Chapter 20
Luke
Luke was freaking out. They’d hang up the call with Jasper Fairbanks half an hour before. Divya had left shortly after. She had to call Moon. Luke believed that was code for: she needed a long conversation with her romantic partner, but not that she wanted to update their client on how things were.
He hoped he was right because things were utterly and bloody complicated—and fucked.
The list of possible leads just kept multiplying: Isabel Teixidor, the director, had got an extended run of her play out of Pascual’s disappearance.
Pili Garcia, the co-star, would also be in that extended run of the play and she hadn’t liked the older Pascual playing her son—she’d always preferred Sandro Palau for the role.
Pascual was having a romantic relationship with someone who Sol and Divya—and reluctantly also Luke—believed to be Palau.
Sandro—who was objectively the person benefitting the most from Pascual’s being missing—looked devastated and had said he wouldn’t be in the extended run of the play until Pascual was found.
Then there was Jasper Fairbanks telling them Pascual had forced him to move the production of The Single Dad Situation from Atlanta to London.
Was the showrunner really as happy about that as he pretended to be?
He’d told them Leonardo was a man who’d at least abandoned another production before, Theo Summer’s Bibliophilia.
And, if all that wasn’t convoluted enough, Pascual was about to fire his manager Robert Lancaster, AKA Bobby, and the person supposedly responsible for damaging Pascual’s reputation in Hollywood.
Add to that pile of confusion, an ominous note left inside Pascual’s dressing room claiming they’d not reach him in time, an open window, the person who Sol had seen addressing Pascual at the W, and the lack of any demands for ransom despite the note claiming they needed to offer something in exchange for the actor.
If Pascual had been kidnapped, the kidnappers didn’t seem to want to get rid of him yet—which only added to Luke’s anxiety.
Plus, production of The Single Dad Situation was supposed to start in London the next Monday, but that would have to be postponed since the star of the show was still missing.
Not only didn’t they know if Leonardo was okay or not, Luke was told two hundred people could end up without a job if they didn’t find the leading man soon—Divya’s lover among them.
Luke huffed. He was pacing Sol's rooftop terrace and running his fingers through his hair while contemplating the sight. There were views of Tibidabo hill, the Sagrada Família, and a stretch of the sea. He had always loved that rooftop space, perhaps because the first time he’d kissed Sol had been there.
But today he wasn’t feeling the charm of the place.
And it wasn’t just because of the chilliness in the air.
They still had no clue what had happened to Leonardo Pascual.
And even if Luke had never been a fan of the actor, he was starting to be genuinely concerned.
What if something bad had happened to him?
The Bakshi & Contadino Agency had been hired to find him, yet he wasn’t sure how that was going to be possible.
In all his years as a professional investigator, he didn’t remember a case where he was so lost. Not even when Sol had been accused of theft and he’d been utterly smitten by her, he hadn't been so clueless. On that particular occasion, Sol’s reputation had been in danger, but she hadn’t been threatened physically.
Here they didn’t know what they were facing.
On top of that mess, or perhaps making interference and causing some of his brain to malfunction, there was his realization that he wanted to be Sol’s husband.
He was sure of that. He’d never wanted anything that clearly.
When it came to her, it was all or nothing.
He was set on working unrelentingly toward getting the coveted title and then Divya had had to crush his resolutions and plant doubt: Would he still want to marry Sol if that meant leaving London?
What would he do if he had to choose between one or the other? And why was he hyperventilating?
“Luke, are you okay?” He’d been pacing like a maniac on Sol’s rooftop terrace and now she was also there with him. Her brow was knitted, her lips tight. She was worried about him. Was he okay though?
“I have no clue what’s happened with bloody Pascual,” he finally admitted. And that alone lifted some of the weight on his chest. He was still breathing as if he’d just finished a forty-minute run at his personal maximum speed.
“I know.” She took her fingers to his messy hair, combing through it. And, for the first time that afternoon, she unabashedly looked him straight in the eyes.
They stood like that, one in front of the other, for a few seconds. His heartbeat was slowing down. He sighed, relieved. But even if she had the most calming of effects on him, he still needed to get his head straight. He owed it to Leonardo Pascual.
Sol leveled a razor-sharp glare in his direction. “I feel there’s something else you aren’t telling me.”
He breathed deeply, and was about to give her an explanation—an excuse more likely.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure that out,” she continued. “Later. I know you need to finish the case first. I think I have an idea of what to do next.”
“You do?” He smiled at her. She was brilliant.
“I do.” She returned the smile.
···
Sol
“Divya is going to kill us when she finds out we’re sneaking out without her,” Luke protested but there was mischief in his voice.
“I think she’ll be perfectly fine.” Sol dismissed him. It was fair to say that she was both exhilarated but terrified at the same time.
“How are you so sure?” He arched one of his eyebrows—visible even though he was wearing a black baseball cap pulled low—and they kept walking side by side on the pedestrian street.
“She said she wanted to talk to Moon,” Sol said, making sure her own cap covered her face well.
“They should be done with the conversation by now, bella,” Luke teased her. Sol savored the use of that particular nickname. He hadn’t called her bella since they’d first started flirting and fooling around, cara being his preferred endearment for her.
“I don’t think they were only going to talk, Luca,” she teased him back.
He stopped midstride in the middle of the street, his brows drew together in reflection, then he smiled mischievously. “Ooooh!”
Sol laughed. “Oh, indeed.”
“Yeah, she won’t mind that we went ahead without her.” He kept smiling.
“Plus, apparently this is a two-person operation.” At least that’s what he’d told her when Sol had explained her plan to Luke.
Now that they were reaching their destination, Sol wasn’t sure if she would have preferred Divya to be there in her place.
“Right, we’re here.” Luke’s head pointed toward the entrance of the Casanova theater.
“Let me check you one last time,” Sol grabbed his hand to make him stop in the middle of the street again. The contact created an almost electric current where they were touching. She longed for that touch—for him.
Not now. Later. She shook her head, cleared her mind. She was made aware once again how that case was allowing them to get acquainted with each other in a new way. She treasured the chance.
She gave him a thorough once-over: from the dark sneakers, black pants, and equally black and baggy long-sleeved T-shirt, to the black baseball cap.
She even tucked one of his loose locks of hair under the hat.
He was almost unrecognizable. Of course, she’d be able to recognize him anywhere but to the random passerby—or security camera—he looked like an unremarkable person dressed in black and with indistinguishable features.
Sol herself was sporting a similar look.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said.
“Nervous, cara?” His eyes were bright with a type of excitement Sol had learned to recognize in him. It was the thrill of the investigative chase.
“Fucking terrified,” she admitted.
“You can stay here, make sure no one gets in. Let me know if you see something…”
Sol wasn’t interested in doing that. “What makes you think I won’t be even more terrified then? Thinking of all the things that could happen to you?”
“Right.” He smiled, smugly. “Andiamo?” He extended his right hand to her.
She breathed deeply, took his hand. “Vamos.”