Angelica The Viper must be getting to me. How else would I explain why I thought everything that felt like a trap was laid out by him? I had assumed he was hiring the hit on Autumn when it was Curtis all along. I didn’t know how long I had left to live but as soon as Curtis knew I had offered him advice on how to get through to me and then accepted his hit as though my advice had worked, I would be on my way to my grave. At least I got to enjoy the double incentive before that happened.I already knew a ton of things about Autumn and her husband including where they worked and their close friends. It was going to be a cinch. Although I had accepted Curtis’s hit, I didn’t intend to do it as he requested. I was going ahead with my plan. I spent the following week stalking him. I was certain Curtis wasn’t seeking a collaboration like he said he was. He was laying out a trap for me—for the Angel of Death—so I was thankful when Spider hacked into the security cameras across their street
Angelica “Do you always work on your days off?” I asked, trying to shift the topic back to her current life. When she raised a brow, I realized we had already talked about that. I feigned ignorance nonetheless. She straightened up. “I would rather be anywhere than at home.” Seeing my expression, she quickly explained, “don’t get me wrong. I love my family very much. It’s just…our views are quite different and it’s been making us fight a lot.” “Oh,” I didn’t know what to say. “Have you tried talking to them about it? We can’t all have the same views all the time, right?” Her laugh was the proof I needed to know whatever difference she was talking about was not a matter of when she wanted to move out or her career path. She disappeared into the dressing room and when she returned, she must have decided it was okay to talk about it with me. “I don’t want to marry for the family business.” She started, looking down at the dress in her hands. “But they took care of me, you know. The
“Fucking hell.” Curtis groaned when I stepped out of the house. I had walked out just in time for his arrival and he had gotten out of the car to open the door for me. “Do you like it?” I did a twirl and placed my hand on his arm for more support. With these skyscrapers, I would have to be glued to him or my legs might just give way. He responded by discreetly slipping a hand under my dress.“Curtis!” I admonished him. “Of course. Pardon my manners.” He laughed with a wink that gave me the feeling he wasn’t in the slightest bit sorry. I got into the car through the passenger door he had opened for me and sat with my legs crossed at the knee. He took one look and groaned. “You’re trying to kill me, woman.” “Where are we going on this date?” I purred. “In bed, thanks to that dress.” He joked, but I knew he would turn right around and take me to bed if I said I was up for that. His gaze was making me squirm in need and that would be perfect but I wanted to tease him a little mor
Curtis This was not how I had envisioned my night. I would ask Angelica out, have a meal with her, tell her what had been on my mind for the last few days, and if everything went according to plan, spend the rest of the night in bed with her. Giancarlo’s call ruined it with the worst news I could ever hear. I was not going to pretend I cared that Autumn had been taken into police custody. Actually, I did care, but only because that was not what I had in mind when I hired the hit. I wanted the damn assassin to go after Autumn knowing she would have to stalk her at some point, if only to get enough information to end her life without rousing any suspicion. I wanted to stalk the stalker, ambush her, and go ahead with the rest of the plan that involved her. But what do you know? Not only did the stalker not stalk Autumn who she was supposed to get rid of, but she went for my brother-in-law instead. As they say, if you want anything done right, do it your damn self. Why didn’t I
Angelica Curtis didn’t come back home. After the shock of Autumn’s arrest faded, he asked me to return to the mansion while he went to the precinct. I would have loved to know what they had to say to each other—namely whether or not Autumn knows I was in her house. I was extremely cautious and I wiped my presence from the apartment before leaving but there was no way to be truly certain. There was always a tiny chance one thing didn’t go according to plan and it revealed more than one would expect. Even so, I was not going to openly meddle in the matters of the siblings. Autumn was not my favorite in-law and I couldn’t act like she was for a single second. If it was Klara who’d been arrested, on the other hand, I would be expected to make a dramatic demand to see her. So I got back to the mansion and tried to keep myself busy, which proved to be useless. My mind would float back to Autumn and what shocking revelation she could possibly have. After hours of pacing my room, I went
“How did it go?” I asked as I brushed my hair a while later. Curtis had done quite a number on it and I didn’t want to do a walk of shame into the foster home. “She spoke to me, which is surprising because she’s Autumn. I was right. The Angel of Death set her up.” He said. I had to think about my reaction before revealing any expression. I couldn’t be too nonchalant either, or it would make me seem even more suspicious. I was treading on a thin thread here and it was driving me crazy. “Well…” I drawled, finding my words. “That’s not a bad thing for you, is it? You hate Autumn.” “I do. But something tells me she’s after Klara next. Klara mentioned being stalked before.” Fucking Viper. I wanted to kill him. Why would he go after Klara? If the target was Arcieros with a hand in the family business, we should be going after people like Autumn, Miles and Meghan. We had been on the same track before. But now, he had only one aim—to mess with me and probably kill me while at it.“Why wo
Curtis “What do you want from me, asshole?” Maverick grumbled when I dropped by his house. “Don’t make it sound like you don’t want to see me, old man. We both know you’ve been hoping I’d come over.” I retorted in return, making him grumble something about being done with the Arciero shit. When I revealed that I had some of Angelica’s cookies with me, however, he was a little more enthusiastic about my presence. “You didn’t bring her today.” He remarked, and I could swear he was complaining about it. “Didn’t you say you hated being called Ricky by her?” He grabbed another cookie and gobbled it in one bite. “If she brings these with her, she can call me Shirley if she wants. Since when do I like sugary crap?” Since Angelica started baking them in the Arciero mansion. I swear, my wife was magical. She had managed to lure everyone close to me into her biggest fans. Except for Giancarlo and Heston, that is. But those two were icebergs and I would rather not have them close to her
Curtis I was never going to joke about ghosts from the past again. “What do you mean Nikov Kastellanos is alive?” I asked Millie. “Exactly that. I did my homework and when I found out, I was just as shocked as you are.” She looked up at me with teary eyes. “I know it’s shocking but I saw him.” I shouldn’t be surprised she looked into my father. That was what she thrived on—getting hold of a secret her current billionaire boyfriend would never want revealed and then using it to get as much money from him as she could to buy her silence. It was exactly why I knew there was something to it when it was revealed Father left everything to her in his will. Two things had to be happening here. One, she knew he was going to die soon. Otherwise she would have wanted him to simply write off some of his wealth to her. Father wasn’t old enough for anyone to assume he was going to die of old age. Besides, father couldn’t have written anything while he was bedridden with none of his fingers f