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My blood turns cold.
If Nevaeh had a doppelganger, it would be Arianna Newfield.
Before I can speak, Ilya continues, “Arianna met Jacob while she was in a college. They started talking and the relationship quickly turned romantic. Her family says she ended things when she caught him cheating. Or tried to end things. They reported he threatened her to make her return to him. She refused and went missing shortly after. He’s been in hiding ever since.”
“You think he killed her?” I already know the answer.
“I do. And I think he’s fixated on Nevaeh because the two women share traits.”
“They don’t just share traits.” I push his phone back to him. “They could be sisters. Twins.”
Ilya blinks slowly. “I think it’s a good possibility he transferred his obsession from Arianna onto Nevaeh.The video recordings I’ve seen from Ian suggest as much. The similarities to his own relationship with Arianna and the relationship Nevaeh had with Antonio, how she left him. I think it all hit a nerve.”
“Fuck me.” Something gross and cold fills my chest. “I need to find him.”
“I will find him. You are too public. Too involved in this.”
My fists curl and release. Curl and release. “I want him dealt with. Permanently.”
Ilya smiles for the first time. A true, wide, scary as fuck, smile. “It would be my pleasure.”
thirty-three
Nevaeh
Kane came back different from his visit with Ilya. Tense and on edge. The way his blue eyes tracked me as I moved around the room before settling in the hotel bed with my book in hand to read more about my dark mafia king—that now that I’ve met Ilya seems to touch a little too real for comfort—was disconcerting. It didn’t take me long to toss the book to the side, open my arms, and ask him to come to me.
Kane didn’t refuse. In fact, he made love to me long and slow, lingering in my body as though he was afraid to leave.
I fell asleep to his big body wrapped around mine,feeling safe and happy surrounded by warmth even as the scent of a winter forest invaded my lungs.
The next two nights, Ilya, to my surprise, remained with me and the ladies as we watched the guys perform at their sold-out concerts that were nothing like the down to earth, comforting performance at Addy’s Ace. These performances were massive, and Ilya looked on edge throughout the whole time. I was certain the man would prefer to be doing literally anything else, but he stayed where he was, standing sentry as the three of us cheered for our guys on stage.
After the concerts, Candace had to get back for her shift at the hospital and Ian left with her. Cash and Wrenlee left for home too, because newly pregnant Wren was hit hard by the exhaustion of her pregnancy on top of the entertainment of the shows. They’d rest for a few days before jetting off to see her father in Colorado.
We had one last night with everyone together, which we spent at a restaurant that Ilya had arranged to beentirelycleared but for our party. The man is a force and the more time I spent with him, the more I pitied the poor woman who eventually won his heart.
She’d be in for it, for sure.
Now, with everyone gone home and Ilya gone to who knows where, it’s just me, Kane, and Tav left in New York. Tav stayed for Kane, and by extension me. Kane has a photoshoot he couldn’t get out of for abrand of guitars he is under contract to endorse, and that left me without a babysitter. Kane asked Tav and when Ilya offered to leave Muscle Man One and Muscle Man Two, I’d shot pleading eyes to Tav to stay instead. With a smirk, he agreed to babysit me so Muscle Man One and Two could jet off with Ilya to enact whatever terrors Ilya enacted when he wasn’t romancing his little brother’s crew with cleared restaurants and those alluringly disconcerting eyes.
Because I’ve never been to New York, and Kane is off doing Kane business for the day, I’d asked Tav if we chould shop and sightsee. He didn’t look thrilled with the idea, but he hadn’t denied me either.
I’ve had him all over the place since eight in the morning, my trusty ever-present bag of candy fueling me along the way. I tried to share with Tav, but he’s a killjoy when it comes to the truly delicious this world has to offer. This is why I’m hesitant about his claim that this busy little bistro we’re currently sitting down to lunch at is one of the best New York has to offer.
Settling at the table and, not knowing a whole lot about Tav, I decide to dig in. “So, how’d you become the drummer in Devils Heartbreak?”
His dark eyes flicker up from the menu to connect with mine. “I’ve always liked music.”
“That’s it?”
He shrugs. “It was a little boys dream that became a reality.”
“Tell me about this little boy.”
A brow raises and he sits back in his seat, lifting his chin just that little bit to peer the length of his nose at me. Tav gives this contemplative look a lot. I’ve seen more than one pair of panties drop for it.
“Are you asking me about my childhood, Nevaeh?”
