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“Thought you got a dog,” he said as we neared the porch.
“What?” I asked, head shaking as I tried keeping up with the change in conversation.
“I smelled a dog,” he began, then listed his head toward me. “You asked what I got from your apartment. I’d been about to ask if you’d really bought a fucking dog to get rid of me, and then I smelled cologne.”
I wasn’t seeing the porch or the massive doors we’d been walking up to. I wasn’t sure I was even breathing.
Because I’d truly been feet from a man in a neon mask.
No illusion.
No flashback.
Just me and my nightmare.
WILLOW
“The scent wasn’t strong,” Diggs went on, “but that doesn’t mean it’d been a long time since they’d been in there. They might’ve not been wearing a lot, or they could’ve put it on long before.”
“It was the same guy,” I murmured as my lightheadedness increased. “He had a dog—a giant wolfhound.” I gestured vaguely to my chest and let my arm fall heavily. “Its head came up to my chest.”
Diggs’ arm curled tighter around me, his tone dropping gravely when he asked, “And he was wearing a neon mask?”
Apparently.
Even worse? I knew that specific mask. I had nightmares of it. And from the man’s reaction to me—the slant of his head that had been at once menacing and oh-so telling—I had a sinking feeling he remembered me too.
“Until this is over, you won’t be alone,” Diggs promised when I couldn’t outwardly respond.
I nodded numbly as he began leading me through the doors, then brought us both to an abrupt stop. “I have—my students. I can’t miss work.” I barely noticed the massive room the house opened to as I looked wildly around and then focused on him. “You can’t keep me here.”
Diggs fought a smile even as he tried giving me a reassuring look. “You’re not a hostage, Tree. You can still go to work. Lexi was in class today, right?” When I just stared at him in confusion, he added, “One of us was in the school, just in case anything happened, ready to protect her or get her out. One of us will be there every day, ready to do the same for both of you.”
My mouth fell open as I realized a mobster had been in the school. “What do you mean one of you was in the school?” I demanded on a hushed breath.
That smirk of his finally took over, stealing my entire focus for a moment. “Baby, you saw me in the school just this morning.” Just as I began wondering if he’d been in the school all day, he added, “Not me. Zara knows though. That’s why I was there.”
Shock slammed into me and had me questioning my entire life. “Zara—wait, is Zara—”
Diggs’ sharp laugh cut me off, his head tipped back with amusement before he looked at me with so much adoration and curled his hands around my heated cheeks.
“Fuck, you’re cute.” He pressed a quick, chaste kiss to my lips, then pulled me against his side again and began leading me through the massive room. “Zara isn’t in the mafia and only suspects that we are. But she’s afraid enough of me to do what I tell her.”
“Because you’re dangerous,” I mumbled lamely, once again trying to wrap my head around the way my world had tilted onto its side in such a short time.
“Not to you,” was all Diggs said as we rounded the corner into a wide hall and were met with his mirror image, arms folded over his chest as he watched us.
Maverick.
Crazy how just a week ago, I’d been feet away from that man. I’d seen him with his wife and child and hadn’t had a worry other than the betrayal I’d thought accompanied the entire situation.
And now I was genuinely afraid to get closer to him than I already was.
“Finally,” Maverick muttered, earning a scoffed “Fuck off,” from Diggs.
Maverick’s stare narrowed on me as we approached him, a smile crossing his face that was so unlike Diggs’ wicked smirk.
It was gentle and calming, and so opposite of his brother, that I wondered how I hadn’t noticed their differences that day at the coffee shop.
