Page 48 of For Better or for Ransom

“Isabel is looking shadier by the minute,” Luke muttered.

“She is. Could it be that she was counting on us not suspecting her just because of how obviously suspicious she is?” Divya tried reasoning. “I mean that would be some genius mind game, eh?”

Luke narrowed his eyes, thinking. “It could be. I suppose…”

“Did Sandro tell you what he was going to do?” Sol asked Divya. She was genuinely worried about the young actor whose boyfriend was missing and now had been threatened. Sandro was an openly gay man but Leonardo’s sexual orientation had remained a mystery—and a perpetual source of speculation—since he’d been cast by Meshflixx in The Privateers and the queer show had been a smashing success. Not only was Sandro's partner missing, Isabel was threatening to publicly out Leonardo as well. That was a heartless move.

“Sandro told me that he doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, literally.” Divya shrugged. “But he was worried. Said that Isabel had been very specific in her threats, even bringing up the name of a few journalists who were taking her calls.”

“I have a bad feeling.” Luke grunted.

27

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Luke

The following day, Luke’s bad feeling materialized. And it was worse than he could have anticipated. He was well aware that in the very short hierarchy that existed among Sol’s ex-husbands, she’d always preferred and had been more friendly with Ex Number One. But even if she’d confessed to having an acute allergy against Ex Number Two, who lived in Los Angeles and only recently had approached Sol to try to remain civil, Luke suspected Sol would probably upgrade Number Two as her favorite ex right now. Her least loathed one, in any case.

“I’m going to fucking kill him!” Sol said as they read Miquel’s article on her phone while seated at her kitchen counter. She translated the article to Luke.

The article per se, which was in Catalan and had been published in one of the local online newspapers, wasn’t what was making Luke angry. It wasn’t good, but by that point in his career he was used to a little bit of bad publicity. Plus he doubted it got any traction in the international media. By tomorrow everyone would have forgotten about the factless article stating that stage director Isabel Teixidor was the Bakshi & Contadino Agency’s main suspect when it came to their investigation into the disappearance of Leonardo Pascual.

Fortunately there was no mention of Leonardo and Sandro’s relationship in it, although Miquel mentioned sources telling him about Leonardo having a possible secret romance while he was working in El baño de Edipo and Teixidor claiming she knew with whom.

What had Luke’s blood boiling was the little disclaimer note at the end of the article that Miquel had seen fit to include. Disclosure: Miquel Oriol’s former wife consults for the Bakshi & Contadino Agency, it read. The whole thing was written in such a confounded way that it couldn’t be casual. For one, there was no bloody mention of Sol’s current relationship with one of the partners at the Bakshi & Contadino Agency. But Luke understood exactly what that line meant and why Miquel had included it. Ex Number One wasn’t being ethical and transparent about his background. He was simply flaunting his status as previous holder of the title in front of Luke.

“Arsehole,” he said out loud.

“I’m going to call him and I’m going to fucking tell him what I think about his tasteless article and that note at the end. What the hell was he thinking about?” Sol yelled.

“Cara, don’t call him.” He took his hand to her forearm, and shifted on his stool to look at her. “He called me yesterday clearly looking for a bloody quote, and I only managed not to say anything stupid because you’d warned me and you appeared at the right moment.”

She beamed at him. “He stills deserves being called many insults.”

“He does but let’s do it when we’re not so riled up. I fear he may publish something else.”

“You’re right.” She leaned forward, kissed him. “Who taught you to be so good with journalists?” She’d turned from enraged to perky.

“You did. And I listen.”

“You do. And I love you because of that.”

He knew she did. He’d still said it out loud. His campaign to make Sol realize he was husband material was back on. Stronger than ever. If one thing had been clear after reading that piece of journalistic crap—and its bloody disclaimer—was that Luke no longer had any doubts. Sol and he could figure out the living/location situation when it came to it. But he was after the bloody title and was going to prove to her he was worthy of it.

“Listen, I know we’ve got a conversation to have,” Luke said.

“I thought you were just avoiding it.” Sol sighed. “I mean, I know I purposely made us not have the whole chat the other night. But that was for legitimate reasons.”

He smiled, mischievously. “Very legitimate reasons. I love you and your methods.”

She blushed, breathed deeply. “But I feel after that, you perhaps didn’t want to talk about whatever is going on…”

“I was just—I suppose waiting for the right moment.”

“And this is the right moment?” Sol asked.

Was it? Luke wanted to come clean. Tell her everything that had been on his mind these past few days. But he only had one shot at her not flipping out and actually proposing to him. Was this the right moment to make his feelings known? Or could he keep working on his husband-material campaign a little longer to improve his prospects?