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REX
Sleep is the only thing I want when my phone rings ten minutes to midnight. The darkness of my bedroom shatters with every flash of the screen, forcing me to roll over to grab the obnoxious device off the nightstand.
“Yeah?” I answer, my voice rough, and sleep desperately wants me to go back to bed.
“Rex.” Owen strains just saying my name, which gets me to sit all the way up. I’m wide awake as I wait for my law partner and best friend to tell me what’s going on.
“Hey, I’m up. What’s happening? Where are you?” I ask him. The bed creaks quietly under my weight while I swing my legs over the side. The dark gray carpet is warm as I pad my way into the bathroom. The lights force me to squint, waiting for my eyes to adjust to being open at this hour.
“Saint Salvatore’s,” he grunts out. I’m already doing the math of how long it will take for me to get dressed and drive over there.
I tell him, “I’ll be there in like twenty minutes.”
“No, don’t.” He strains and grunts from the obvious pain he’s in. “Listen, Lorenzo lost his shit on me earlier today.”
“I can’t believe you still work with that maniac. Are you alright?”
My movements around the bathroom are habitual, with my first being to turn on the shower. After setting my phone in its dock, it connects wirelessly to the speakers nestled beside the lights in the ceiling. It leaves my hands free to shave and brush my teeth. I know he said don’t come, but he has to know that I’m not going to sit at home while this is going down.
Owen groans. “No. A few cracked ribs, broken leg, and my eye’s swollen shut. Lorenzo got confused about some money I was moving for him. He thought it was stolen and tried to beat it out of me. The Feds are here.”
“You’re cooperating, I hope.”
“Yeah, I am. They want me out of town until they can figure out how much information they need from me.”
“Fuck. Lorenzo is going to try to finish the job once he finds out you’re cooperating.” I huff and run my fingers through my hair.
My dark brown strands have a few streaks of gray growing in, undoubtedly from the stress of being a partner with one of the most popular criminal defense lawyers around. If he has to get protection, that means I’m going to need to shuffle some people into different roles at the firm. He’s in danger the longer he stays at that hospital.
“What about Raina?” I ask him.
“She doesn’t want to come with me. I gotta get out of here, but I need her safe. She’s being so fucking stubborn, just like her mother.” Owen’s muttering and cursing under his breath. The relationship with his daughter is not a traditional one, and I try to keep my nose out of it.
“Does she understand the danger she’s in? Why won’t she go with you?”
The strain in his voice sounds painful. He pushes through, saying, “She thinks because Lorenzo didn’t stick around to make sure I was dead that he’s okay with me being alive, so no danger on her part. I don’t have the energy to argue with her, Rex. She’ll listen to you.”
“What makes you think she’ll do that?”
“I’m not stupid, Rex. We’ve both seen the way she looks at you.”
“A harmless crush doesn’t equal compliance.”
Frustration fills his voice. “She thinks she knows everything, and you’ve always been the one who could get through to her. She’s more likely to listen to you because of that crush, and I know you’d keep her safe. Just watch over her until the dust settles. Can you do that for me?”
“Of course I can. You need anything else?”
“No. I’ll call as soon as I can.”
We end the call, and even though he told me not to go to the hospital, there’s too much energy coursing through my body. Going back to sleep isn’t an option, so I decide to head out for the night.
The least I can do is check on Raina, a 20-year-old with a harmless crush. However, it’s not harmless. I feel the tension between us every time I get around her, every time she calls and I show up for her. Every time we’re near, it takes every ounce of willpower not to give in to my own desires. I want Raina, but she’s a good girl. Perhaps too good for the likes of me.
This isn’t the first time Owen’s in the line of fire with his clients. He’s always taking on clients who are guilty until proven innocent, which they rarely are. But this is the first time he’s admitted to having illegal dealings with them. It’s my first time hearing about it too.
I’ll have to settle that with him after this blows over. For now, I’m heading over to Raina’s apartment. It doesn’t take long for me to drive across town to her place. The building she lives in is four stories tall, and her apartment is on the first floor.
