Authors: Marian Tee
Behind her, Avery and Danilo were looking at each other.
Who the hell is she,
he mouthed.
Misty…or at least I think she’s Misty,
she mouthed back.
I think seeing Domenico with so many women made her…snap?
Either way, the two thought it was the worst impression of a drunk they had ever seen.
Domenico was looking at her like she was crazy. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She let out what she hoped was a crazy laugh. “I drugged you and these women yesterday. If you think I’m going to let you go to your father and play the prodigal son…” She released another crazy laugh.
Domenico took a step towards her. “Misty, will you—”
She quickly took a step back. “Don’t come any closer, or I’m going to upload your video right this minute!” She glared at him, which was the easy part. Glaring made it easier for her not to cry. “If you think you can change overnight, you’re lying to yourself! I’m going to drag you down with me. I’ll make you pay for throwing me out—”
“
Enough.”
She whirled around in time to see Dio Moretti bearing down on her, his face coldly contemptuous. But there was something in his eyes—no, she probably was imagining it.
“I’ve heard enough,” Dio said grimly. “Avery, call security and have this woman escorted out of this building. She’s never to be allowed on any Moretti property again.” His eyes returned to Misty. “I’d like you to know that every room in this building is under CCTV surveillance. Your attempt to blackmail my son was recorded. If you ever attempt to do the same thing to Domenico or any other member of my family, you will be sent to jail. Do you understand?” His voice turned steely. “I protect every precious member of my family, and Domenico is one of them. I will not let anyone –
anyone –
harm my son.”
For a moment, Misty couldn’t speak. She knew what those words meant, and a glance at Domenico’s pale face told her he knew it, too. In not so many words, his father was extending an olive branch – an apology for how he had treated Domenico last night.
“Did you hear me, Miss?”
She swallowed, finding it hard to get back into character. She took a deep breath then said in a slurred voice, “Fuck you.”
In less than a minute, security had escorted her to the elevator. Before the doors could close, Avery was there, and she quickly pressed the HOLD button. “Misty, what was that?”
Misty started to slur her words.
Avery shook her head. “Stop it. You didn’t fall asleep drinking. You fell asleep waiting for Prince Domenico to come out.”
“Oh.” When Avery kept looking at her, Misty said helplessly, “What else could I say? We both knew what was going to happen and I just…I just didn’t want to see the same sad look in his eyes again.”
Avery’s heart broke at the words. She had never met someone as brave as Misty and it shamed her, the way Misty could do such a thing without hesitation. Misty might not have said the words, but anyone with half a brain would know only a woman in love could do something like that.
“Don’t go,” Avery said. “I can work something out—”
Misty shook her head. “It’s okay. I’m just happy things will finally work well between Domenico and his father.” She pressed the CLOSE button and the doors slowly shut.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
What was she doing?
Was she really turning her back on the chance to save herself? To save Domenico?
But somehow, it didn’t feel right—
The elevator doors slid open on the 32
nd
floor, and her eyes widened when she saw the couple coming in.
Matteo –
he was alive here as well? Matteo had been Domenico’s friend, the one whose murder Domenico wanted to solve, the reason she had taken the jinn’s offer.
Behind him was Rafaella, the woman who had once turned Misty into a laughingstock among Lyccans, the princess Domenico had originally meant to marry.
They exchanged a hot passionate kiss before turning to Misty.
“Good job on saving the bastard’s face like that,” Matteo said.
Shock robbed her of speech. He was Domenico’s childhood friend in the real world. Did it mean – did it mean he had been playing a role all along?
At her stunned look, Rafaella laughed. “We saw you through the surveillance cameras, of course. Did you think only the Morettis had access to it? We would never have the balls to meet you right now if we didn’t have access to it. Everyone here can be bought. You just need to know how much they want.” She then asked eagerly, “Did you mean it about the video though?”
Misty shook her head slowly. “No. It was a bluff.”
The two were clearly disappointed. “That’s okay," he told Misty. "At least you got him to trust you. Just lay low for a week and I’ll find a way to bring up your name with Domenico.”
His hand curved around Rafaella’s waist and he licked her ear, an action that made Misty cringe inwardly. “I told you, babe. Women are his weakness. Always.”
She laughed. “I believe you now.”
The two stepped out at the thirteenth floor, which was somehow symbolic. If she had the strength to laugh, Misty would have. About to press the CLOSE button, she stopped in time when someone appeared at the hallway.
The woman stepped inside the elevator.
When the doors slid close, Misty absently looked at her companion and froze in shock.
It was the jinn.
“Y-you.” Misty rubbed her eyes, but it really was the jinn, and she hadn’t even bothered to dress herself in human clothes. Did it mean that this entire world was under her control?
“You made me laugh.”
