CHAPTER 29: TRUMP CARD

And his warmth... it seeped into her like fire, banishing the cold from her skin.

His thumb brushed against her waist.

"You want me to keep holding you?" he murmured, a teasing smirk playing at the edge of his lips. When she didn’t reply, he leaned towards her face but the door opened abruptly.

In sync, their heads both snapped towards the door.

Alisha’s eyebrows furrowed slightly at the man with hair almost as pink as Bethany’s. She’d seen him when she’d entered the ballroom speaking with Dante.

Rico had a grin on his lips as she watched the couple. "Am I interrupting something?" He asked teasingly, looking down at the hand Dante had on Alisha’s waist and then her hand that was wrapped around his neck.

Instinctively, they parted from each other.

"Don’t you know how to knock?" Dante gritted out.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you would be busy...with her," he said, darting Alisha a look.

With a stretched out hand towards her, he said. "I’m Rico, Dante’s best friend."

"Nice to meet you Rico," she responded, trying to keep herself steady. She couldn’t believe they’d almost kissed.

Not that she was shocked that they were about to kiss—they were married after all. Their marriage was just for the public eye and if they needed to kiss, it was to just make the press believe their act.

"You called me to bring you a suit and now you’re mad that I didn’t knock?" Rico questioned Dante but the latter didn’t reply.

He simply grabbed the suit from him and went to the bathroom.

"I can see that you two are starting to warm up to each other," he said to Alisha when he saw her face flush red in embarrassment. "And I rushed here thinking you were about to claw each other’s faces."

"What? We’re married," she said.

"Oh...you probably don’t know this but I’m aware of the marriage contract," he said, winking at her.

Alisha’s eyebrows furrowed a little. She was about to say something but her sneeze interrupted her.

"You need to get changed," said Rico.

Alisha went to her phone and fired a quick text to Maxine. Luckily, Maxine was already close by and surprisingly, she’d brought an extra dress with her.

"I didn’t expect you to be this ready," Alisha mumbled when she looked at the black dress Maxine had brought with her.

"You went to a gala with that witch Katherine. I’m sure she’s already starting to despise you so in case she tries anything funny, at least you’ll always have another dress to slay in," Maxine explained.

She turned, finally taking notice of Rico, then shyly gave him a wave.

Alisha could only sigh.

Maxine still didn’t understand the length at which Katherine would go just to get rid of her. She’d ordered two men to not just attack her or put fear in her chest, but to actually kill her without caring about the consequences of her actions later.

Dante stepped out of the bathroom, acknowledging Maxine with a curt nod.

"We’ll be going now. I’ll meet you at the party and when I see you, you’ll be staying by my side until the end." Without waiting for a reply, he stepped right out the door.

Rico gave a weird shrug before he followed right behind Dante.

"Isn’t he so romantic?" Maxine cooed with a smile so big, it nearly took over all of her face.

**

Both Dante and Rico walked towards the main ballroom.

"Did you find them?" Dante asked.

"With lack of a proper description, I think they blended with the guests so we weren’t able to find them," Rico explained.

Dante gritted his teeth. When he’d seen the man with a cap pointing a gun at Alisha, he felt something twist in him—something he didn’t like.

Their marriage may be an act, and although she gave him a hard time sometimes, it wasn’t enough to watch as someone killed her in his presence.

"They must still be in this hotel. We need to find them."

"Oh will you look at you," Rico said with a grin. "Getting all worried for his wife. I never thought I would see this day," he added, patting Dante on his shoulder like a proud dad.

"Get your hands off of me. The lives of the guests are in danger if there’s a killer in our midst," he explained.

Rico had a grin on his face that made Dante sigh, realizing Rico was still going to believe the first thing that came to his mind.

"I have my suspects," Dante said. "Katherine, Jennifer and...my father."

Mr. De Rossi might not have made any direct comments about Alisha’s life but he knew his father more than anyone.

That man was more wicked than the world knew. But if his father had been the one who’d actually orchestrated the death of Alisha, he didn’t know if he would be able to stop himself from actually putting a bullet in his father’s head as he’d wanted for the longest time.

Rico simply hummed. "Well, we’d better start searching."

Back inside the hotel room,

Alisha was dressed up in her black gown that had such a long slit it stopped at her mid thigh.

Maxine had retouched her makeup, making her look like a disaster hadn’t occurred just a moment ago.

"Let me take a quick picture," Maxine said, clicking a quick picture. "I bet Dante will drool over you when he sees you in this dress."

Alisha’s mind went back to when she and Dante barely had a one inch distance between their faces.

Her cheeks quickly turned warm.

"But honestly, did you see the faces of those two men?" She asked. "If you can, we can start searching for them. Once they’re caught, they’ll confess and Katherine’s image will be tarnished."

That was the bigger picture—having Katherine pay for what she’d done.

But her mind went back to Nathan, and a grin stretched on her lips.

"Nathan is going to be my trump card in this game."