Neal shot up at the noise, but it took her a moment to figure out someone was knocking on the door. Michael was the only one who showed up at her house unannounced, but he was supposed to be staking out Dominique’s place today. She stumbled to the door, nearly tripping over a table before she found the light switch and realized she wasn’t at home in her apartment.
The Adolphus. Right. She was supposed to meet Ana here. She checked her phone and quickly calculated it had been over an hour since she’d checked in. Damn, she must’ve fallen into a pretty deep sleep. She rubbed her eyes and looked out the door viewer to see a gorgeous woman standing in the hallway outside her room. She started not to answer, convinced the woman had the wrong room, but then she held up an envelope with her name scrawled on the front in a flowing script. She checked to make sure she had her key and stepped into the hallway. “Can I help you?”
“I’m Lauren. A mutual friend asked me to deliver this to you.” She held out the envelope.
The woman looked vaguely familiar, but Neal couldn’t place her. She stared at the envelope, curious about what was inside, but sensing danger as well. “Tell me her name.”
“She asked me to be discreet.”
Neal wasn’t in the mood for this cloak-and-dagger shit. “Tell me her name or you can tell her you were unsuccessful in your mission.”
Lauren sighed, looked around, and then leaned in close. “Anastasia Petrov.”
“And how do you know her?”
“She comes to Francine’s to shop. I met her there.”
Ah, that explained why Lauren looked familiar. Siobhan frequented Francine’s as well, and before she met Royal, she’d often partake of the private services the fit models provided to particular patrons. Was Lauren one of the models who offered the extra service, and if so, was that what had delayed Ana today? The idea of Ana being undressed by this beauty both turned her on and made her angry. How dare Ana ask her to wait while she played.
Like you weren’t considering playing with her yourself. Why else did you get this suite if not to impress her?
She couldn’t deny the truth of the thought, but it didn’t make her feel less foolish. “Tell her I’m not interested.” She pointed at the envelope, still in Lauren’s hand. “And you can take that back to her.”
“I can’t actually. I made a promise to deliver this message and I keep my promises.”
“How honorable.” Neal stepped back into the suite and started to shut the door, but before it closed, Lauren reached a hand in and dropped the envelope to the floor. Neal watched it fall and when she looked back up, Lauren was halfway down the hall. She considered going after her but shut the door instead and stared at the cream colored envelope sitting on the floor. She bent to pick it up and pulled the card out of the envelope, but before she could read the contents another knock at the door drew her attention. She shoved the note into her pocket and swung open the door, certain she’d find Ana standing on the other side.
She was wrong.
“Hello, Neal. Nice suite. Did you spend my father’s money to afford it?”
Dominique Mancuso was a striking figure on a normal day, but today she was wearing a charcoal gray power suit with wide legs and a jade green blouse. She didn’t look like a woman who’d been on the run or full of grief over the loss of her father. No, she looked like a well-heeled boss, which was exactly what she would be if Don Carlo hadn’t made his deathbed confession that Siobhan was his firstborn daughter. Neal chose her words carefully while she sized up the best way to play this encounter without letting Dominique know they were on to her.
“You know I’d never take a dime from your family I didn’t earn.”
“Is that a dig, Neal? I heard a rumor that your charge thinks I made off with the family fortune. Do you think I didn’t earn it?”
She was being baited and she wasn’t falling for it. Neal shrugged. “Not my fortune. Not my problem.”
“Is that so? Last I checked, if Siobhan says jump, you say ‘how high.’”
“Show’s how little you pay attention. Siobhan isn’t like you.”
“I think it’s cute the way you try and protect her reputation. Is that a bodyguard thing?”
“Is there something you want, Dominique?”
“Matter of fact there is. I could use your services. If you’re finally over taking orders from Siobhan, come and work with me.”
“What exactly are you doing? From what I can tell, the family business is defunct.”
“The family has a new business. Come with me and I’ll tell you all about it.” She glanced at her watch. “But we have to leave right now. I have a car waiting downstairs.”
This was insane. Her assignment was to stick to Ana and find out everything she knew. Sure, she was also supposed to be on the lookout for Dominique, but she hadn’t expected to show up on her doorstep, especially when the doorstep wasn’t even really hers. Which begged the question of how Dominique had found her in the first place. She didn’t dare ask, but she vowed to figure it out.
Her hand strayed to the note in her pocket. What had Ana wanted to tell her that was so important, she risked having a model walk it over to her? Where was Ana and why hadn’t she shown up for the meeting she insisted on?
“Are you coming?” Dominque asked, tapping her foot impatiently on the carpet.
“Yes.” Neal surprised herself with the pronouncement, but she didn’t see any way around it. She’d agreed to meet Ana in order to figure out the best way to find Dominique and now that motive didn’t factor in. Besides, Ana had chosen to send a hooker with a note instead of bothering to show up herself. Decision made, Neal sidestepped Dominque and slid past her to exit her room. “You said you have a car waiting?”
