Chapter 5

CHAPTERFIVE

Stella couldn’t breathe, let alone think straight, when she was so close to Domenico Aladoro. His black curls were a little longer than the last time they’d met, his stubble still perfectly groomed and hiding the dimples she knew would be there when he smiled.

You are in so much shit, Stella.

Stella’s world tumbled around her as the Wheel of Fortune tossed her to the ground and crushed her beneath it. The magic hadn’t worked properly. He remembered everything.

Which meant he was there, dressed up and wearing his badge of office for one reason alone; to put a noose around her neck and toss her off the nearest scaffold.

"Have you come to arrest me?" Stella asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

Dom smiled, his golden eyes glittering like a lion who had caught its prey and was now toying with it.

"That all depends on whether or not you tell me why men were trying to kill you last night. You’re welcome for my assistance, by the way," he replied.

"I didn’t need it. I was doing fine on my own," Stella said stubbornly.

"You know I’m trying to help you here. Fighting me is going to do you no good in the long term." Dom’s arrogant expression softened, and she glimpsed enough sincerity underneath to make her defenses crumble around the edges.

"Stella, per favore, let me help you."

That deep voice saying her name destroyed the last of her resistance. It wasn’t like he didn’t already have enough on her to execute her.

Stella rose from her father’s chair and headed for the door.

"This way," she said.

"Where are we going?"

"Upstairs, where there are fewer ears and more wine." Surprisingly, Dom didn’t argue.

Outside the office, a small group of employees was pretending to have a discussion over print quality. They took one look at Stella’s face and departed in scrambled haste.

"Dio, I’m never going to hear the end of this. The rumor mill will be grinding for months," Stella complained as they headed up the stairs.

Dom chuckled softly behind her. "I hope they are salacious rumors, at least."

God have mercy. He was loving how uncomfortable she was.

"I apologize for the mess. This is my workspace," Stella said, opening the door to her apartments.

Technically the top floor of the palazzo was meant to be her bedroom and private living areas, but a sprawl of projects had taken over, claiming wherever the natural light was hitting that day.

Her bed and bathroom were tucked back into one corner while antique furniture, plants, candles, and books occupied the rest of the available space.

Stella went to one of her work desks and found a bottle of Chianti.

I’m sure I had clean glasses around here somewhere.

Not that she should care. She gave up on the glasses and drank straight from the bottle when she saw Dom studying one of her half-finished paintings.

Having the sickeningly handsome shedu prince of Venice wandering around her bedroom was not how she pictured the day going.

Usually, when she indulged in this fantasy, there were fewer death sentences...and clothes.

"This is exactly the way I imagine an artist’s studio to be," Dom said, looking around curiously. "Do you sell your paintings too? You’re incredibly good."

"No, these are for fun. I haven’t had a chance to paint properly for a while," Stella replied. Then she added, "Thank you for the compliment, Signor Aladoro."

"Please, just Dom. I’m not here in an official capacity, and it sounds wrong when you call me that."

Stella gestured at his attire. "This is you on a casual day, is it? I’m sure half the people downstairs pissed themselves in fright when you walked in."

Dom smiled slyly. "I had to get your attention somehow."

"Well, you’ve definitely got it now." Stella swallowed another mouthful of wine, trying to calm her racing heart.

Dom sat down on one of the vintage chairs and looked up at her. "Do I get some of that wine, or is it just for you?"

Stella passed him the bottle, and he drank before handing it back. Something about the gesture made Stella’s anxiety go down from panicking nausea to moderate heart palpitations.

She sat down opposite him, contemplating how much she could risk telling him.

He already has enough on you to pass a death sentence, so what would it matter if you told him everything?

It wasn’t like it could get any worse.

Dom studied her carefully, every one of her movements tracked. He looked prepared to pounce if she even thought about running.

"What do you know about the disappearances in the city?" Stella asked.

"A city this big always has people moving on—" Dom cut himself off, perhaps recognizing something serious in her tone. "You’re talking more than a few runaways, I take it?"

Stella lifted the couch cushion beside her and brought out a thick file. Luca had given it to her the night before, and she had barely begun going through it.

"You’ve been busy," Dom said, eyeing the size of it.

"Not me. This is all the information my friend Claudia gathered before she went missing too. The shifters in the ally were watching her boyfriend’s place."

Stella let the whole story tumble out. To his credit, Dom didn’t interrupt to dismiss her concerns or tell her she was overreacting.

"I didn’t know how deeply obsessed Claudia was with the whole thing until I saw this file. The few cases I heard of were because the families had first tried to go to the inquisitors, then to the Council representatives. They even petitioned the Grand Sorcerer himself."

"The Coins representatives never mentioned this at any of the Council sessions," Dom replied, his dark brows drawing together. "Neither did Arkon."

"They probably never even read the letters. What is a complaint about a missing girl compared to a missive from the front lines?" Stella said, undoing the twine that held the file together.

"Claudia has all of these in order by date. It started about eighteen months ago with people who mostly go unnoticed; some prostitutes that worked the docks, a few pickpockets, and the homeless who like to hang around the Zattere wharf. Those that used to see them regularly figured they had moved on to a different part of the city. Then they started taking people from other sections of the Coins districts."

Stella passed him a photo of a young woman with her arms around two friends.

"This is Suzetta. She was seventeen and the first one that came from a good family. Someone that would be missed."

