“So, not only are you telling me that Angie Colt is still alive, but you’re also telling me that you’ve been trailing her for months,” Victor whispered, lifting his heated eyes to Mitch, “and you’re just now realizing she’s been working with a fed?”
“Borgia’s dropped at least a hundred pounds. Damn near unrecognizable.” Mitch shrugged both his shoulders, his eyes growing defensive. “She works undercover. Racked up a dozen different aliases during her time with the FBI. She has no friends, and if she has family, they are off the record. I never would have known it was her if she hadn’t started as a cadet with me at the NYPD damn near ten years ago. I knew she looked familiar,” Mitch spat. “I looked into it, called in some favors, and she’s definitely a fed. Investigating the Romanovskys under the alias Ashley Williams.”
From the corner of the office, Reggie perked up, and he moved to the desk, fingering the photo that sat in front of Victor and turning it.
The air left Reggie’s lungs. “I know her.”
Victor stood.
“I saw her. She was at Novsky about a month back, when I had a meeting with the Romanovskys. I ran into her in the hallway. She said her name was Ashley Williams.”
“You ran into her?” Victor clenched his fists on the desk. “Or she ran into you?”
Reggie frowned. “We ran into each other.”
“Did she touch you?”
Reggie faltered. “What?”
Victor’s voice rose. “When you ran into her in the hallway, did she touch you?”
Reggie went to say no, but before he could, his eyes widened, nearly bulging out of his head.
Victor bit his top lip, and it took everything he had not to leap over the desk. “You goddamned worthless imbecile.”
“What were you wearing?” Mitch asked from over Reggie’s shoulder.
Reggie turned to Mitch, searched his eyes, and then looked down at his jacket. He lifted the lapels with trembling fingers before his eyes rose back to Mitch.
Mitch was across the room in seconds, clawing Reggie’s jacket.
Reggie swirled in a violent circle, allowing Mitch to rip it off his body.
It only took two seconds of swiping his fat fingers along the folds of the jacket before Mitch froze. A moment later, his hand reappeared with his pointer finger extended. A circular adhesive, nearly invisible to the naked eye, was stuck to the tip.
Recognizing the adhesive he saw on Mitch’s finger in an instant, Victor took several heaving breaths, eyes growing wider with each second.
Finally, he managed to speak. “Can they hear us?”
Mitch’s eyes went to Reggie. “Have you dry cleaned this jacket, at all, since the day you ran into her?”
Realizing what he’d done, Reggie had to take a heavy swallow. “Yes. Once.”
“Then the water killed the transmission,” Mitch said. “But whatever happened before you washed it is in the hands of the FBI.”
Victor turned away from them both, covering his mouth with his hand as he moved to the window.
“The day you ran into her, Reg…” Mitch shook the jacket. His eyes were filled with pity for Reggie. “Where did you go?”
Reggie’s eyes fell closed, and he shook his head. “I came here. To Dad’s office.”
“What was said? Do you remember?”
Reggie’s eyes fluttered open. He did remember, but he wished to God he didn’t. His eyes went to Victor. “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry. How could I have known?”
Victor turned back to them, leaning on his desk and clawing his fingers into the wood, he clenched his teeth. “What was said?”
Reggie lowered his eyes. “The day I ran into Ashley… it was the same day you put the hit out on Angie Colt.”
With a howl, Victor bent over, took the bottom of his desk, and sent it flying off its feet.
***
“Oh, you’re Jessica Borgia, huh?” Leo’s eyes widened, and he broke into a laugh.
Jessica could see he was waiting for her to join him, and when she didn’t, his smile began to dissipate, once more. His laughter wavered, and so did his eyes. They stared into hers, searching them, and then moved along the bridge of her nose, her lips, down her body. With each new piece of her his golden eyes took in, the smile on his face diminished a little more. By the time his gaze made it back up into her eyes, realization washed over him so completely Jessica could almost read his thoughts.
His smile fell.
