AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The bathroom door opens, as does the shower. I look over my shoulder to see she’s dragged the sheet from the bed to form a toga, like it’s an act of defiance, and I grin. Rose doesn’t know whether to be angry or pleased by what I just did.
“What’s the plan?” she asks sleepily.
“You get a spa day, or whatever the fuck women do.”
She growls low and crosses her arms. “Do I look like that kind of woman?”
Rose does and doesn’t, but I let my smile dip into sleaze. “You look like the kind of woman who wants to be on her knees servicing me.”
“In your dreams.”
I grab her, pull her and her sheet into the shower as I push her against the wall and kiss her. “Always, Rose. In every fucking single one.”
“Niko…”
“Go shopping, call Genevieve, plot my demise. I have some things to take care of this morning.”
“Take me with you.”
Fuck. I have things I need to do, things that might go south; not my meeting with Rush, but after that, yeah, and Rose… My Achille’s heel, that’s her.
I’m trying to keep things less violent around her, for her. I need to be better for her. If I can’t, I need to keep it away from her. I’ll still kill and rule without mercy; no one’s taking that from me. If I can do it where Rose isn’t near the danger, where she doesn’t have to see, then…
She’s more than capable of taking men out, of fending for herself, but I don’t want that. Now, here I am, questioning things where before, I’d act. I know, whatever this whole thing is, if there’s a threat like I think, instead of burning things to the ground, I’m trying to play it careful.
For her.
“Rose…” I smooth my hands over her wet cheeks. “Please.”
She shudders and closes her eyes in defeat at that loaded word:please. “Okay.”
It’s enough.
* * *
“I’m cool, Niko. Really. All good. I can do a fuck load more.”
I narrow my eyes at Rush. “Just this.” I push the package to him. “Deliver it, and make sure it’s done with the precision and care needed. Have it done before you return to Queenstown. Don’t ask too many fucking questions, don’t meddle in things that don’t concern you, and don’t fuck up, got it?”
“Niko, anyone tell you that Rose is making you all Papa Bear?” He grins and leans back in the white chair in the most hipster coffee shop this side of Brooklyn.
“I’m trusting you with something extremely important,” I say.
He looks at me. Fuck, he’s worse than Rose. He keeps thinking I’m human, good. I’m not. I’m a nasty SOB, and he’s making me nastier right now.
“No stupid moves. There’s trouble, Rush, so don’t do anything I don’t ask you to do. I’ve got fucking Rose to worry about. I don’t need you adding to that.”
“Sure.”
His casual response makes me immediately suspicious. “Trouble as in, kill people ‘trouble.’ As in, maybe the past kind of fucking trouble.”
“Because you’re marrying Rose.”
That tells me everything. He’s heard shit.
“Yes. No more stalling. Do it, or Iwillbeat you within an inch of your life.” My phone buzzes, and I need to take it. “Anymore rumblings?”
He slides me a piece of paper. “Just like I said. Now, can I go? Wanna get this done. Got a hot date, you know.”
