The problem was, Dante didn’t have an alibi we could use because he was protecting someone.
After studying the particulars of the case, I had to wonder if he wasn’t protecting my sister.
Cosima had been shot three times that day, but arguably, she could have killed Giuseppe di Carlo before the drive-by shooters arrived.
It was one of the many theories circulating through my mind as I worked long hours on the case each day, not only his case but also the man himself a dominant feature in my thoughts.
It wasn’t easy to admit I was intrigued by him.
So, I didn’t credit my theory about Cosima and his protection too much. It almost seemed like wistful thinking on my part, trying to make a rogue into a gentleman through any means possible.
But I couldn’t kick the suspicion as I walked to work that morning, and before I could curb the impulse, my fingers were tapping out Cosima’s phone number.
“Hallo, my Lena,” she answered in a jaunty British manner, her voice filled with radiant happiness. She always sounded like that now, high on her life, grateful for every moment. “How is my favorite lawyer?”
The smile that pulled my lips over my teeth was inexorable. As if it was Cosima’s beautiful face, I cupped the phone tight to my cheek. “Hello, my beautiful Cosi. I’m fine. Just getting coffee before a long day of court and research. How are you?”
There was a deep voice in the background and then my sister’s breathy giggle. “Xan, stop it. I’m talking to Elena.”
“Tell her you’re busy,” he ordered, loud enough for me to hear. “Very busy.”
Cosima’s warm laughter spilled like honey through the line. “Sorry, Lena, you know Alexander. He can be so bossy.”
There was a throaty chuckle and then a shuffle as Cosima moved. “Let me just leave the room, or he won’t stop bothering me.”
“I’ll remember that next time you’re begging for me to make you come,” he yelled deliberately so I could hear.
A blush warmed my cheeks, and I groaned as I pushed open the doors of my favorite coffee shop and stood in line. “Oh my God, Cosi, I’ll just call you back.”
“No,” she demanded. “He’s gone now. I apologize. I know these kinds of things make you uncomfortable.”
I hesitated, picking at the side of a hangnail as I considered being honest with her. “I’m working on that, you know.”
Her voice was velvet, a soft place for my confessions to land. “Oh? With your therapist?”
“Yes, and Monica, she told me there is hope for me… I have surgery scheduled in two weeks. Apparently, post-op, I’ll be able to orgasm, and maybe…” I sucked in a shaky breath, almost afraid to say the words out loud as if they might dissipate forever like smoke in the air. “Maybe I’ll be able to conceive naturally one day too.”
“Dio mio, Elena,” my sister breathed, tears instantly thick in her voice. “My love, I cannot tell you how happy I am to hear that. You must be over the moon.”
“I am,” I agreed before quickly ordering my coffee from the barista with my hand over the phone. Then I moved away and said to Cosima, “It’s just…strange. I feel like my life is empty still. A year ago, I would have been thrilled. I can’t help wondering what would have happened if Daniel and I got this news together before he met Giselle.”
“Oh, my love, please don’t let your mind go there. Aren’t you the one who has always told me the past cannot be altered and to focus on the future?”
“Yes,” I agreed on a sigh, the knot in my chest slowly loosening under the careful tending of her calm attention. “I know I should be over it, but it’s easier said than done. It’s not just Daniel who lied to me and broke my heart. Somehow, Giselle’s disloyalty is even worse. Betrayal from someone who is supposed to understand your pain and should stand by you no matter what feels impossible to move on from.”
“You and Giselle haven’t been tight in so long…I know what she did is not forgivable, but the fractures in your sisterhood gave room for her relationship with Sin to grow. By the time she knew you were the girlfriend, she was too in love to change the outcome. I know it hurts, but they’re really happy together. Happier than you were with him, my Lena. Don’t waste any more time on a man who isn’t spending time thinking about you.”
I swallowed convulsively past the lump in my throat, struggling to digest her words. Not because I disagreed with them, but because I didn’t.
The way Daniel had acted after he returned from their affair in Mexico… it was as if he was a different man, one I didn’t know very well at all despite being with him for four years.