Misty had?
“Now, I owe you a favor.”
The jinn did?
“Even if you do not win this challenge, I can tell your mate the truth you have discovered. Do you want me to tell him?”
Misty had hoped she would have another kind of reward, perhaps another option to get out of this world, but a part of her also knew it couldn’t ever be that easy. Trying to ignore the sense of crushing disappointment inside of her, Misty nodded. “I’d…like that.”
“It is done.”
The jinn’s eyes studied her. “
You only have…nine hours. Do you think you will win?”
Misty didn’t answer.
“You really love him?”
She nodded.
“But now, you no longer trust him?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. I’m just not sure if…if he really did love me…or he just got used to having me around.”
When the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, Misty was all alone. Walking out of the building, the first thing she saw was a copter lifting off from the building’s own helipad. It had Moretti Inc. emblazoned on its body and she wondered numbly if Domenico was inside it. If he was—
Nine hours.
If he was flying away, was nine hours long enough for him to realize who she was to him – and who he was to her?
She closed her eyes.
I love you, Domenico. I love you.
****
Domenico told himself it was for the best. He repeated the words over and over in the entire four-hour journey, from the time they transferred to the family jet and flew to where they were meeting with their new business partners.
But when they made it to the airport, Domenico knew he couldn’t just let it go like that.
“Father, I can’t go with you.”
Dio stilled at the words. “Why not?”
He looked at his father. He was tired of being too stubborn, of being too proud, and being too damn stupid. “The woman you had thrown out of my suite was lying. She wasn’t there to blackmail me, and she wasn’t even drunk.”
“So the women in the bedroom—”
Domenico said flatly, “Because you told me I’m good at fucking my brains out, that was exactly what I did.”
Dio flinched.
“I’m not blaming you for it,” he clarified swiftly when he saw his brother shoot him a frowning look. Domenico knew if he didn’t explain himself now, it would be the past all over again. “I just wanted you to know why I did it. I don’t want it to be as before – both of us saying or doing things we don’t mean.”
Dio said gruffly, “I apologize, too. I apologize for being too harsh on you. I know…I know I have never told you this, but it’s only because I’m afraid that your wild, reckless side would get you taken away from me again. When you were kidnapped – it was the worst time of my life. Remembering it made me tougher on you. I thought if I could make you more circumspect, you would never take any kind of risk…”
“But instead I did the opposite,” Domenico finished heavily. So many damn years had been wasted, and all because neither of them had been able to be honest.
Danilo cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt your tearful reunion—”
“Smartass,” Domenico muttered.
“I think the same many times,” Dio said under his breath.
Danilo grinned. “Oh, so you two are on the same side now, is that it?” His voice sobered. “Are you flying back to look for that woman?”
“Her name is Misty.” And as he said it, Domenico realized with a start that it was all he knew of her. That and the fact that she worked for the family.
“Misty then. I’m afraid I have bad news. I tried to have her followed, but somehow, all the cameras in our building were down. No one’s been able to pinpoint even the direction she’s headed.”
“But she was working for us. She said so. Surely we have her on our own records—”
“I already had Avery check all our records. She’s not in any of them.”
“I’ll still fly back,” Domenico said curtly. “I’ll find her, one way or another.” He didn’t know why he had to right now. All he knew was that he had to find her this very moment, the sooner, the better. Maybe it was the way she had looked at him before he had allowed security to take her away like a goddamn coward. It was as if she loved him, as if she wanted him to know that she loved him because the knowledge that he was loved was her way of saying goodbye.
****
Misty sat on the floor of the bookstore across the Morettis’ building, watching the sun sink lower and lower as morning darkened into afternoon.
She looked at her watch.
01:01
An hour and a second to live.
She touched her heart, but still it beat normally, her love for Domenico never wavering.
It no longer made sense to love, to keep waiting, to keep hoping.
But she did all three anyway.
I love you, Domenico.
The words made her want to cry, but it also made her feel stronger at the same time.
Time ticked by.
00:56
I love you, Domenico.
00:45
Would the jinn truly allow her to die here? Perhaps she would be like Sleeping Beauty, and maybe it would just be one long sleep for her until a prince in wolf’s clothing came to wake her with a kiss.
00:32
Her eyes drifted closed, and pulling her legs up, she tucked her knees under her chin and bowed her head down.
00:24
I love you, Domenico.
****
Domenico’s heart was beating hard, and he found it hard to breathe. He stood right outside the building his family owned and looked around him wildly. She was out there somewhere. He could feel it in his guts, like a guardian angel whispering to him what he needed to know.
He looked around again, trying to narrow down the places she could go to.
A nightclub?
No, Misty was no part-goer.
A coffee shop?
Not likely. Misty didn’t seem to be much of a moper.