CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

 

Demetrius

She fell asleep in my arms, my naked body curved around her smaller one, and I knew that I should have gotten up and gone to the couch, left her there alone, because if we woke up together, she wouldn’t like it.

But screw it. I wasn’t sure I cared about that.

I was already formulating a plan, and it included waking her up with my hands on her clit, my mouth on her nipples, and I didn’t think she’d protest if—

What was that?

I had heard a noise, and it had sounded precisely like the door to this office block being opened.

It was locked, so anyone who’d opened it must have picked the lock, and that couldn’t mean anything good.

I looked around in the darkness for my clothes.

I located my shirt, but not my pants.

Great.

Careful not to take the blanket away from Kiera, I grabbed another of the covers and wrapped it around my waist like a towel. I started out of the room, treading quietly.

When I got to the door, I flattened myself against the wall and peered around it.

I didn’t see anything, but I heard someone moving through the rooms.

Then I saw the bright circle of a flashlight coming around the corner.

Damn it. Where the hell was my gun when I needed it? Since when did I fall asleep without knowing where my weapon was?

Since Kiera distracted the hell out of me, that’s when.

The flashlight was coming closer.

Well, I couldn’t let whoever this was near Kiera, so I stepped out, both my hands raised. “I’m not armed,” I said in a low voice. Maybe I could talk this guy down. Whoever he was.

“Geez, Demetrius, what the fuck you wearing?”

My hands went to the blanket, making sure it was secure. I knew that voice. “Giovanni?”

He stepped closer, and the flashlight illuminated both of us. My cousin Giovanni was one of the more bloodthirsty members of the Gallo family, and it had been quite some time since we’d talked. “I was beginning to think I had the wrong place. I got Danny to, uh, do that GPS thing to your cell—”

“How do you even know my number, let alone the GPS?” I was angry.

He shrugged. “Danny’s good at that stuff.”

Danny. I didn’t recognize… “Wait. Little Danny? He’s like thirteen.”

“Fifteen,” said Giovanni. “You know what it was like at that age. He’s eager to be part of the action, wants to do whatever he can to be a made man. I let him do little jobs for me.”

“You should leave him out of it.”

“Relax, he’s not in any danger. I wouldn’t let him get hurt or nothing.” Giovanni grinned at me. “So, you look good. Naked, but good.” He tried to move around me to see into the other room.

I blocked him. “Stay here.”

“You got a girl in there?”

“No,” I said.

He chuckled. “This one a little rodent too?”

I reached out and grabbed him by the neck. “Shut up, you piece of trash.” I let go, shoving him at the same time. “Get the fuck out of here.”

He stumbled, then coughed, massaging himself. “Christ almighty, man.” He doubled over, and then straightened, recovering. “I just wanted to ask you a couple questions, that’s all.”

“We’ve got no business with each other, not anymore. I’m not part of the family. My own mother doesn’t speak to me, so I don’t see why you’re here.”

“It’s about someone you work with. Sable Clarke. She’s one of the other contractors in your little organization. You know her?”

I shook my head. “I never met her.”

“Well, you know what she did, don’t you?”

I sighed. “Look, I hear things, even though I’m not in the family anymore, and I thought that after Uncle Rafael got whacked, the word on the street was to let that go. No one got hurt, right?”

Giovanni shook his head. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t your father that almost got killed by that bitch. Now, you work for the organization that’s hiding her, and if you got any idea where she is, you better let me know.”

“Or what?”

“Or I knock you out, tie you up, and make you watch while I do all kinds of nasty things to the girl in that room. I bet you talk once I do that.”

I rushed him. I had at least fifty pounds on Giovanni and six inches. I tackled him.

He went down. He was trying for his gun.

I got both of his hands and pinned them above his head.

“Your blanket’s coming undone,” he spit at me.

I didn’t even look to check. I just held him down. “I don’t know a damned thing about Sable Clarke. We’re all independent contractors at my organization. I never met the chick. The head guy of the whole place, Ripper, he’s the only one who knows where she is.”

“Why you protecting this Sable bitch? She’s not family, she’s—”

“I’m not protecting her. I don’t know where the fuck she is. I don’t know a damned thing. But even if I did, I’ve put family first before, and I’ll regret it for my entire life. If you so much as look at that girl in there sideways, I will end you, family or not.” I glared at him.

