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ChapterFourteen
The house was quiet now that everyone else had gone home. My uncle was out of town for the rest of the week and wasn’t due back home until Sunday. Which means that I was left alone with my thoughts.
That was never a good thing.
Especially, since all those thoughts revolved around whether I’d killed a bunch of people for a lie.
I didn’t want to think about it.
I didn’t want to think about anything. I wanted to go back to an hour ago before I knew anything about any of it when all I cared about was filling up the bathtub with steaming hot bubbly water and pulling up the latest reverse harem book on my kindle. Even though I already have the water running and the scent of my favorite vanilla bubble bath is filling the steamy air of the bathroom, I couldn’t get my mind to forget about those photos.
After twenty minutes of arguing, Jasper finally sent me the file, and I was flipping through them on my phone as I leaned back against the bathroom counter. One after the other images filled the screen, and I tried my best to bring forward a memory that would correspond with them. I couldn’t remember ever seeing any pictures when my parents looked so damn happy.
After their deaths, Tony had taken me far away from my childhood home. He said that people would start looking for me as soon as it was discovered that I wasn’t one of the bodies pulled out of the house by the police. I’d left everything behind. Not a single thing had been taken out of that house.
I was seven when my parents were murdered. You’d think I would have more memories than I do, but I don’t remember a lot from before their deaths. I certainly don’t remember spending time with Gio Valentino and his family. I don’t remember him holding me, him being so close to my parents, or his dead wife looking as if she was my mother’s one true friend.
My head was starting to hurt the more I tried to force myself to remember memories that just weren’t there. Clicking out of the photo gallery, I set my phone down and removed my shirt and jeans. The warmth of the steamy bath filled the air in the bathroom, and I could already feel my muscles start to relax. I wasn’t sure if the bubble bath would help quiet my mind any, but it was better to try something than sit around in the house driving myself crazy looking at photos I couldn't do anything about right now.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and an awareness came over my body. I was no longer the only person in the apartment. Crouching down in front of the bathroom sink, I quietly pulled open the cabinet doors. Reaching up to the underside of the sink, I pulled the handgun down from where it was secured to the inside of the cabinet. I quickly turned the bathtub faucet off.
My feet were silent as I moved over to the door. A deep calming breath centered my body and slowed my heartbeat down. Slowly I pushed open the bathroom door and moved into the bedroom we’d turned into a home gym. I strained my ears, but I couldn’t hear anything from any of the other rooms. I knew there was someone else in the apartment. There was just no telling who it was at this point.
Alicen, Milo, and Jasper had gone home already. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think Jasper might’ve come back. He was incredibly clingy these days, but he knew to warn me before entering the apartment. The probability of him being shot if he didn’t was very high.
I was quietly creeping through my own apartment in my black lace thong and bra brandishing a gun. It wasn’t entirely unlikely that I would shoot anyone who was here without warning.
The living room and kitchen were empty. My uncle’s bedroom was the room next to the one I’d just left. Reaching my hand out, I tried the doorknob and found it locked just as I knew it would be. Whoever was in the apartment with me was in my room.
The soft carpet of the living room absorbed any sound my bare feet made on the floor making my movements towards my room silent. If I was lucky, I would be able to surprise whoever was in that room. It would give me an advantage and be able to take them out before they even realized I was in the room with them.
I gently toed open the cracked bedroom door. The overhead light had been left off, so the only light came from the small bedside lamp that cast the room in a soft orange glow. One foot in front of the other, I crept into the room. Gun extended out in front of me, I let my eyes track around the room looking for whoever thought it was a bright idea to venture into my space uninvited.
Within the span of a single breath, heavy calloused hands gripped the tops of my shoulders. I tried to spin around and face whoever had a hold of me, but their grip was tight enough to keep me in place. Jerking my foot up, I slammed it down onto their instep. My bare foot didn’t do much damage, but it was enough for them to loosen their hold on me. I snapped my head back and prayed I struck something painful with the back of my head.
Anticipating my move, he shifted to the side and my head met nothing but air before landing on his shoulder. The hands that had been on my shoulders moved. One wrapped around my bare midriff and the other moved up my arm to wrap around the gun I was still holding. A twist of his hands had my fingers spasming until the weapon clattered to the ground.
Soft breath moved the hairs around my ear, “You can do better than that, little fighter.”
I could feel the length of Cole’s body pressed against me. The warmth of his body seeping into my skin. Now that I knew who was in the room with me, my body changed directions. I was no longer on alert and in fight mode. Instead, my inner slut had woken up. All I could think about was the fact that I was all but naked and in his arms.
Pushing away from him, I was a little disappointed that he let me go so easily. My chest was raising and falling with every breath I took as I turned to face him. His tall muscular body was relaxed as he looked at me. His eyes scanning me from head to toe, stopping to take in the sight of my breasts pushing up against the cups of my bra, the thin straps of my thong hugging my hips.
His tongue swept out of his mouth to wet his bottom lip, and my eyes followed the movement. Cream leaked out of my pussy and wet the lace fabric of my panties as I remembered the feel of his hands on my skin.
Now was not the time to be thinking about what he could do to my body. There was too much shit going on for me to let my focus drift anywhere else. It didn’t matter how he looked in his jeans and royal blue T-Shirt. I shouldn’t be wondering exactly what tattoos he had under those clothes, and if he would be opposed if I traced each and every black line with my tongue.
“What the fuck are you doing here? Do you have any idea what could’ve happened? I really don’t need your boss trying to kill me right now because I shot you in the head for sneaking around my place in the middle of the night.” I let all my frustration rise to the surface. It was the only way I would be able to handle this situation without dropping to my knees in front of him and sucking him into the back of my throat.
I was wound up tight and needed a release. He could give me something to keep all the thoughts at bay. Something else to think about than my raging out of control libido.
“We weren’t done with the conversation earlier. You just walked out with your little guard dog without finishing our talk. I couldn’t let that happen.” He pulled the long sleeves of his blue shirt up to his elbows displaying even more of those tattoos that cover his arms, which did nothing but distract me.
“I was done with the conversation. There was nothing else to talk about. Why would I stay when the meeting was unproductive and completely unnecessary?” It had been a waste of my time. It was a group of boys who wanted to try their hand at intimidating me. I wasn’t sure why they felt they would have better luck now than they had in the past. There hadn’t been one single time that I’d listened to anything or followed any order that Nico had given me. Nothing was going to change that.
“If someone is out there giving out information to a person who is willing to kill our people, then it’s a problem we need to solve. Not only is it a big problem that there’s a person selling our information, but it shows disloyalty. That kind of thing breeds problems. We need to take care of this before it gets any worse.” His gorgeous face was set in a stoic expression. I wanted to bite at his lips until they were no longer pressed into their flat line of seriousness.
“That’s still not my problem. If you have issues with your people, then you need to figure out how to take care of it. It has nothing to do with me.”
