Page 1 of Lorenzo

Prologue

Present Day

The Night Before

Alessio Conti should have left the club twenty minutes ago.

He knows this because his phone has already buzzed twice with reminders he set himself earlier, back when he still believed he intended to be responsible tonight.

The first reminder was subtle. A simple vibration in his pocket while he stood near the bar with Dante and Tomasso, laughing at something he did not remember two seconds later.

The second came ten minutes after that.

Go home.

He ignored that one too.

Mostly because of the woman in the red dress.

She stands across the room beneath a wash of amber light, one shoulder angled toward him, one hand wrapped around a coupe glass she has barely touched. The dress is not bright red. Not cheap red. It is deeper than that. Wine-dark and expensive-looking, the silk sliding over her body like it has been poured there.

She knows he is looking.

That is the dangerous part.

Not because Alessio is unfamiliar with women who want to be looked at.

He enjoys women, enjoys their laughter and confidence and the warm, electric pleasure of being wanted. He likes flirting. He likes the slow start of a game when everyone involved understands the rules and no one pretends otherwise.

But this woman is not playing quite the way most people do.

She does not look away when their eyes meet.

She lifts her glass instead.

A toast from across a room.

Alessio smiles before he can decide not to.

Dante says something beside him, but the music eats half of it.

“What?” Alessio asks.

Dante follows his gaze. “No.”

“That is not a complete sentence.”

“It is when you know exactly what I mean.”

Alessio laughs and takes one last sip of his drink. “Relax.”

“I hate when you say that.”

“Because you are terrible at it.”

Dante gives him a look. “You have work in the morning.”

“I always have work in the morning.”