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What a night.
Six
Leah
Nico calls up a car, muttering instructions into his phone while I huddle beside him on the sidewalk. Behind us, the front door to my bookshop hangs crooked on its hinges, the frame splintered where someone kicked it in.
“Don’t worry about that.” I don’t realize Nico’s hung up the phone until he takes my chin, turning my gaze away from the ruined door. The shop was a wreck inside, too. What will Aunt Karen say? “I’ll fix it all, I promise.”
Gray eyes bore into mine, willing me to trust him.
I do. God, of course I do.
And he must have been worried about that, because Nico’s shoulders relax an inch when I step closer, winding my arms around his waist. He puffs out a warm breath against my hair, then crushes me close against his chest. Cradles me like something precious.
“You’ll keep an eye out for bad guys, right?” My words are muffled in his coat, my voice hoarse from getting choked out by that hit man. Nico’s already fussed over my throat about a dozen times, making Raul check it again and again.
He scoffs. “Iama bad guy, bella. But I’ll protect you, yes.”
Mm. It didn’t truly sink in before tonight: the fact that Nico’s in the mob. That he’s dangerous; maybe violent sometimes. That he breaks laws and has probably killed people. The image of that battered attacker flashes before my eyes, his face swollen and bruised, broken teeth scattered across my rug.
Gross. I’m so not cut out for this.
“Your teeth are chattering.”
I press the frozen tip of my nose against Nico’s throat below his stubble. “Sorry. It’s cold out.”
And I’m freaking out, but hey. No need to go on about it.
The stars glitter high above us in the night sky. Snowflakes whirl on the breeze, but they melt away to slush the second they meet the sidewalk.
“No white Christmas,” I mumble.
Nico grunts. “Not yet. There’s still time.”
The way he says it, it’s like he’s going to march up to the clouds and beat the snowfall out of them. Well, he’s got three weeks to do it.
“My Aunt Karen hates snow. Hates everything that’s not a hot summer’s day. She’s on this year-long cruise at the moment, chasing the warm weather around the globe.”
Nico rubs his chin on my head, his stubble rasping against my hair. “Is that why you’re all alone?”
Well yeah, it was. But I’m not alone now, am I? Not anymore.
“She left me the bookshop, actually. It’s technically hers; I’m just looking after it. Keeping everything ticking over, you know.”
Why am I telling him this? Confessing my life story to this surprisingly sweet mobster on a dark city street. This must be so boring to him, and yet Nico presses a kiss to the top of my head.
“You’re doing such a good job, baby.”
Tonight’s wreckage aside, I guess that’s true—but now everything I’ve worked for is at risk. Freaking mobsters.
Leaning back a few inches, I ask him outright. “Is your boss gonna kill me?”
Nico’s face shutters. “No.”
“But if he decides to shut me up—”
“He won’t. Not if I give him what he wants.”