Something changed in his eyes. He looked a little afraid.

I must have been pretty intense.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” he said.

I let go of one of his hands, and—quick as I could—reached down and removed his gun from where he was keeping it at the waist of his pants.

“Come on, Demetrius. I said—”

“Shut up.” I stood up, one hand holding the blanket in place, the other holding the gun. I trained it on him. “Get the hell out of here, Giovanni.”

He scrambled to his feet. “Fine, I’m going. You’re really overreacting, though, you know—”

“Go.”

He left.

I prowled around the whole set of rooms after he left, checking in every corner to make sure we were safe. He had at least left the door lock in working order, but I wasn’t sure if I trusted it. I went back into the room where Kiera was sleeping to get some more blankets. (And to find my pants.) I was going to sleep in front of the door. Couldn’t be too careful.

I knelt next to her, looking at her beautiful, sleeping face.

I caressed her cheek.

She was right after all. There was no reason for us to ever again do what we’d done last night. If I hadn’t had sex with her, Giovanni might never have even guessed she was there. At the very least, he wouldn’t have assumed she was important to me.

I had to leave her alone.

Either I would hurt her or she’d be hurt because of me.

I couldn’t handle it either way.

I kissed her one last time, my lips soft and slow on hers.

And then I left her.

I would never touch her again.

* * *

 

Kiera

I rolled over on the air mattress, reaching for Danger. I was cold, and I had fallen asleep snuggled into his warmth.

I couldn’t find him.

And that woke me up completely.

I sat up on the air mattress. He wasn’t in the room anywhere. It was early, early morning, and there was barely any light coming through the windows, but I could still see that he wasn’t on the couch.

Suddenly, I felt very aware of my nakedness. I struggled to find my clothes and put them on.

Then I padded out of the room, looking for Demetrius.

He was camped out in front of the door, swathed in blankets.

Huh.

That was weird, wasn’t it? I knelt next to him, touching his shoulder, and thought of what it had been like to touch him everywhere, his hard, hot body pressing against mine.

I shivered.

He jumped. “What?” He thrust a gun in my face and was on his feet in seconds, looking left and right.

I scrambled backwards, palms up. “Whoa, it’s only me. It’s Kiera.”

He took a deep breath. “You scared me.”

“I can see that.” I folded my arms over my chest. “Why are you sleeping next to the door?”

“Seemed safer is all.”

I shook my head. “You are a deeply paranoid man, do you know that?”

“It’s not paranoia if people are actually after you,” he said through clenched teeth.

His irritation was adorable to me. I reached for him, because it seemed natural. When we’d gone to sleep last night, I’d thought nothing of kissing him and touching him. I had felt as comfortable with his body as my own.

But now…

I didn’t touch him.

I let my hand drop.

Something had changed.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, well, it’s good that we got all of the, uh, stuff out of our systems last night. I feel much more clear headed.” He pushed past me and headed for the bathroom.

I stood there, feeling bewildered. Sure, last night I had said that having sex was a solution to our distraction, but I hadn’t understood what it would be like. He couldn’t think that I still wanted us to keep our hands off each other, could he?

I didn’t want that.

I wanted…

I sighed heavily. No, I guessed he was right. I didn’t have time in my life for a man.

The toilet flushed, and he came out. “It’s all yours.”

“Thanks,” I said. I started inside, but paused in the doorway to look at him. “I’m glad we got that out of our systems too. Now, I think I can really concentrate on the job.”

“Good,” he said, sucking in a sharp breath. “Good.”

I shut myself in the bathroom then, because I suddenly had the urge to burst into tears.

* * *

 

Demetrius

“I think we should pack up,” I told her. It amazed me that she could somehow go into that bathroom and come out looking as fresh as if she’d had access to a shower or something. I still smelled like sex. I still smelled like her. I wanted to scrub the scent of it off of me before I went absolutely mad. “I said that if we hadn’t heard anything from Nikolai by today that we should try something else.”

She stood in the doorway. “Oh,” she said. “Okay. Well, I’ll need help to get this stuff out. Blaze helped me bring it in before.”

I groaned. “Great. I’ll call him, and he won’t show up until tomorrow.”

“Ambrose and Cass will help,” she said.

“Right,” I said. “That’s obviously the best solution.”