It fell in an instant. He reared back and tumbled off the bed, clawing at the sheets as he landed on the wood floor with a thud, pushing himself to his feet before throwing his body back against the wall, eyes shrinking.
“Borgia?” he rasped, as the truth finally sank in. A visible chill ran through his body. The truth filled his eyes like he’d seen a ghost. “Jesus.” He jolted and tried to push himself farther into the wall, but he was already crunched in the tightest corner. “Fuck.”
Coming to her knees in the middle of the bed, Jessica held out her other hand, clutching the sheets to her naked breasts as tears tumbled out of her eyes. “Leo, please. Listen to me. I’m an undercover agent. I’ve been assigned to investigate your family, and you are all in serious danger.”
“What the fuck,” Leo cried. “What the fuck?”
Jessica’s eyes followed him as he moved away from her, keeping his back against the wall, clawing the plaster. “Leo, please, just listen to me.”
When her heart shuddered to a sudden stop, she didn’t even care, too shredded by the horror in his eyes, the tremble to his body, and his poignant desperation to escape her. She didn’t care. Not even when ten, eleven, twelve seconds rolled by with no heartbeat.
“Leo, I need you to listen—” A debilitating pain flashed through her, and Jessica gasped, reaching up and covering her failing heart, which hadn’t resumed beating for almost half a minute. Panic seized her. The last thing she saw was Leo’s eyes moving from stricken to confused before she turned away from him, lunging for her purse on the bedside table, gasping as she emptied the contents out onto his bed sheets.
She released the sheets from her naked breasts, heaving violently for air that wouldn’t come as she slapped her hands on the mattress, pushing aside her keys, her wallet and her makeup in desperate search for her pills.
“Ashley, what the hell is happening?”
Even as Leo’s words were reduced to faraway echoes, she still heard it.
Ashley.
“I can’t breathe…” She wheezed, getting the prescription bottle under her shaking fingers and twisting it open.
The last thing she felt was Leo taking her arms in his hands before everything went black.
***
“Well, the good news is it wasn’t a heart attack.” Dr. Wong turned to Jessica and took in the sight of her kicking her legs and gripping the edge of the operating table. “The bad news is that you’re well on your way to one if you keep neglecting to take your pills, Jessica.”
Jessica broke their gaze and looked out the window. The IV pumping fluids into her arm shifted and stung as she slapped tears off her face.
Dr. Wong cradled Jessica’s chart to her chest, shaking her head. “How in the world did you allow yourself to go an entire week without taking them?”
Jessica met her eyes, swallowed, and then shrugged.
“This is not the kind of traffic you want to play in, hon. Not only have you been skipping your medication, you’ve also lost weight and have allowed yourself to become severely dehydrated. When you were a teenager you could get away with this kind of carelessness, but you’re getting older every day, and your heart is only going to get weaker. You have got to take better care of yourself.”
Jessica sniffled. “So my heart’s not getting worse, then? This just happened because I forgot my pills?”
Dr. Wong hesitated. “If I told you it was getting worse, would that inspire you to start taking your heart more seriously?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “No, Jess, it’s not
getting worse. It was a minor arrhythmia brought on by stress and dehydration. Thankfully the young man who carried you in here found the medical bracelet you refuse to wear and brought you to me before it had the chance to get worse. The fact that his apartment is right across the street reaffirms the angel on your shoulder, but your luck won’t last forever. It never does.” She sighed. “Have you been taking on any extra hours at work? Starting a new venture that has you stressed out? Anything new happening in your life that could cause your heart agitation?”
Jessica laughed, looking out of the window again. “Same job. Same responsibilities. Same miserable life.” She cut her eyes to Wong. “Stupid enough to fall for a man who can never fall for me back…”
Dr. Wong smiled knowingly. “Well…” Her head fell. “If you’re talking about the young man who brought you in here, I’d say he not only loves you back…” She raised her eyes to Jessica. “He saved your life.”
