Chapter 52: Chapter 52

I was in first place.

Heidi and I were the only two women with perfect scores, but due to completing my mission two days before Heidi, I’d managed to move past her in the rankings.

Gabby successfully completed her assassination a week after me.

Her target, Daniel Bradshaw, was a corrupt cop who’d embezzled funds under the Roscotto name and sold information to the Volkov family.

Gabriella had waited until he was home alone and snuck sleeping gas into his HVAC system. Once he was knocked out, she’d carried him to his garage with Andrei’s help, turned his car on, and locked up the house on her way out. The fumes from his car slowly but painlessly put Daniel to sleep forever.

I admired her for wanting him to go peacefully, but at the same time, it was scary to think she was capable of forming a meticulous plan like that.

I was waiting for news on Rena’s task while preoccupying myself with preparations for the closing ceremony.

“What do you think about this?” Christina held up a color palette and tapped the deep ocean-blue color.

I pursed my lips as I thought about it before shaking my head. “It doesn’t stand out to me. We want a theme that screams success, wealth, and power. That blue is giving under-the-sea vibes. Great for a high school prom, but not for the closing ceremony.”

She chuckled and placed the palette aside. “So, no blue. Got it.”

I scanned the papers littered on the floor around us and frowned. This was the result of our brainstorming session, yet it felt like we hadn’t done much.

Christina had come over to help me get things started, but we couldn’t decide on a theme or a color scheme.

I looked at the fancy feather pen in her hand and suddenly got an idea. “How about a masquerade ball?”

She looked at me curiously. “A masquerade ball?”

I nodded, liking the idea the more I thought about it.

“Yes. Every get together since the games began was a black-tie event. It will send a message if the women wear masks in the closing ceremony, then one by one reveal themselves when their name is called.”

Christina’s eyes brightened, and she excitedly clapped her hands. “Yes! That’s brilliant.”

I quickly grabbed my notepad and wrote it down.

“How about a gold color palette?” she suggested. “It screams wealth. I have a few props in storage from the gold-themed ball I hosted a few years ago.”

“Gold and white!” I exclaimed excitedly. “That’s perfect for this occasion.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “Speaking of white, there were these elegant tablecloths that I had been eyeing…” We quickly fell into a trance as everything began to solidify.

Using the laptop Stefano purchased for me after I’d finished the fourth game, we began to browse decorations and place orders that suited our theme.

An hour later, Stefano walked into the room, a garment bag thrown over his arm. Christina and I looked at him.

“What’s that?” I asked, my eyes focused on the bag.

He smiled and shook it. “Our outfits for our date tonight.”

Christina gasped and covered her mouth to hide her big grin. “I knew I raised a good son.”

I laughed at her words, but I couldn’t help how giddy I felt as I got off the floor and approached him.

I tried to take the bag, but he pulled it away and leaned down to give me a kiss.

“At least greet me first,” he murmured against my lips.

I smiled. “Hi.”

“Hey, beautiful.” Another kiss.

While he was distracted, I quickly snatched the bag and created some distance between us. Holding it up, I pulled down the zipper to peer inside.

“What’s the occasion?” I asked.

“Do I need an occasion to take you on a date?”

I looked at him, my eyebrow quirked as I waited for him to stop bullshitting me.

“…I have some good news to share. This dinner is an early congratulations for making it this far. You have no idea how much I appreciate you being here.”

He inched closer as his voice lowered to an alluring hum.

Christina cleared her throat and stood. “I’ll leave before my presence is forgotten. I want a big family—eight grandbabies will work.”

I whipped my head around and looked at her in disbelief. That was a threat if I’d ever heard one.

Stefano chuckled and wrapped an arm around my waist. “We can make that happen.”

I turned to look at him, ready to knock some sense into him, but then froze when I realized we hadn’t been playing it safe. I’d stopped my birth control prescription when we’d broken up before, and I hadn’t reached out to my doctor for a refill after we got back together.

My tongue curled up, and I swallowed back my words.

Without my realizing it, Christina just may have gotten her way.

Christina laughed and quickly packed up before leaving. On her way out, Stefano and she shared a glance.

Once she left, I narrowed my eyes on him. “What was that?”

“What was what?” he asked innocently.

Knowing he wasn’t going to answer, I whirled around and opened the garment bag to fully look at the dress he got me.

“Where are we going for dinner?” I asked.

“Jean-Luc’s.”

“Really?” I asked in surprise.

