. I’m not giving up on Nico. I don’t want to give you the wrong idea.” And I didn’t want to overdo it and make him suspicious. I stared at the column of his throat. “Maybe coming here was a bad idea…”

Lifting my gaze again, I noted that his smile tightened into a bitter one. “And all I want to do is comfort you in your time of need. Nothing sexual, my pet. Just as a friend.”

I forced a breath of relief. “I just didn’t know where to turn. The De Luccis hate me. I think they blame me for this.”

And those were the right words to say because Edward led me further into the apartment. He pointed to a stocky man. “Pancho will bring you to your room.” He checked his watch. “You caught me at a bad time, kitten. I’m late for a conference call with Hong Kong.”

Sometimes, with enough information, your eyes would see what they hadn’t seen before. Like Edward’s fake sympathy, another jolt of recognition yanked back the urge to flee his apartment.

Because Pancho fit the build of one of my loft attackers. Another man entered the room. Standing side by side with Pancho, I superimposed black-clad clothes and masks on them. Which left Steel-Pipe man, the man who fit Nico’s build. Memories clicked into place. The night we came to the afterparty, one of Edward’s security, the one who stood by the elevators fit Steel-Pipe’s build.

It was Edward who sent these men to hurt me. To beat me within an inch of my life, so I would become so broken, I’d crawl back to him. I shut down my thoughts so they wouldn’t show on my face. Nausea and dizziness hit me all at once.

“I don’t want to be alone,” I croaked. “Can we do a work cuddle?”

Genuine pleasure descended over Edward’s face. It was his pleased face when I responded to his expectations. I tamped down the guilt nagging me. He brought this on himself. The bastard.

“But of course, kitten. I can dial in without the video.”

Dressed in the matching velvet sweatpants and hoodie, they were the outfit Edward enjoyed seeing me wear. I did everything I could to make him feel like I was becoming his again, but making sure I still had doubts and all he needed was to give me a nudge.

We walked into his study. A laptop with a vanity casing sat at the center of his desk. I sure hope it had a port for the jump drive Trevor had given me. I hoped Edward clicked on the image I sent him. It had a key-logger attached to the image, so when he synced the phone to his laptop, we would have his access information.

Edward went behind the wide dark wood desk and sat in the broad antiqued leather armchair.

“This chair is so you.”

“It’s comfortable. I can give you the name of the artisan who made it.”

I faked a shy smile.

“Come on, pet.” He woke up the screen and logged in to the web conference. “Sorry I’m late. I had something come up. I’m going to turn off the video.”

“Nice of you to join us, brother.”

“It was important. Now can we proceed with the meeting?”

Edward muted the mic. “He’s a dick.” He patted his lap.

I controlled my internal cringe as I sat on top of him. “Your younger brother?”

“Yeah.” Heavy contempt laced his tone. “He thinks he’s the heir apparent.”

Ah, his father, Gordon Sinclair, was the biggest asshole for the way he pitted his four children against each other. In my six months with Edward, I’d witnessed quite a few of his father’s manipulations and I sympathized with my former lover’s fucked-up upbringing. Edward craved his dad’s approval and I believed even now, at forty-five, nothing had changed. The continued cycle of being praised one day only to be ridiculed the next day was the technique Sinclair used to control his children.

The whole family should have gone into therapy.

Honestly, if I hadn’t seen how Cesar De Lucci handled his kids, I would think all CEO-type fathers were assholes.

After all, I only had to look at my father and Xander’s.

“You might be the one comforting me.” Edward settled me securely on his lap, and again it occurred to me how wrong this felt. Not only did I feel I was cheating on Nico, but also I wasn’t as gullible as the girl I was six years ago.

My velour pants had a key compartment in the waistband where I slipped the jump drive. I didn’t bring any other clothes because I wanted to make it clear that I was only staying overnight. My gaze went to the laptop screen.

Now, we needed a distraction.