“She has problems, Taviano,” Francesca excused.
“Then she’s had them for years,” Stefano said. “Since I was born.” He downed his bourbon and held out his glass to his brother to fill.
Vittorio took the glass and crossed the room to the crystal decanter. He glanced back at his younger brother. “Eloisa has been down on Nicoletta since the start. Does she know that she’s a rider?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even care,” Taviano snapped. “The fact that she knows what an ugly life Nicoletta has had but she has no sympathy whatsoever for her is enough for me.”
“She has no compassion or mercy in her,” Vittorio agreed, handing the glass back to his oldest brother.
“I’ll go talk to Aaron,” Emmanuelle said. “I can get in without being seen, give him an explanation he would believe and ask him the questions.”
Giovanni shook his head. “Thanks, Emme, I love you for it, but if Aaron is playing bullshit competition games with his male friends, he won’t tell you. It has to be a man.”
“He sent me chocolates.” Sasha turned her head to look up at Giovanni as realization swept over her, but the position was awkward. She stepped away from him, commanding the room. “James. James Corlege, Aaron’s friend. After the incident in the club, Aaron sent me flowers with an apology.”
“I remember,” Emmanuelle said. “He did it in person. I thought it was so sweet that he wanted to pick them out himself.”
“That same day, I received chocolates with a letter of apology from James. One sent flowers, the other chocolates. Were they trying to one-up each other?”
Giovanni snapped his fingers. “You also received hand-picked flowers. From your stalker. What do we have on them? I know their names were on the list for the investigators.”
“I have the files on them. It seems Rigina and Rosina spent some time looking into them,” Stefano said, flipping open one and handing the other to Vittorio.
“James is the up-and-coming fighter in Aaron’s weight division. He can’t compete with Aaron,” Giovanni said. “He can’t get the title away from him.”
Sasha’s breath caught in her throat. Could this all be about a division title? Not anything to do with her or Giovanni? “A fight title?”
There was silence in the room while they all gave that some thought. Stefano shook his head, frustrated. “I’m looking at the dates of each incident. Corlege has a solid alibi for two of the incidents. The other times he claimed he was sleeping.”
“Same with Tom Mariland,” Vittorio said. “He was seen by other fighters at the gym on two of the dates.”
“So, our suspects all have alibis. That leaves us with Aaron,” Giovanni said. “I still don’t buy it, but I’m beginning to think I could be wrong.”
“All of us have alibis when you’re guilty as hell,” Emmanuelle pointed out. “They aren’t riders, so none of them move through shadows, but maybe they have another way and we’re just not figuring it out yet.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The weekend was crazy. More people were jammed into the club than ever before, pushing the number to full capacity with people standing in a very long line outside, hoping for a chance to come in. The extremely famous DJ inside, working her magic with the music, kept the dance party going hour after hour. Sasha worked the upper tier, not once looking at Giovanni. The tabloids were full of their broken engagement, all due to Giovanni’s roving eye and his tryst with Meredith Benson.
Meredith was there, the paparazzi shooting her photograph over and over. Word was, she was a pariah in Hollywood and the one project she’d been about to work on had been yanked out from under her, due, the papers said, to the fact that she refused to come to work two mornings in a row. That was standard Meredith diva behavior, but her numerous absences, causing delays to the film, cost her dearly.
There was no way for her to fight the decision since they had plenty of evidence. Usually, it was too costly to bring in another actress when the film was a quarter of the way done, but in this case, another producer had funded the project. There was wild speculation who the producer was, but so far, the identity hadn’t been uncovered.
She sent notes to the Ferraro table, but Giovanni didn’t so much as turn around or deign to look her way. His brothers, as they came down the stairs to dance, didn’t look at or acknowledge her, either. She was the center of attention with the flashing lights on her, but for the first time, she didn’t seem to want the attention.
The MMA fighters arrived just after one, very pumped up after their bouts. James Corlege and Tom Mariland were the two big winners, and women flocked around them. The other fighters laughed and joked with them, cheering for them and buying them drinks. Sasha took the tray of drinks to their table and set them in front of the various fighters and their women. As she turned to go, Corlege caught her arm.
“I wanted to apologize for the way I acted the last time I saw you. I was upset over your engagement to Ferraro and I took it out on you in a very ugly way.”
She gave him a small smile. “Thanks, I appreciate the apology. No worries.” She turned away from him again.
Tom Mariland stepped in front of her, blocking her way. “I owe you an apology as well. Aaron was really upset about losing you to Ferraro, and he’s a good friend of mine. James and I stayed up with him all night after the news of your engagement broke.”
James nodded. “I thought we might have to take him to the hospital for alcohol poisoning.”
Tom sighed. “He was so upset that we both thought you’d been in a relationship with him and had dumped him for Ferraro. It was only a couple of nights ago that he admitted he’d never been with you and, in fact, barely knew you. I felt like an idiot.”
“It’s okay, really.”
“No, it’s not. There was no excuse to talk to you that way,” Corlege insisted.
“That picture he took of me, the one that ended up in the tabloids, did you know he had it?” She bit her lip and lowered her eyes. “Before it ended up all over the magazines?”
The men looked at each other.
She sighed. “I can see from your faces that Aaron shared it with you.”
Tom nodded. “I’m sorry. It seems I’m always owing you an apology.” He sighed. “Aaron thought you were beautiful. He had dozens of pictures of you on his phone. He showed them to us. That’s why I thought you two were a thing and you had cheated on him with Ferraro. But …” He hesitated. “He also liked to share his women. It was a thing. I think he’s a bit of an exhibitionist.”
Sasha had to turn her head away. Tom and James were painting Aaron with an entirely different brush than Giovanni had. Who was right? If it had been just Tom or just James, she would have thought one was lying, but both of them? As a rule she could hear lies, and she was hearing a mixture of truth and lies, but what was true and what was the lie? Did they have it wrong? Had Aaron been the one trying to kill her? If so, what could possibly be his reason?
“Sasha, if there’s anything I can do for you, just let me know,” Corlege persisted.
Another woman caught his arm and pulled on it in an effort to remove his hand from Sasha. She glared at Sasha. “Run along, honey. You’re supposed to be serving drinks.”
“Candy, don’t talk to her like that,” Corlege reprimanded, his voice harsh. He bunched his fist in the woman’s hair.
Candy winced, turned red and, when Corlege returned to his seat, pulling her with him by her hair, she curled up at his feet. He held a glass of vodka and grapefruit to her mouth and she gulped it down, some spilling down the front of her. Several of the men laughed and turned to kiss the women sitting on their laps.