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“This shit’s steel,” he muttered before glancing up at me. “What the fuck are you, Superman or something?”
I ignored him, all of my focus returning to Giselle. “Are you okay? I’m sorry I didn’t getto you sooner. I was out of town. I had my brother watching you.”
“Watching me,” Giselle repeated. “What do you mean?”
“Ever since the contract was put out on you, I’ve been watching to try to figure out who it is, who wants you dead.” I took a tiny step closer to her, angling my head down. She really was so small compared to me. Over a foot shorter than me, and a lot thinner. It felt like I hadn’t been with her in ages, even though it truly hadn’t been that long. “Your father—”
Shadows passed over her face, and she looked away as she muttered, “We have a lot to talk about.”
Still staring at the door on the floor, Damian muttered, “I can’t have a safehouse without a fucking door. I need to go to the store and buy another one.” He threw a pointed look in my direction.
I frowned at him, and my frowning only deepened when I watched him stroll over to Giselle and say, “Why don’t you and your… giant here take some time while I run to the store to buy a new fucking door?” That last part was spoken to me, his black eyes daggers as he glared at me.
“We’ll be fine here,” she told him, reaching for his arm, touching Damian ever so slightly—but I still saw it. Just a quick touch, fleeting and passing, but for someone with her past, every touch meant something.
Fuck. She really did trust this guy, didn’t she? When the hell did that happen? Because, from what I remember, anytime they were near, she acted as though she was disgusted with the man.
Damian threw me another look, but I stopped him before he walked outside: “Wait. Let me call my brother and tell him not to shoot you the moment you walk out that door.” I went to set my gun down on the table and then pulled out my phone, well aware Damian was glaring at me even harder now.
Archie picked up on the first ring. “How’s it going in there? Get your girl?”
“Giselle is safe,” I told him. “Things… aren’t what they seem. You can pack it in, Archie. I’ll handle it from here.”
“That’s it? Kind of anticlimactic, don’t you think?” He sighed. “Whatever. You—”
“I owe you one,” I finished his sentence, already knowing what he was going to say. In a family like ours, favors were something you tucked away for later, for when the shit really hit the fan. Whatever he’d need help with in the future, it wouldn’t matter. I’d do anything to pay him back for helping me with Giselle.
I ended the call and gave Damian a nod. The man mockingly saluted me before heading out, leaving Giselle and I alone in the house.
Giselle watched him go, and then those eyes of hers fixated on me once more. Seconds ticked by, and I heard Damian’s car start outside. Soon enough, nothing but silence surrounded us. The expression she wore was one I couldn’t read, almost like she was trying to hide something from me.
Her yellow hair was wet, and yet the damp strands still framed her face. She wasn’t wearing white, for once, and in spite of the circumstances she looked just as beautiful as ever. Strong and bold, yet unsure and weak at the same time. A living contradiction.
“So,” I broke the silence between us, “care to explain the whole Damian thing?”
Her eyes closed, and she turned her face away as she muttered, “There’s so much you don’t know, Cade. So much.”
“Then tell me. Tell me, princess, because I just returned the contract to the Guild. No one in my family will lay a hand on you—but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t accept the contract themselves. You know this already, but you’re not safe anywhere.”
Giselle’s eyelids lifted, and she flicked a thumb toward the living room. “Come sit with me. I’m tired all of a sudden.”
And she looked it. She certainly did look tired. I supposed getting kidnapped tended to do that to you. I, myself, had never been kidnapped, but I could imagine it well enough. She had to have been terrified—or she was simply exhausted from being so strong and on-guard constantly as she was.
I followed her toward the living room, where a sectional sat, a couch that looked to be untouched. This whole place, actually, looked to be newer. No wonder Damian was so upset about the goddamned door.
Giselle sat down first. I took up the spot beside her. I did not sit close enough to brush my leg against hers; today had been enough for her. She did not need me to invade her personal space.
Now, if she invited me to invade her personal space… then that would be a different story. I’d invade without hesitation.
“What did your brother see?” she asked quietly, fiddling with her hands on her lap.
“He saw you get taken from the Moretti residence and brought to a warehouse, where he saw Miguel. Then these gangsters brought you here. I thought—I thought these guys would tear you up. Care to explain why they didn’t?”
“Greenback Serpents,” she told me. “They’re a gang who’ve been a thorn in my… in Miguel’s side for years now. Petty theft, vandalism, trying to turn his men against him. Nothing too huge, but bad enough Miguel has been trying to find their leader for some time.”
And then Giselle let out the breathiest of sighs I’d ever heard, her shoulders slumping. She leaned her head back on the couch, eyes on the ceiling. “Do you want to hear the whole story? You already know some of it.”
There was nothing I could say besides, “Yes.”
