“Yes.” I confirm and her face falls. “You are even more fucking intoxicating. Better than a donut shop that’s been dipped in caramel and cinnamon.” It’s true. She already was a delectable little morsel.
A grin breaks across her face. I reach out and pull her to me so I can press my lips to hers. I can’t help but sigh against her mouth, feeling like I’m home.
There’s a knock at the door.
I pull back enough to say in a low voice, “I believe that’s for you.”
I don’t need my sense of smell to know who’s already at the door.
Red frowns before going and opening the door. “Gigi! Wait, who the hell are you? Get that knife away from my grandma!”
Something clatters to the ground.
I have to work to hoist myself up. I limp my way toward the door, still feeling like my stomach is on fire.
Gripping the kitchen island, I see Jameson fill the doorway. His wide, muscled frame and deep scowl might as well be a dark cloud, threatening to snuff out the little old lady currently in his crosshairs. His salt and pepper hair is as rumpled as the plaid shirt and jeans he wears. As if he’d spent the last forty-eight hours traveling straight from Washington state to Boston. I’d no doubt that’s exactly what the old bastard had done. He got impatient and thought I couldn’t finish the job.
All the better for what was coming next. Which is exactly why I gave him my address when I realized he was on his way.
Red hugs her grandma protectively. The infamous matriarch from Grandma’s House meets my gaze. There is resignation in her eyes, as if she always knew this day would come but hoped it would be later.
That’s right old biddy, the jig is up.
“Your timing is impeccable, old man, though I expected you later. Won’t you both come in? I think you all have a lot of family matters to discuss.”
Red’s head bobs back and forth, not understanding. But she will soon.
“Red, this is the man who tasked me to kill your grandma, Jameson Sturgeon. Jameson, before you kill Eloise Rogers, I thought you would first like to meet your daughter.”
“What are you talking about?” Red breathes.
Jameson has a face like a slapped ass, and I can’t say I don’t enjoy it.
“It’s okay, Scarlett,” Gigi reassures her, leading her inside.
Scarlett. Scarlett Rogers, nicknamed Red. No wonder I couldn’t get the proper background on her. I didn’t have the right damn name. I run a hand down my face. It’s amazing how a detail like that can make it almost impossible to dig up what I need.
Something nudges my heel. Bombs is asking for attention. I reach down and pick up the gray fluff ball. He immediately starts licking my bare chest. “Missed you too, little thumper,” I murmur before I head back to the couch with him.
Soon enough I’m reseated on the couch. Eloise assumes a chair across from me. Red and Jameson remain standing at opposite ends of the living room, both wearing identical stormy expressions. Red grips the back of a chair, as if it’s the only thing holding her up.
Red’s grandma wears a loose pant set in cream along with a sizable pearl necklace and matching earrings. Eloise Rogers’s lips have thinned and wrinkled with age, but she has the same pale eyes as her granddaughter. This close I can also see a similar sprinkling of freckles mixed with age spots. Her short hair is perfectly styled, and the color is somewhere between platinum and white. The lady is elegant in every way. But she has gotten her hands dirty and it’s time for her to wash them clean.
“I’m glad your security found you and passed along my message,” I say to Eloise, scratching Bombs’s ears where he sits in my lap. The cinnamon rabbit, Bangs has also joined us, pushing her head under my hand for attention too. Bombs begins to lick her face.
A wolf petting rabbits. Still ridiculous.
I can’t help the smile tipping up the corner of my mouth.
“Where have you been?” Red asks her grandma. Betrayal shines from her eyes. “I thought something terrible happened to you.”
The old woman shifts uncomfortably. “Mexico. Theo sent me.”
From some digging, I knew she was talking about Hunter’s father. Theodore Dunkin, head of grandma’s security.
“I’ve been working on something big, very important, and frankly dangerous.”
Her gaze sweeps between us. “But I suppose you know all that now.” She folds her hands in her lap and continues on. “Someone hacked our servers, and we knew the threat to my project was imminent. Ted insisted I was also in danger, took my phone, and ordered me to Mexico and said not to tell anyone. He was the only one who knew.”
