Chapter 4

The place was a wreck.

The bamboo fence had been knocked down and trampled to pieces. A dozen or so rose plants had been ripped out by the roots and tossed aside, their new purplish-red shoots scattered all over the ground.

Someone had scrawled "Fucking bitch, get out!" across the dirt in huge red letters.

I stood there, shaking with rage.

I pulled out my phone and called the community's emergency line. "This is Isabella Mancuso at the end of Rose Lane. Someone just broke into my garden, destroyed my roses, and ran off along the cliffside path. Send people now to watch the main gate and the path exit!"

The dispatcher spoke slowly. "Okay, got it. But we're short on patrol staff at night. I'll send someone over to take a look in an hour."

"An hour?" My voice shot up. "Won't they be long gone by then?"

The dispatcher paused for a second. "I'm really sorry, ma'am. We're all busy. Please wait a little longer."

Then the dispatcher hung up on me.

I stared at my phone, seething.

An hour later, a security guard chewing gum strolled over with a flashlight. "What a mess. They really did a number on the rose garden."

I wiped the sweat from my forehead. "So what's the community going to do about it?"

He spread his hands and shrugged helplessly. "Do about it? This isn't the community's business at all. You'll have to call the police."

I snorted and looked at the empty space behind him. "They only sent you?

"I pay tens of thousands of dollars a year in HOA fees, and now that my property's been damaged, you're telling me it's none of the community's business?"

He frowned impatiently. "Ma'am, I'm just a security guard, not a cop. I really can't handle this. Whoever you pissed off, go deal with them yourself."

I was about to snap back at him when a shrill, mocking laugh came from behind him.

"Well, if it isn't the new owner of the rose garden. Why are all your flowers dead?"

I looked up. It was Evelyn.

She was wrapped in an off-white cashmere shawl and holding a half-empty glass of red wine, her nails painted as red as the paint on the ground.

I quietly hit record on my phone.

She pointed at the large letters on the ground and laughed smugly. "'Fucking bitch, get out!' What a nasty thing to write."

"Did you do this?" I trembled with fury.

Evelyn frowned at once.

"Don't you try to blame me, but..." She drew out the words and looked me up and down. "I told you, didn't I? Don't cross the wrong people. At best, your rose garden gets wrecked. At worst..."

I ignored Evelyn's gloating and turned to the guard. "I want to see the security footage."

The guard's face darkened, and he avoided my eyes. "Ahem... the camera over here just happens to be broken. It hasn't been fixed yet."

I glared at him, my lips curling. "Just happens to be? What a coincidence."

He looked guiltily at Evelyn.

Evelyn cleared her throat.

The guard immediately lifted his chin and looked at me. "That's right, it just happens to be broken. There are so many cameras in this community, it's normal for one to break now and then."

So it was all a setup between Evelyn and community security.

Evelyn grinned. "That's just too bad. You'll never catch the culprit."

Malice showed in her eyes. "But... you're a single woman living alone on a property like this. Who knows where your money came from or who you really are? Maybe your sugar daddy's wife trashed your rose garden to warn you off?"

I stared at Evelyn's twisted face, took out my phone, and showed her the recording. "Slander, defamation, malicious destruction of property. I've got it all on tape. You'll be hearing from my lawyer!"

I turned the phone screen toward the guard. "And you! I pay over $10,000 a year in community fees, and you've done nothing. You'd better figure out how to sell that bullshit to a judge!"

Evelyn went pale. The next second, she lunged for my phone and slapped me across the face.

"Who do you think you are, threatening me!

"A woman who slept her way into the Mirador Point estate thinks she can take me on?

"Let me tell you, I make the rules around here."

My face burned, and I could even taste blood in my mouth.

Something inside me finally snapped. Restraint, reason, civility—all of it was gone.

I glared at Evelyn and realized how stupid I'd been.

Use a lawyer to deal with this rabid dog?

A rabid dog should get a bullet in the head right away!

I spat blood onto the ground and took out my phone again.

Evelyn wasn't flustered at all as she watched me. She actually laughed. "Calling for backup? The police, or your sugar daddy?"

The guard jumped in. "Ms. Mancuso, I'd advise you not to make this any bigger. Mr. Langford is close with the West Coast Mafia boss. Your sugar daddy can't help you against him."

Evelyn narrowed her eyes smugly. "This is the last chance I'm giving you. Get on your knees and give me the rose garden, and I'll think about letting you off.

"Otherwise, all James has to do is call Steven, and you'll be run out of Los Angeles."

Steven?

Stefano Marino?

That hulking brute who'd come all the way from Los Angeles to New York at Christmas just to kneel and kiss my family ring?

I could crush him with one finger, and Evelyn thought he was her trump card?

I gave Evelyn a mocking look, and a slow smile spread across my face. It was the smile I wore just before putting a bullet in a rival's head.

I lowered my eyes and dialed a number I'd never stooped to call before.

"Stefano, you have half an hour. Get to the rose garden right now, and bring James Langford with you.

"And if you can't find whoever wrecked my rose garden, I'll turn you into fertilizer!"