But Danny could look after herself, and my public displays of affection for her could never have been misconstrued as anything but transactional.
Cas, however…
Had I been so transparent? Had someone somehow realized the truth when I held her possessively at my side? If anyone had entered that parking lot last night and seen how utterly ruined I truly was, there would be no doubt.
Cas is my weakness.
And now she had disappeared.
I jump from the bed, scrambling to find a pair of pants as I examine the scene before me.
The window is open. Someone could have approached in the night and taken her. There was no sign of a struggle, but that meant nothing in my line of work. If she’d been asleep, it would have taken nothing to render her unconscious.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The sound of the fire alarm has me springing into action.
The gun I keep in my bottom drawer is in my hand, and I’m out the door a millisecond later.
“CAS! Donatella!”
Who would be foolish enough to attack me in my own home? For one, setting fire to the place was so damn cliche I want to punch something. For another, none of my enemies know where this place is.
Its location is a secret kept between Donatella, Teo, and myself. They are the two people I trust most in this damn world. And now, I suppose, Cassandra.
I hadn’t bothered to blindfold her when we traveled to and from theCandelabra.In truth, it hadn’t even crossed my mind.
I shake the thought away as I pound down the hall, shoving open every door and aiming my gun inside as I pass.
“Cassandra!”
But every door reveals nothing, and every step takes me further panic.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
I take the stairs two at a time, trying to find the source of the fire. If the fucker who set it off is still there, he will take me to Cassandra.
Someone screams. And my blood runs cold.
The sound sends me careening toward the kitchen. I brace myself as I kick down the door.
I’m immediately greeted with billowing black smoke that renders me temporarily blind.
“CAS?”
I blink away the smoke.
To find Donatella standing barefoot on the counter, frantically wafting at the smoke alarm with a towel. A half dozen charred pieces of bacon are strewn across the floor as if flung from the cast iron pan that still hisses with fat on the ground.
And, at the center of it all, is a sheepish-looking Cas hunched over the tap, wincing in agony.
The gun in my hand feels suddenly entirely unwarranted. I quickly holster it in the back of my pants before anyone can notice.
“What the hell?”
“Sorry!” Cas gives me a frantic look as she approaches. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Finally, the beeping of the alarm subsides, and Donatella hops down from the counter. “Clearly, you were trying to burn the entire house down.”
