I tried to find the logic in her moves. But there wasn’t any logic in it. Not a bit. Trenton was right – she’d have to be a stupid bitch to get tangled up with Powers’ debt. But even if she was . . . she was a Constantine . . . Queen Bitch Caroline Constantine would surely clear her fuck-ups with cold, hard cash.
Trenton read my mind.
“Caroline’s washed her hands of it, so they say. Apparently, Elaine’s done it before, over and over. Last few times her mom’s bought her out of it, but not this time. This time the stakes are higher, and her mom has said no fucking way. She’s on her own. She’s been enough of an embarrassment to the family name already, so the whispers say. Mommy’s done with her.” He flicked his cigarette butt onto the body. “Elaine’s on her own, and they’re coming after her. Soon.”
“And what exactly are they going to do about it?” I snapped, but I knew the answer. I could see it in his eyes.
He gestured to the dead fool on the floor before he answered me, and I knew what was coming. Trenton Alto had questions of his own brewing fast. Questions I sure as hell didn’t want to be answering.
“This is about her, ain’t it? This shit here? This is about Elaine Constantine?”
“What the fuck does it matter?” I hissed at him. “Tell me exactly what the damn Power brothers are planning to do to her and when.”
“Holy fuck, Lucian,” he said. “What the fuck is happening to you? Of course it damn matters. The very fact you’ve been breathing in the same air space as that Constantine tart matters, and you know it. You fucking know it.”
His eyes were bold and cold. Hard and disbelieving.
He didn’t recognize me, and I didn’t recognize myself, either. I was swimming in shit, and all because of her. All because of the woman I should be hating with every evil sliver of my soul.
Trenton was correct, and I hated him for it.
He cleared his throat. “There are rumors already flying around, you know? Rumors about you not being in Morelli Holdings last week, rumors that something is going down . . . rumors about you chasing a pretty little blonde . . .”
“Rumors can fly all they like. I’m not obligated to answer to any of them. My business is my fucking business, and mine only.”
He looked guilty, shifting from foot to foot. “Not when the questions are coming from your dad.”
My blood ran cold. “What the fuck has my father got to do with this?”
He looked at the body and not at me. That’s when I knew it in stone.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Trenton Alto’s loyalty didn’t belong to me anymore. The motherfucker had been in discussions with my father.
Discussions about me.
“He asked me,” he said, as though that excused it. “I had to speak to him, Lucian. He asked me.”
“Well, well. Does he know you’re here?” I pushed with a sneer.
He shook his head and took out another cigarette. “Not here. Not yet. This sorry mess tonight all came about pretty damn quickly, don’t you think? I wouldn’t have been able to snitch to your dad if I’d have wanted to.” He lit up. “But he asked me what you’ve been doing. He asked me about Elaine Constantine. I didn’t start it, not at all. Seems the chauffeur has been reporting back.”
Stupid fuck. He’d be paying for that.
Trenton carried on talking, like I needed to hear his advice. “You’re getting yourself in crazy fucking waters. Don’t think I’m gonna be drowning there with you. Leave it alone. Leave her the fuck alone. Please, boss. Just leave her alone.”
Even though my mouth was dry with rage, I couldn’t say I blamed him.
Yet again, he was right. I was in crazy fucking waters.
I was in the shit. I could feel it all the way through my skin. My father would only have to sniff a hint of the truth in me chasing down Elaine, and the whole damn world would feel my damnation along with me. He would tear me apart alive with the whole family cheering.
“Seamus and Duncan have been around there already, you know,” Trenton said, and a whole fresh round of wrath flamed through my chest. “He was prepping them to step in for you at Holdings if you didn’t show your face again sharp.”
I cursed. I hadn’t seen those sons of bitches in months. Seamus and Duncan were pathetic excuses for cousins who’d been trying to slip into Morelli Holdings and steal my power for over a decade. They’d never made it. Not even close, but if Father even caught a sniff that I was involved with that little blonde fool . . .
I looked at Trenton again and realized from the abject fear in his stare that I was strung up tight with no exit strategy.
“I’ll try not to tell him,” he said. “But you know I won’t be able to hold off for long, Lucian. If he asks me, I can’t lie.”
Even in my beast of a mentality, I couldn’t blame him. They’d tear his spleen out inch by inch until he confessed whatever the fuck they wanted from him. They’d get one hell of a confession, too. Trenton Alto knew my business from the inside out. I should’ve seen it coming and wiped him out a long time ago.
I hadn’t wanted to. Somewhere down deep he meant something to me.
Trust is always your greatest weakness. Never trust a soul but your own.
How the fuck had I managed to forget my own mantra and let him live?
“You’re a piece of shit for telling him anything,” I said to the man who’d been at my right hand for years. The man who was my link to the underworld and all