***
After a thorough chiding from Dr. Wong that stretched on for over an hour, Jessica moved into the hospital waiting room, grinding her hands together.
The grinding stopped when she caught sight of Leo sitting in the waiting room in jeans, a white t-shirt, and red slip-on sneakers. He was bent over the edge of a chair, hands clasped, head hanging low. He’d chosen the chair closest to the door, and Jessica knew why.
As she moved close, approaching him in the same timid way she would approach a lion baring its teeth, he looked up.
His gold eyes went through a roller coaster of emotion when they met hers. And like she was in the front row of that coaster, about to fall from its steepest height, Jessica’s stomach turned inside out.
After relief, hatred, sorrow, and confusion all made an appearance in his gaze, he stood, eyes shooting to the floor.
“Just wanted to make sure you were good…” He moved to the door.
“Leo…” Jessica followed him out of the sliding doors and into the parking lot. She continued calling after him, her braless breasts shaking as she picked up her pace in the tan dress he’d put her in after she’d passed out. Imagining how terrified he must have been, guilt ate at her and claimed her voice, taking it to a shriek. “Leo!”
In the middle of the parking lot, Leo slowed to a stop, kept his back turned, and just when she was sure he was going to resume walking away from her, he turned, his teeth gnashing together.
She breathed deep when his eyes met hers again. “Please?”
Her whispered words sent his eyes shooting skyward, and he laughed.
“Please just let me explain,” Jessica said.
“I don’t need an explanation. I don’t want an explanation.” His eyes went aglow with fury. “You’ve been lying to me for a month, Ashley.”
Ashley.
“Jessica,” she croaked.
He laughed again. “Are you…” His hand zoomed down his face, revealing a cringe so alive with fury she actually found herself jolting. “What kind of goddamn psychopath are you?”
“Leo, I’m sorry. I only lied to you because I was trying to do my job. I had no idea that your family were just victims—just pawns in his fucked-up game.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
She flinched when his voice rose to earsplitting levels.
“What the hell are you talking about, Ashley?”
“Jessica!” she cried, her voice lowering in an instant. “Leo, please… My name is Jessica.”
“You are not Jessica to me.” He jammed a finger to his chest. “What aren’t you getting? Why can’t you see how completely fucked-up this is—”
“I do see it. I get it. But if you would just hear me.”
“Hear more lies? More bullshit? More ranting from some schizophrenic woman? You’re crazy!”
Jessica’s head fell.
“And I have no interest,” Leo’s voice went hoarse, “in a goddamned thing you have to say to me right now.”
“Even if I said that your family is in trouble?”
Leo’s eyes searched hers. He reared back, turned away, but he didn’t retreat.
She saw him run his hand down his face and stepped closer. “Leo, I quit my job because I realized your family feels trapped… and the deeper I got into this investigation, the more obvious that was to me. I just want to… to protect them. To protect you.”
He kept his back turned, hand over his mouth, shaking his head.
“I can’t…” She wrung her hands together. “I can’t tell you all the details, but I was brought on to convict Val for something he did a long time ago. Or something I thought he did… I needed to convict him to get closer to a really awful, really dangerous man. It wasn’t until I actually infiltrated your family that I realized you’re all just victims of that awful man. And I quit my job because… because the FBI is more interested in that awful man than they are in your family’s safety.” She motioned to her heart. “But I can help you…”
Leo faced her, tongue pushing against his top lip. A moment passed, and tears hit his eyes. “Val…”
Jessica sputtered, and her eyes widened.
“Val,” Leo said again.
“Leo…” She held her hands out. “I love you.”
“So the only reason you—” His voice broke, and he looked off, unable to finish.
“No,” she said, understanding where his mind was going, and desperate to stop it in its tracks. “I mean, yes… it was all about Val, at first. But that was back when… back when I couldn’t look at you for more than two seconds without hearing you call me Beer Belly Borgia.”
He cut his eyes at her. “So because I was an asshole to you in high school, this is justified?”
