Austyn shot to his feet. 'You said you had things to talk about??
He hauled Luca to his feet by the scruff of his neck. 'Come on. We can talk outside. I need a smoke.
Luca was practically dragged out of the room. 'Hey! I was in the middle of something!"
'Get a room."
'I had a room! You're dragging me out of it!'
Theyre Talking Smack About Us
4/
The room fell quiet after the men left.
Isabel combed her dishevelled hair with her fingers.
She took a sip of the dark red wine in her glass.
Kira stuck to her orange juice.
Isabel pushed the wine bottle on the table towards Kira. 'Here, try the merlot. It's the club's private label.
'No, I'm good, thanks."
She'd sworn off alcohol after what happened at The Analogue.
If Austyn knew she drank wine, she would never hear the end of it.
Isabel seemed to know what she was thinking. You're afraid Austyn's going to nag at you?'
Kira just smiled.
She wasn't going to admit she was a little afraid of her husband and his lectures.
'I guess he has a point.' Isabel shrugged. 'You're too young to drink alcohol."
Kira wanted to protest.
She was long past the minimum drinking age.
'What do you think they are talking about?' Isabel narrowed her eyes as she glanced towards the closed door. 'Seems like they're keeping something from us.
Kira didn't pay much attention to what happened just now.
Her mind was preoccupied.
'I thought they were just going out for a smoke."
'Tsk.' Isabel crossed her long legs. 'Do you always believe what men tell you? This is a private room. There's an ashtray on the table. They can smoke here. Why do they need to-duck out? I think they're up to no good." She tapped her index finger on her chin, looking pensive. 'I bet they're talking smack about us.
The Day Prs Fly
The Day Pigs Fly
'Um, I'm not sure that's what they are doing.
Kira had a hard time imagining Austyn gossiping behind her back.
Isabel glanced at her.
Kira's face still retained some baby fat, and Isabel itched to give it a pinch.
"The day men do not lie is the day pigs fly,' Isabel said.
Kira saw her opening. "Then, do you think your husband lies?"
Isabel shrugged. 'Men lie. Luca's a man. Ergo, he lies.
'And you're okay with that?"
'Why wouldn't I be? He usually lies about stupid stuff, like saying he didn't smoke when 1 could smell the nicotine on his clothes, or saying the cat knocked over the vase, not him. I close one eye just to see how long he can keep it up." Kira saw the smile on Isabel's face, and her dislike for Luca grew.
Isabel's voice was full of affection and tenderness when she talked about Luca.
How could he betray a woman like her?
'What if he lies about more important stuff?"
'Like what?' Isabel looked at Kira.
'Like... What if he's having an affair behind your back?' Kira held her breath.
Isabel laughed. 'Have you been watching too much drama?"
"These things happen, you know."
'I know, but not to Luca."
'How can you be so sure?"
'He's a police officer. I know that doesn't make him a paragon of virtue, but he's not going to do anything blatantly criminal or things that breach the code of ethics. I trust him.' Kira held back a sigh.
'You look like you have something on your mind.
Kira quickly shook her head and plastered a smile on her face. 'No, nothing. I was just thinking that you two make a great couple."
Isabel smiled.
The Dudy Pros
She picked up her glass. 'I'll drink to that."
She held out the bottle of merlot to Kira. 'Are you sure you don't want to give it a try? It's pretty fruity.'
The sun was blazing at two o'clock in the afternoon.
The infinity pool was unoccupied.
Austyn and Luca leaned against the railing, smoking.
The deck overlooked a grassy hillock.
Neither spoke till they were done with their first cigarette.
Austyn glanced back towards the hall.
Two waiters hovered nearby, waiting to be useful
They were out of earshot.
'Any leads?' he asked.
Luca dragged on his Marlboro Gold. 'Nothing that panned out."
'You can't track him down?"
'It's not as easy as you think. Luca flicked the ashes into an ashtray. 'Santoro's cautious. When he calls Deborah, he never spends longer than three minutes on the phone. And he uses VoIP. We hit a wall when we tried to trace the IP address.' ""Hmm."
'I still can't believe it,' Luca shook his head. 'Deborah's in cahoots with Santoro. What made you suspect her?"
'I didn't. Not at first. But then I saw something."
"What?"
'She's staying at Sunglade. I own an apartment there. After Kayleigh moved out, I had the condo management install CCTV inside the house, in case of B&E. I have access to the living room feeds. ""What did
you see?'
'She's been there for about a week. She got up almost every night to make calls. She'd walk around in the living room, or go out onto the balcony."
"That's hardly proof for anything criminal.'
The Day Plan Fly
30%
'Let me finish. The look on her face told me those weren't simple social calls. I got curious, so I planted a bug in her bedroom.'
Luca put up a hand. 'Stop. Should you be telling me this? I'm a police officer, you know. I have
a duty to uphold the law, and electronic surveillance is illegal.'
Austyn glanced at him. 'I own the apartment. Is it illegal to bug your own house?"
Luca thought about it. 'Fine, I'll let it go for now. So that's how you learned she's working with Santoro?'
Austyn nodded. 'She called him by name."
Luca inhaled more nicotine. 'Deborah's your ex-girlfriend, long believed to be dead. Santoro's
a drug trafficker masquerading as a businessman. How the hell did these two get in bed
together?'
Austyn didn't reply.
He had no idea, either.
It had been seven years since he last saw Deborah
He knew time could change people.
He just didn't expect her to change so much.
He was willing to accept a lot of things, like Deborah getting involved with Liam again.
She was a grown woman capable of making her own decisions.
But Austyn couldn't tolerate the idea that Deborah had come back to hurt him.
Over the past two days, he deliberately let her get close to him, just to see what she would do.This belongs to - ©.
But so far, Deborah had been acting like an ex-girlfriend hell-bent on patching things up with
him.
She played the part to perfection.
Luca patted Austyn's shoulder. 'You did the right thing, keeping this under wraps. We just need to continue with the surveillance. Hopefully, she'll let something slip and that'll lead us to Santoro,