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“This is where you live?”
“Yeah. You obviously knew that.”
“I knew the address. Not the shape it was in.” He walked me up to my apartment door, and I pressed in the code. The front door buzzed as it unlocked. “Thanks for the ride.”
But Luke came inside the building with me and headed for the elevator. “No. The elevator doesn’t work. But I’m only on the third floor.”
We walked up the stairs in silence. It was only after I put my key in the lock that Luke spoke. “Kite’s a good guy.”
“I know.” I’d always seen the good in Kite when he was younger, but I did wonder how much he saw in himself.
“Those he lets in, he’s protective of. He let you in.” Luke didn’t wait for a response, not that I had one, as he headed down the stairs. “Lock your door,” he called over his shoulder.
I had a taste of Killian’s protectiveness when I woke the next morning to knocking on my door. Actually, it was more an abrupt thumping.
I’d had a hard time falling asleep last night because I’d been thinking about Killian and concerned about Greg not showing up with my car.
It took me a few seconds to register that the thumping was a fist on my door and not the construction outside my window.
Wearing my pink boxer shorts with bunny rabbits and a white spaghetti strap tank top, I stumbled out of bed and into the living room. I swung open the door to see Luke standing there looking suave in a light blue T-shirt and a pair of black cargo pants.
“Is Greg okay? Did my car not start last night?” It was unreliable, and I was concerned about the colder weather coming and my car not starting.
“Use the peephole before you open the door. That’s what it’s there for. And I didn’t hear a chain.”
I held my tongue because he was a security guy and he was right. But usually it was Trevor or Mars at my door.
Luke held out a cell phone.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“Your cell,” he said and when I hesitated to take it, he continued, “Killian wants you to have it.” When I still didn’t take it, he said, “He told me about your arrangement and he needs to be able to get a hold of you.”
I took the phone.
“There’s a contact list programmed in,” he said.
I tapped the screen.
Killian cell.
Killian home.
Compass.
Luke.
Greg.
I pressed Killian cell and put the phone to my ear. Luke crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
“Savvy,” Killian drawled. “You received the phone.”
Did he have to sound so damn good at seven thirty in the morning? The deep burr caused butterflies to do the jig, and I rethought my decision to call him. “Where’s my car? Greg was supposed to bring it back last night, and now Luke shows up with a cell phone instead.”
“You need a phone for safety and for me to be able to reach you.”
“Okay, but where’s my car?”
“Where it should’ve been ten years ago.” His tone sounded slightly amused, and it took everything I had not to hang up on him.
“What are you talking about? Where is it?”
“The wrecking yard.”
I gasped. “Killian!”
“Mmm?”
“You can’t do that. It’s my car.”
“I can do that because it’s already done.”
Screw missing his laugh. I liked it better when he was mad. At least then I didn’t get weak in the knees and would do anything to hear it again.
“Tell Greg to bring it back.”
“Was the car safe to drive?”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“It has everything to do with it, Savvy. Was it safe?”
My hand clutched the cell. “Not really, but—”
“Sentimental value?”
“God, no, but—”
“Did it cost you a lot in gas because it was a piece of shit?”
Hell yeah. It drank gasoline like a camel before a long journey except the journeys were never journeys, they were jaunts. I didn’t respond.
“Savvy?”
“Fine. Yeah, but it was mine, and you had no right to decide her fate. Technically, it’s stealing.”
That got an out and out laugh, and my belly flipped. I knew it must have taken a lot for him to get to a place where he could laugh again, and it warmed me that I got the chance to see that.
“Savvy, the car was dangerous. Greg knew it, called me and I went out to see it. I can’t have you drive that piece of crap and risk your life every time you get in it. What if it broke down on your way home from the club one night?”
My eyes shifted to Luke as I now realized what he’d been warning me about. Killian’s protectiveness. I was getting a taste.
“You had no right, Killian.” Even I noticed my tone sounded deflated and if I noticed, he certainly did.
“I was just hopping out of the shower, Savvy. I’ll call you back.” Before I had a chance to say anything, he hung up.
