“Yes. Annabella Lazio. Your assistant must’ve used my married last name.”
I typed in her name and saw her funds.
She was broke.
She had enough money to complete the transaction she was asking, but very little on top of that. I never reacted to my clients’ incomes because they were all multimillionaires and billionaires. Honestly, she shouldn’t even have been a client of mine because she had no need for my services. She didn’t need money laundering or government assistance. But I wasn’t going to be an ass to this gorgeous woman. “Where am I sending the funds?”
She pulled out a document from her purse and set it in front of me. It contained the wiring directions to send the funds to the escrow company. There was usually a fee to do this kind of transaction, but I decided to waive it because if I didn’t, she might not be able to eat. I worked on the computer in silence.
Minutes passed, and she didn’t make small talk. She didn’t talk shit about her husband or gossip about the details of her divorce. People were usually so bitter, they aired their dirty laundry to anyone who would listen.
But she was tight-lipped.
I finished the task then printed out the confirmation code. “Done.” I set the paper on the desk.
She grabbed it with her painted fingernails and read the details before she folded it up and placed it in her purse. “Thank you.” She rose to her feet and extended her hand to shake mine.
I took it and felt my fingers automatically squeeze her wrist. I looked into her blue eyes and felt compelled to give her some kind of advice, to help her when I didn’t even know her. She’d only been in my office for ten minutes, but I felt some sort of connection to her. “I understand you are angry and stubborn right now. But his money was your money, and you are fairly entitled to half of it.” I didn’t want this beautiful woman to stress about money every single day, to take the hard way just because she was stubborn. After a few months, she would regret that decision.
Her blue eyes slightly narrowed in offense. “I don’t need your pity.” She dropped her hand and stepped away from my desk. “I’ll be just fine.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder then strutted out of my office like she was still a billionaire.
I arrived at the lab and got to work. When I told Hades I didn’t need him, it was a lie. I was working a hell of a lot more now than I used to. That meant more hours for me, but since I didn’t have anything else to do, it wasn’t the end of the world.
When I was home, I just drank.
One of my four men came up to me before I went to the office. “Damien.”
I didn’t bother to look at him. “What?”
“We’ve got trouble.”
I stopped in my tracks and turned around to face him. Maddox had only been dead for a few months, and I wasn’t ready for more drama. With him out of the way, I was at the top of the food chain, so I shouldn’t be afraid of anybody. I just didn’t want a pain in the ass. “What?”
He looked hesitant, as if telling me this news would result in his neck being snapped. “The Skull King stopped by…said he wants to talk to you.”
Hades and I had managed to escape the clutches of the Skull Kings because they had so many other projects to worry about, including a war on Lucian and something about a woman. They were too busy to care about us. But now that Balto was gone and his twin Heath replaced him, it looked like things had changed. “God-Fucking-Dammit.”
I was working in my office when my curiosity got the best of me.
I went into Annabella’s account to snoop.
I had no idea why; I would never see her again. She was newly divorced, so why would I want to get involved in something like that? There was just something about her that intrigued me, the way she started over with nothing so fearlessly.
The way I had to start over.
I looked at her recent paychecks to see where she worked.
She was a waitress.
That only made me feel worse. How was she supposed to support herself in Florence on a salary like that? Maybe she had a side hustle that was paid under the table. If she really