Jean-Luc’s was a Michelin-starred, upscale restaurant with a set menu that changed daily and no listed prices. They were reservation-only and were usually booked up to a year in advance.

“Really. Our reservation is in an hour, so get dressed.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. This was officially our second date since we got back together. And the first one was cut short because of my phone call with Selena, so I was really looking forward to this.

I sprinted upstairs to change and gasped as I took the dress out of the garment bag.

I couldn’t deny Stefano’s taste in fashion. He knew how to dress a woman. It was a lacy black piece covered in floral patterns, and I absolutely loved it. I paired it with black gloves and a small black hat with a strip of black lace that covered my eyes.

I quirked my eyebrow as we walked outside and Stefano opened the passenger-side door for me.

“No chauffeur?” I asked.

He winked. “I want you all to myself tonight.”

I glanced pointedly at the security guards waiting outside their own vehicle before turning back to Stefano.

He laughed. “Well, almost all to myself.”

I slid in the passenger seat, and in what felt like no time at all, we’d arrived at the restaurant.

Stefano came around to open my door and offered his hand, which I readily accepted. He tossed the keys to the valet and escorted me inside.

The music filtering throughout the restaurant was light, a mix of piano and violin that tickled my ears.

We followed the hostess up a flight of stairs to a private room that overlooked the vast, multicolored garden below.

Stefano knew I loved flowers, and I couldn’t help but think that he requested this table just for the view.

Stefano pulled out my chair.

“Well, look at you being a gentleman,” I teased as I sat. “You don’t see that much these days.”

He chuckled and fixed his cufflink. “If it makes you happy, I’ll have to keep it up.”

“You’re too perfect.”

“We’re a match made in heaven, then.”

I rolled my eyes, but my smile gave away my appreciation for the compliment.

After reading the menu, we relayed our orders to the waiter, then fell into a comfortable silence as we waited. I placed my elbow on the table and rested my chin on my palm, my eyes taking in the beautiful scenery below us.

Selena would squeal in excitement if I ever got the chance to bring her here. She’d never been to a five-star restaurant before. But now that I had the means to take her, she was nowhere to be found.

I frowned, my gut wrenching at the thought. It’d been months since I’d heard from her, and I couldn’t help thinking that something was seriously wrong.

“What are you thinking about?” Stefano asked.

“Selena,” I admitted.

“What about her?”

I sighed and turned my attention to him. “I don’t know… I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. She’s not the type of person to just carelessly throw her life away.”

“Hmm.” He tapped his finger against the table. “Have you not heard from her recently?”

I shook my head, worry tugging at my insides. “Nothing. Not since her phone call, and that was months ago. Have you found any information?”

His lips quirked. “That was actually one of the three pieces of good news I was going to share tonight.”

My heart leapt at his words, and I almost stood from the table as I leaned in eagerly. “Really? You found something?”

He nodded and reached into his breast pocket to pull out a photo. He slid it across the table, and I quickly snatched it.

I exhaled at the sight of the woman tugging a suitcase behind her. Her clothes were drowning her body, but her face was unmistakable.

It was Selena.

“That’s a CCTV still from an airport in France,” Stefano explained as I committed the image to memory. “The cameras captured your sister arriving with an unidentified older male a few days ago.”

My hand trembled as I asked, “Where were they going?”

“Here.”

I stared at him blankly. “What?”

“Your sister landed in the city a few days ago,” he confirmed. “My men are currently on the lookout for her, but it shouldn’t be long before we find her. There’s no need to worry anymore.”

I was instantly furious. “She’s here and she hasn’t been replying to my texts?” Then I got worried. “Is it because she’s being held captive or something? Who’s the man she’s with?”

“We’ve yet to find that out. He’s hidden his face well—almost like he knew where the cameras were located. There’s no clear image of him.”

Worry twisted my gut. “That’s concerning.”

“Don’t worry,” Stefano said, trying to reassure me. “We interviewed the airport staff. They said your sister seemed to be in good health and was seen happily conversing with her companion.”

My worry dimmed, but I still frowned. If that was the case, why hadn’t she contacted me? Was she afraid I wouldn’t approve?

We were interrupted by the waiter delivering our food, immediately stopping the conversation. I ate in silence, but it was rote motions. I barely tasted anything, my mind a mess and my heart just as chaotic.

When I finally placed my fork down and dabbed my mouth with a napkin, I noticed Stefano staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

He smiled. “I said I had three pieces of good news for you, didn’t I?”

Oh, right.

I looked at him curiously. “What are the other two?”

His smile widened. “We found a lead on your aunt.”