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He faces me for the first time since I arrived, following his bike with my car. We’d driven to a garage, where he’d had another biker guy dressed similarly to him check my car for trackers before leading me back here.
“I know you didn’t ask for this shit. Neither did I nor Ryan, but this is our reality. We have to prepare for it and whatever comes. The sooner you get that little lesson and stop complaining, the better off we’ll both be.”
“I didn’t ask your ass to come in on some white horse trying to save me like a knight in shining armor. If I recall correctly, that was you barging in to save the day!”
“Whatever,” he grumbles as the door opens.
We step onto concrete flooring, and I notice no other doors on this level except one, which he unlocks with a key. There's no high-tech security here; hell, once you’ve made it this far, there’s no reason to need it.
“There are three floors underneath mine. The first floor is my gun center, but the second two are loft apartments like mine, which I rent out.”
“You own this entire building?” I ask as he pushes the door open to a beautiful space.
“Yeah.”
Before I can finish taking in the large picture windows that overlook the city and a park down below, I hear a loud bark announcing the arrival of a pecan brown American Pitbull Terrier.
“Hey, boy!” Nitro says, kneeling and scratching the dog’s neck and nuzzling him.
This side of Nitro is one that I wouldn’t have imagined existed.
The dog is straining to get to me, but Nitro’s holding his collar tight.
“Kneel, boy.”
The dog instantly obeys and becomes submissive to Nitro’s tender touch and gentle voice.
“Zeus.” At the mention of his name, the dog’s ears perk up, and he looks at Nitro expectantly. “This is Simone.”
“Moni.”
“Huh?”
“People call me Moni. If I’m hiding with you indefinitely, you may as well do the same. Never had my own protector before.”
Nitro blushes and winces before looking back at the dog. “Zeus, this is Moni. Moni, this is Zeus.”
I kneel beside them and get a whiff of leather, cedarwood, and oud, along with Zeus’ raw animal scent.
Trying to ignore how my body reacts to Nitro’s scent, I stretch out my hand and pat Zeus’ head. His eyes close, and he seems to lean into my rubs.
“Hi, Zeus. You’re a beautiful boy,” I say, glancing at him and looking up at Nitro to find his eyes on me. I smile at him, thinking maybe he’s not so bad and feeling bad for my outburst.
“He’s not beautiful,” Nitro says gruffly as he stands and walks to the kitchen. “You thirsty? Hungry?”
I watch as he opens the refrigerator, grabs a beer, and slams it shut. It’s reminiscent of his personality. He seemed to be opening up to me for a moment, but just as quickly, he shut me out.
“Not really.”
“Well, I’ve got beers and sodas in here. Liquors under the cabinet. If you’re hungry, I maybe got enough to fix a PB and J or grilled cheese sandwich, but not much else. Don’t cook too much.”
“Where do you eat? Restaurants?”
“The clubhouse.”
“Who cooks there?”
“The angels. Women you saw there.”
