Page 5 of Scarlet Embrace

“Do I, by chance, know you?” I asked right before I opened the door and slipped in next to her.

“Who are you?” She stammered, her eyes filled with shock, which soon disappeared.

She’s quite beautiful.

Brown eyes, black silky hair, and full lips that I would have found tempting in different circumstances. There was no denying the woman right in front of me was beautiful, but I was more interested in why she had been following and who she was.

“Are you working together?” I asked the driver, who was quite quick to tell me that he was just an ordinary taxi driver who seemed to have picked the wrong passenger.

“Who are you?” she asked again.

“You already know the answer to that question,” I said as I snatched her camera.

“Give that back to me!” She tried to reach me, but I blocked her with my hand.

I ignored her as I went through her camera. Pictures of me, all of them from today. One when I stepped out of Sonto’s office, another of me talking with Diana. Without a thought, I deleted the pictures and then broke the camera.

“Why did you do that?” She yelled at me.

“Next time, you’ll think before taking pictures of random strangers who value their privacy,” I said right before I showed her my gun.

It was a dick move, threatening the poor woman, and I would have felt a bit guilty if not for the look of defiance written all over her face. She seemed incensed, and I found it a bit amusing.

“You’ll regret this,” she told me with flared nostrils.

“Trust me, darling, there are a number of things I’ll regret, but this? It ain’t one of them.”

I threw her broken camera on the seat and stepped out. I wanted to say something else, but I decided I had scared both of them quite enough. I felt a little bit better just after putting her in her place. Thomas was standing right outside the car, waiting for me.

“Did something happen with our tail?” he asked.

“Just put her in her place,” I told him with a wave. “Let’s get out of here.”

CHAPTER 3: ELENA

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

I hate that bastard.

He could have just handed me my camera back right after deleting those pictures, but no, the bastard had to destroy Bianca’s camera. Now, I will have to replace her camera, and that will set me back by months. She loved that camera way too much, and she wasn’t going to be pleased when she discovered that I had broken it.

“Will you stop making that groaning sound?” Carmen asked as she placed two drinks on our table.

“Please, let her complain all she wants,” Natalia said as she drew me into a hug.

She was the only one who understood my plight and what I was currently going through. Yes, I admit it was my fault for going after him, but I had discovered a ton just by going after Lucas. I couldn’t tell who he had gone to see, but the visit to Marcus LaRosa’s restaurant made it clear that something was going on.

If only I had the photos to back my claims.

After my chance encounter with Lucas Cruz, my taxi driver dropped me, deciding he wasn’t going to drive me around. I took a car back to my office, where Roland was waiting for me. It turned out that he had called me a number of times, but my phone was still on silent, and I had missed his calls. Roland had carefully listened to my explanation, and he wasn’t quite pleased to hear that I had an encounter with Lucas Cruz. I dismissed his concern and talked about Lucas going to meet Diana LaRosa and asked him if there was anything going on between both families. Roland told me he didn’t know anything and promised to ask around.

“We all are aware of the tensions between both the LaRosa and the Cruz family, but an open meeting? That sounds like war brewing,” Roland admitted.

He expressed his concerns about my safety, but I told him there was no need for him to bother. I can take care of myself, and there is no way I’m hiding because of Lucas Cruz. The Cruz’s had driven my family once into hiding before, but that would never happen again.

“She won’t be complaining if she didn’t go after Lucas Cruz,” Carmen pointed out as she lifted her drink. “Girl, are you crazy? No one goes near those guys unless they have a death wish?”

“I was so close to him,” I muttered. “Yet I was unable to do anything.”