“If Liam was going to attempt to pin it on Lucas, then he would make sure it was the Greco mark, not an old enemy. It can’t be him, and I don’t see him attempting to kill his daughter. He wouldn’t do that.”
“So we’re back to your dad again,” Antonio said. “And what he said to you in the hospital room.”
“Yeah, which makes no sense, because forty-eight-ish hours before, he was telling me to make Alex fall in love with me.” He gritted his teeth. The answer was right in front of him, he just couldn’t quite reach him.
“If he was going to kill Alex, seeing as there was already a hit put out on her already, why would he tell you, in private, to make this marriage work?” Marlo asked.
“Exactly.”
“So we rule out your dad,” Cash said. “Which brings us back to square one. Who would want to kill Alex?”
Roman looked toward his wife. The smile on her face was infectious. She’d only been with the kids a couple of days and the color was back in her cheeks. She looked so happy. He loved seeing her like this.
He hated hospitals, and keeping her in one had been difficult.
“We have no one,” Roman said. “Alex is … she’s not…”
“There has to be someone. We’re overlooking, or we’re not looking close enough,” Antonio said. “What about an ex-lover?”
Roman frowned and looked at his friend. “What?”
“Think about it, the moment your dad told you, you were engaged to be married, you stopped visiting your women. You ended things abruptly. Some of the women you were seeing, they liked all the pretty things you had.”
“They’re not killers,” Roman said.
“I don’t know, Denise looks like she’d be pretty pissed if someone messed with her money pot,” Cash said.
“She was all about the money,” Marlo said.
Roman chuckled. “So what we’re saying is an ex-lover of mine, who knew of the Smirnov, has arranged to have my wife killed and potentially start an all-out war because of my dick?”
“Some women can be quite possessive,” Antonio said. “Maybe she or they didn’t like being passed over for Alex. Let’s face it, we’ve all heard the rumors. None of the women believe she is good enough for you.”
Roman shook his head. “None of them could have done this, okay? I paid them a huge settlement. They have no reason to even think about Alex.”
“Apart from the fact they think she’s getting your dick.”
“I’m not talking about this anymore. It’s not helping.”
“We’ve got to exhaust all angles,” Marlo said.
What he needed right now was to be near Alex.
After stepping off the porch, he walked all the way toward her. Several of the kids were near her as he approached, and all of them rushed back to their little easels to start drawing again.
“You look angry,” Alex said.
“It’s nothing.”
She looked past his shoulder, and he didn’t need to turn to know she was staring at his friends. “Trouble in paradise?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. Boys and girls, I’m going to take our precious patient for a little stroll,” Roman said, going behind her wheelchair. There was a chorus of okays and a few boos, that eventually turned into okays. Not that he’d stop doing what he was doing to appease them.
“Is everything okay?” Alex asked.
“Just trying to figure out who is trying to kill you.”
“Ah, good thoughts.”