“No,” she cried. “I’m telling you that’s how I justified it when I couldn’t see how… gentle, and warm, and kind you are, Leo. Please don’t walk away!” She moved after him when he took a step to leave.
He froze mid-step, staring off into space.
“There is no justification,” she said. “And I know that now. I’ve lied to you, but in a lot of ways I’ve also been more honest with you than I have with any man before.” She yearned for him to meet her eyes, even if it was only with hatred and disdain, but he wouldn’t. “It was about seeing Val burn, at first. But it stopped being about Val a long time ago, Leo. It stopped being about him the moment you kissed me for the first time.”
His eyes went wider with every word she said, and when the first tear tumbled over them, her bones went so tight she thought they might shatter. She knew, right then, it was all or nothing.
So she gave him as much of herself as she could. “I had a heart condition when I was five. Dr. Wong gave me a month to live. Well, as luck would have it, someone else’s tragedy became my blessing, because a week later, a matching heart was overnighted after a seven-car pile up on the other side of the country. Driver fell asleep at the wheel.” She paused, breathed deep, and waited for him to turn and walk away from her. When he didn’t, she continued. “Dr. Wong cut me open, fixed me, and I’ve stayed fixed for over twenty years. Everyone told me how strong I was back then, but I didn’t feel strong. Not at all. I felt weak.” She didn’t realize she was crying until she heard it in her voice. Until tears were spilling out of her eyes, too. “And I spent every moment after that determined to never be that weak again. Determined to prove that, just because I was a woman born with a shitty heart, didn’t mean I couldn’t be the best goddamn undercover agent the FBI ever saw. Nothing meant more to me than my job, until I met you. Nothing meant more to me than overcoming my biggest weakness, my heart, until the moment I met you. I didn’t understand why my heart was acting up again, why it would stop beating the moment you looked at me, touched me… loved me… the moment I realized I might lose you. Now I know it’s because… it’s yours. It belongs to you, Leo, more than it ever has anyone else. Hell, more than it ever has to me. And… and it beats for you. It’s gotten to the point that… I would rather you hate the broken pieces of Jessica Borgia, than love
the shiny pieces of Ashley Williams.”
He rolled his eyes.
Her heart ached at the sight. “So yes, at first, it was about Val. It was… but I never expected to… to fall in love with you. I never expected what we had to become real.”
“Real.” His wide, filled eyes hit hers again, cheeks crimson. “Real. You’re a fed. Your name is Jessica. You’ve been looking into my eyes and lying to my face from the moment I laid eyes on you, just to get close to Val. None of this is real.” He zeroed in on her, pointing a finger in her face. “Nothing you do or say will ever be real to me again.”
“Leo, please.”
“You want to climb the ranks at your job this bad? I can’t be the first chump you’ve spread your legs for. What number am I on your list?” he asked. “Is fucking your mark one of the job requirements? Or was I just the lucky exception?”
“Leo, please.”
He stumbled back, slapping the tears from his cheeks. “Just stay away from me, Ash…” He stopped himself, jamming his eyes closed with a strangled laugh. “Stay away from me, stay away from my family.”
“I’ll do anything to make it up to you.” She watched him back away, clenching her fists. “I’m going to make it up to you, Leo. I’m going to fix this. There’s nothing I won’t do to get your trust back… to get you back.” Her lips curled under as she fought tears. “I’m going to get you back.”
He held up a hand. “Just… stay the fuck away…”
Jessica watched him go, eyes shrinking when he climbed into his Porsche and tore out of the lot.
She waited until that Flat-6 was no longer growling in her ears before she let the first sob escape her lips.
***
Zoey sat curled up on the couch of her old Brooklyn apartment. Since they’d gotten engaged, Val had been covering the remainder of her lease, and she was thankful they’d yet to move most of her furniture out. She needed time alone. Away. She faced the open window from where she was curled up on the living room couch, her purple curtains dancing in the evening breeze.
Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3) Page 29