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One command, and the guard swiped his card against the sensor and I rode all the way up to Xael’s suite once more. But the moment I stepped out, I realized something was different. There was no blaring music, no drone of laughter and chatter. Xael was always partying, day, night, no matter the crisis.
But tonight, it was quiet as I stepped through the entrance and caught sight of her as she rose from the sofa and motioned her head toward the kitchen. “I was wondering when you were going to turn up.”
Lazarus stood there at the end of the counter, his arms crossed in front of his powerful chest and those blue eyes burning with desire.
“What is this?” I queried, panic pushing to the surface.
“Lazarus decided to pay me a visit,” Xael muttered. “Seems my place has become a drop-in center for your many suitors.”
“Many suitors?” Lazarus’s brow rose. “No…just the one. The only one that matters.”
I froze as he pushed off the counter and stepped toward me. “I think you and I need to have a conversation, Kat…don’t you?”
My heart was thundering in my ears as I tried to find the right words to say as Lazarus stopped in front of me and, with a chilling tone, murmured, “Unless you prefer I call on this Haelstrom Hale and take care of our little problem myself?”
21
Lazarus
She froze as she took a step into the apartment, and her brown eyes widened in fear. One panicked glance from Xael Davies to me, and I readied for her to turn and run.
But she didn’t. She just stood there, looking far more fucking ravishing than she should, especially with the way I fucking wanted her.
“Well?” I took a step closer, catching her flinch before I stopped. “You want to tell me what I need to know? Do I need to take care of that Hale, or that asshole Zakharov? Or are you going to tell me you feel nothing here and break my goddamn heart? Because Iknowyou felt something the other night after our little lap dance.”
Davies’s eyes widened as she shot a surprised look from me to the redheaded beauty.
“Hey, X,” came a voice from the other room. A blond strode out from another bedroom, plucking earbuds out of her ears. Her eyes were down, focused on her damn buttons. “Is this a mark to you?”
She stopped suddenly and jerked her gaze to me.
“Maybe not the best time, Evan,” Xael muttered, still staring at me.
Evan Valachi? Surprise flitted through my mind. The Mafia Princess no one saw…
“Lazarus here was asking Kat a very important question,” Xael announced with a smirk. “One I’m very interested to hear the answer to.”
“Lazarus…” the blond muttered, and froze.
There was a flicker of panic across her face before she took a step backwards, turned, and was gone in an instant, scurrying back to whatever room she'd come from. Another fucking fan of the Rossi name, I saw. I shift my gaze back to the real reason I was there.
I took another step toward her. “Say the word and it’s done.”
Just say any word…how about that?Desperation took flight inside my head. But she said nothing, not for a long time, as Xael’s smirk grew wider.
Then in a small whisper she said, “Not here.”
“Then where?” I asked. She lifted her gaze, her focus boring into mine. “Your place in front of little Anna? We can do this there. Hell, we can do thisanywhere,as long as we do this, princess. I don’t give a fuck.”
Her lips parted. Jesus Christ, her lips. I wanted to feel them, touch them. I wanted to skim my thumb across the tender flesh before I took her mouth. That hunger burned in my veins.
“Your apartment,” she answered as the color drained from her face.
There was something off about her voice. Something terrified shone back at me in her eyes and that nagging voice inside my head whispered that there was something I wasn’t understanding about this woman. Some bigger picture I wasn’t seeing.
“We do this there, okay?” She glanced at Xael, whose smiled died.
“You want me to leave, Kat?” Davies asked. “'Cause I totally can.”