“You don’t have to call them right away,” she said. “I can do the teardown by myself. But are you sure you want to start that right away? I mean, Nikolai’s not even awake. And I’m a little hungry.”

“I don’t think it’s safe here anymore,” I said.

“Did something happen last night that I’m not aware of?” she said, eyeing me. “Or are you on meds or something, and you just ran out? Why isn’t it safe?”

I sighed. I wasn’t about to tell her that my psycho cousin had threatened to torture and rape her while I watched. I didn’t need that playing through her head. I’d protect her from that. But—as far as it went—it was probably okay. I didn’t think Giovanni would come back. Still, I was disturbed at how easily he’d found me. Stupid fucking phone. “I just got to thinking that people could track our phones if they wanted.”

“Not mine,” she said. “Give me yours, and I’ll fix it so it’s untraceable, ‘kay?”

I dug it out of my pocket. “You can do that?”

“Yup.” She nodded. “Only take me a few minutes. Of course, I was going to make an egg sandwich with those groceries that Blaze brought.”

“You can make egg sandwiches?” I raised my eyebrows.”

“Well, I never have, but how hard can it be? I mean, I figured I’d put the egg in the microwave, and the bread in the toaster, and—”

“I’ll make egg sandwiches,” I said. “You fix my phone.” I handed it to her.

She smiled. “Cool.”

I went into the kitchenette and got busy. It was better not to be near her, anyway. Ah, hell, this was going to be torture. I had to work with her for the rest of this stupid job, and every time I looked at her, I was going to remember those sexy little noises she made when I touched her, and—

Eggs.

I was going to concentrate on eggs.

I heated up a skillet and cracked them onto the sizzling surface. I sprinkled salt and pepper over them. I wondered if Kiera wanted her yolk runny or cooked through.

“Danger, get in here,” she called.

“I can’t leave the eggs. They’ll burn.”

“Fuck the eggs,” she said. “Popov’s in the office.”

I turned off the burner and ran back to the room.

I went to the window and looked down into Nikolai’s office. Sure enough, there was Popov, sitting down opposite Nikolai’s desk.

“Sorry to come so early,” Popov was saying.

“Not problem. I am always here this early. You know that.” Nikolai was sipping his coffee. “What can I do for you?”

“I just have problem with one of the girls. She is the sick one, the one we kept out of big room with the others?”

I turned to look at Kiera. “Big room?” I mouthed.

She was scrolling furiously through a list of files on her computer.

“Yes,” Nikolai said. “What about her?”

“Well, she try to hurt herself. Bang her head against wall over and over. She say she want to die.”

Nikolai drank some coffee. “She is sick, she is crazy, is there reason we keep her alive?”

Kiera motioned me over.

I came over to look at the computer screen. She had a scanned-in copy of the building schematics. “Here,” she said. “In the basement. There’s a big room with a big door on it.”

“You can only get there from the elevator?” I pointed.

Kiera nodded.

Popov was still talking. “I thought you would say this.” He switched to Russian.

“Can you turn that down?” I said to Kiera.

She fiddled with the volume. The Russian voices faded.

Kiera made a face. “They’re going to kill that girl?”

“Sounds like she’s trying to kill herself,” I said. “If I were a woman, and that happened to me, I’d want to die. I can’t imagine anything worse than being forced—”

“Stop,” she said, looking ashen.

“Sorry,” I said. “So, you think that’s where the girls are, then?”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s a level down from here.” She pointed. “Which was our best guess before.”

“Those looked like cells to me,” I said. “But the girls aren’t there.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

I sat back in my chair. “Well, all right, then. We got our confirmation. This worked out. He told us where the girls were after all.”

She nodded. “Yeah. Your planned worked.”

It had. But it hadn’t worked as well as I might have hoped it would. And when she’d criticized it before, she had been right. It really wasn’t the best plan. I needed to do better.

I was sure I could do better.

When I put together the plan to get in and get Natasha, the plan to kill Nikolai—that plan was going to be airtight. No room for mistakes.

She was grinning at me. “I’m so glad that we can get moving on this.”

“Me too,” I said. “It’ll be good to get this job over with.”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I won’t bother you anymore.”

Her face froze for a second. Then she laughed. “Yeah. I’m sick of seeing you.”