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Ten
Damian waitedfor Aria to fall asleep to slip from the room. They’d made up the way they always did, the passion of their conflict continuing in bed where he charted her body with his hands andtongue.
He wondered if he would ever stop fearing she would be taken from him again. If he would ever stop feeling the need to memorize every detail of her face, every curve and hollow of her body like a starving man afraid someone was going to take his last piece ofbread.
He closed the door behind him and made his way through the quiet house. He was surprised to find the windows still open, the crash of waves against the cliffs echoing across the tile floors. Locke obviously had a more laissez-faire attitude about their security than Damian did, a fact that both comforted and worriedhim.
Locke was either very confident or verycareless.
He was easing the back door open when he heard the cock of a handgun from theshadows.
He put his hands in the air and turned around. “It’sme.”
Locke stepped into the moonlight leaking in from the windows. “I thoughtso.”
“Then why the fuck are you pointing a gun at me?” Damian askedquietly.
“Just making sure,” Lockesaid.
Damian shook his head. Locke was either going to save their asses or get them allkilled.
The jury was stillout.
“I need to talk to Cole,” Damiansaid.
Locke set the gun down on a side table and made his way to the kitchen. “Sogo.”
“You going to shoot me on my way back in?” Damianasked.
Locke took a swig of water from a bottle in the fridge. “Unlikely.”
“How comforting,” Damiansaid.
Locke shrugged, his teeth glinting in the darkness as hegrinned.
Fucker.
He opened the back door and stepped onto the courtyard that separated the main house from the guest house where Cole and Derek were sleeping. He reached for his phone andtexted.
Outside. Let’stalk.
A light came on near the back of the diminutive structure. Cole was stepping outside less then two minutes later looking wideawake.
“What’s up?” heasked.
“Let’s sit,” Damian said, indicating the deck chairs scattered around thepool.
Cole sat in the chair across fromDamian.
There was no point mincingwords.
“I need you to stay here with Aria while we go to Athens,” Damiansaid.
Cole hesitated, then nodded, his expression revealing nothing. Normally, Damian wouldn’t bother explaining himself. It was one of the advantages of being head of theorganization.
But this was different. Cole had started with him when he’d had nobody. They had been a team, their mutual concern centered around the growth of the business and theirsurvival.
Aria changed their dynamic, and if Damian had it his way, it would be forever changed. It was something Cole would have to get used to, but Damian wanted to make sure the other man knew he was valued, that his unique skillset and the trust Damian had in him would be even more important with Aria in the picture, even if if seemed like the jobs themselves were moremundane.