Dom took the photo and stared at it for a long moment before handing it back to her.

"Do you have an idea about what links them? Are they all House of Coins?" he asked.

"I honestly don’t know because I’ve barely started going through all of this."

Stella bit her lip, hesitating to share her gut feeling. Dom’s nose flared ever so slightly.

"You’re scared," he observed. "Why?"

Fuck. She wasn’t going to be able to hide a damn thing from that shifter nose of his.

"I might know what links them, but I don’t know if I can tell a Council member without consequences," she said.

"Then don’t tell me as a Council member. Tell me as just Dom, someone to confide in."

Just Dom. He had said that very thing to her the night they met at Carnevale. When for a single night, he didn’t want to be an Aladoro. She must’ve been wearing her hesitation on her face because Dom let out a frustrated sigh.

"Come on, Stella. If I wanted to arrest you, I would have done it by now. I wouldn’t have come here personally either, just sent the inquisitors. You want my resources to help you find Claudia? You need to tell me everything," he insisted. "Now that Lady Fortune has pushed us together again, I would like us to be friends. I don’t betray my friends."

Friends with Domenico Aladoro. Stella went warm all over at the offer.

You’re a fool to trust him, Stella, common sense warned. But she would be a bigger fool to try and lie to him. To find Claudia, she’d need to risk his judgment.

"I can’t be a hundred percent certain yet, but I think they were all unregistered magic users," she admitted.

"Shit." Dom leaned across the space between them and grabbed the wine bottle. After he had two mouthfuls, he asked, "Claudia had magic?"

"Not much. She was empathic and used it to give people really accurate tarot readings," Stella replied. "Claudia was the only other person who knew about me and…now you."

"Not even Pietro?"

Stella reached for the bottle back. "Especially not Pietro. My father would freak out if he didn’t die of heartbreak first." Stella finished what was left of the wine.

"How did you keep it hidden for so long?" Dom asked.

"Really easily, until I decided to flirt with the wrong male at Carnevale."

"We did more than flirt, and I didn’t think there was anything wrong about it," Dom said, his tone defensive enough to make her skin hot. "You would know that if you hadn’t disconnected the number you gave me."

Get the conversation back on track, Stella.

"According to Luca, Claudia was excited about a lead she was running down. This would’ve been about three days ago. She planned to meet up with him the next day, but she never showed. Now she’s gone too."

Stella put the folder down on the couch beside her. She needed to go through it, but she would never get a chance if Dom dragged her off to the Doge’s prison. Her life was literally in the hands of a man she had ghosted.

He had tried to call her?She couldn’t let herself think too hard about that.

Dom was still watching her so intently she could just about hear the wheels in his head turning. She made an annoyed sound at the back of her throat.

"That’s everything I know so far," she said, folding her arms. "Are you going to arrest me or just sit there staring?"

Dom shifted in the chair, his elbows resting on the carved wooden arms like he was sitting on a throne. The prickly wet weight of the rope from Stella’s nightmares looped around her neck as Dom’s face became the serious mask of the golden prince.

"Ask me to help you, misteriosa," he said calmly.

Stella’s heart stopped. "Excuse me?"

Dom leaned forward a little, his mouth lifting into a smile that was pure male. The predator energy was back in his aura, the hunting lion in his eyes.

"Say the words, ’Help me, Domenico Aladoro, I need you,’" he purred, causing every one of her nerve endings to spark to life. There was a playful challenge in his eyes, and she suppressed a grin.

"You want me to beg? Shall I get down on my hands and knees as well, Master Aladoro?"

"Go right ahead. It will definitely help you seem more convincing." Dom’s smile turned smug, no doubt remembering the last time she had been in that position. God, she would never live that night down.

"Not going to happen." Stella folded her arms over her chest stubbornly. "I don’t get you. You’re on the Council of Ten. Don’t you have better things to do than help play detective with me?"

"Our responsibility is to the citizens of the Republic. If they are being kidnapped, then it’s my duty to help find the culprits and punish them," Dom said, some of the heat in his eyes cooling.

"What about me being an unregistered magic user?"

"Have you ever used it when painting cards?"

"No! Of course not. Every deck gets tested. Plus, you saw my magic last night. It uses energy currents. It would burn the paper. There’s no way I could have imbued one, even unintentionally."

"Then, I’m willing to overlook it for the time being." Dom’s smile widened. "That is, as soon as you say the magic words." He had outsmarted her, and they both knew it.

"Is this because I never called? Did I wound your big shedu pride?" she asked.

Dom shrugged, his grin slipping a little. "Maybe."

Stella leaned forward until her face was only inches from his. She was close enough to smell his cedar and spice aftershave, along with that alluring something that made her know he was all predator under his fine clothes.

"Help me, Domenico Aladoro," Stella said, their eyes locking together in challenge. "I need you."

Dom’s eyes melted to hot gold again as his gaze moved a hair’s breadth to her mouth, and for a tense moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. His breath was warm against her lips as he whispered, "That wasn’t so hard now, was it?" Then he pulled away, taking his hot predator energy with him.

Asshole.

"Shall we meet tonight to look over Claudia’s apartment?" Dom asked, looking far too pleased with himself.

"Saint Barnabas square at 7 p.m. Don’t be late, or I’ll go without you," Stella said, accepting her fate.

She was never going to have a one-night stand again.