* * *
“You said she was there?” Ana paced outside of the French Room where Katia was already well into high tea. She’d received Lauren’s text and told Katia she had to go to the ladies’ room so she could hear what Lauren had to say in person.
“Yes,” Lauren said. “She was there.”
“But you did nothing.”
“I wouldn’t call it nothing. I gave her the note even though she refused to accept it. She practically ordered me to leave so I did, but I waited for a few minutes down the hall to see if she might change her mind, and that’s when the others showed up.”
Ana snapped to attention. “Others? What others?”
“A woman and two men. Your friend let the woman in, but the men stayed in the hallway.”
Ana’s brain was firing in a million different directions and growing more anxious with each thought. It had been two hours since she’d first texted Neal to ask her to meet her here at the hotel. Ostensibly, their rendezvous should be the only reason Neal was here at all, but she’d refused to even accept a note from her explaining why she was late and apparently, she’d had time to arrange a meeting with another woman. It didn’t make sense. Something else had to be going on. “Describe the woman.”
Lauren bit her lip like she was pondering. “Medium height. Pretty. No, make that striking. Long, dark hair and deep brown eyes. She looked a little familiar, but I can’t place her.”
It wouldn’t pass for courtroom testimony, but it was something. Ana pulled out her phone and did a google search for an image. She shoved the phone in Lauren’s direction. “Is this her?”
Lauren’s eyes widened. “It is. Who is that?”
Ana stared at her, trying to discern if she really didn’t know or if she had an ulterior motive for faking. She finally decided on the former. “Dominique Mancuso. Don’t tell me you’ve never met her at Francine’s.”
“I haven’t. I’ve met her sister, Celia, but never Dominique. If she frequents the shop, she must come in when I’m not there. I’ve heard stories about her though.”
“I bet you have. What time did they leave?”
“Not ten minutes ago. They went down the freight elevator.”
Ana glanced back at the French Room and contemplated her options. If she bailed on Katia without a decent explanation, there would be a price to pay, but if she stayed here, sipping tea and eating finger sandwiches while Neal was in trouble would she be able to live with herself?
She’s not your problem.
No, but she might be my solution. “Go back to the shop. Do not speak of this. To anyone. Understood?”
Lauren nodded and backed away. Hopefully, the large sum Ana had given her earlier would purchase her silence but if not, she’d deal with Lauren another way. In the meantime, she needed to find Neal.
She made her way to the front desk, prepared to concoct a story designed to give her access to Neal’s room, but once she mentioned the room number and her name, the clerk produced a key.
“She left instructions to provide you access. Do you need anything else, Ms. Petrov?”
Ana smiled at the assumption, took the key, and made her way to the suite. Once she was at the door, she knocked just in case Neal had returned, but after waiting a few minutes in the hall with no response, she slid the key in the lock and pushed her way inside.
The suite was empty, and aside for a melting bucket of ice on a tray with a bottle of Jameson’s and two highball glasses, she’d have thought the front desk sent her to the wrong room. She walked around the large space, looking for some clue about where Neal may have gone, but she found nothing else except the envelope she’d given to Lauren to deliver, and it was empty. Had Neal read her note? If she had, surely, she would’ve stayed here and waited.
Unless the decision to leave hadn’t been a choice at all. And that was the only explanation that made sense. She sat on the corner of the bed and attempted to untangle her jumbled thoughts. She would’ve expected Mikhail as the most likely candidate to abduct Neal. Not because he was jealous—she doubted he even gave her a second thought in that way since she’d reached her forties—but he likely suspected Neal knew things about the Mancuso family that would give him an advantage. Things even Dominique didn’t know, which was exactly the reason Dominique had taken Neal. If she and Mikhail were working together, then access to someone in Siobhan’s inner circle would all but guarantee Mancusos’ demise.
She needed to get out of here and make a plan. She had compiled a list of all of Mikhail’s holdings, even those he thought were a well-kept secret. She’d been preparing for years for the right time to break free, but if he managed to strengthen his position by taking over the Mancuso empire, she’d have to start over from the beginning.
That wasn’t going to happen.
She poured two fingers from the whiskey bottle and took a deep draught. The amber gold with its layered complexity was far superior to the thin, flavorless vodka Mikhail preferred—the perfect metaphor for her life. She was done living life on the surface and ready to dive deep into substance, happiness. She must have control over her destiny.
She rode the elevator downstairs and took a moment to breathe before reentering the French Room where Katia was no doubt indulging her appetite for fancy food and wondering why she’d disappeared. Ana practiced a carefree smile, a breezy story about how she’d been distracted by the new fashion in the hotel boutique on her way back from the ladies’ room and completely lost track of time, throwing in a self-deprecating remark about her flightiness. The script was easy to memorize since she’d been acting for years. But now every move she made was a means to an end, and she threw her entire being into pretending because deception would bring her closer to freedom. And nothing and no one, not Katia, not Mikhail, not Dominique, would stand in her way.