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I rushed up to him. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yeah, get back to protecting Aprilia. She’s a high value target and we can’t afford for anything to happen to her.”
Rosie pulled a property cut from under the bar and tossed it to me. “Storm said to make sure you got this.”
“About that,” Thunder interjected. “We decided to write Property of Dark Slayers MC rather than Property of Mason on the back. Storm felt like it would be more acceptable for her to be wearing a guest property cut. Making it clear that she’s yours will have to wait a little while longer. That was a safety-related decision and nothing more.”
I felt disappointment bloom in my chest, but I could see where they were coming from. We needed to protect the alliance for now and as far as anyone knew Aprilia was engaged to Nicco Russo. I turned and walked upstairs with a heavy heart, vowing to add my name to her cut the first fucking chance I got. Aprilia was important to me. I had never been the kind of man to believe in love at first sight, but Aprilia turned me into a believer. I knew all the way down to my bones that this was the only woman I would ever want.
I stopped in front of the door to our suite, wondering where Rob was. I knocked gently on the door and entered, it wasn’t locked. Rob was sitting on the sofa scrolling on his phone. “Why are you inside our suite? Celt told you guard the door.”
Rob stood up, looking none too happy at being called out by me. “Ms. Aprilia got more crazy messages from that Chester dude. She had a bit of meltdown and insisted she wanted me inside the suite in case he somehow broke in.”
I laid the cut down on the arm of the sofa and shot a quick glance at her bedroom door. “How long ago did that happen?”
“About thirty minutes, sir. You should go to her. She needs more than I can give and it’s not fair to leave her in there all scared and worrying about that stupid fucker.”
My hand closed around the bag holding my purchase. Suddenly, leaving her didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. “Thanks, Rob. Sorry for biting off your head.”
“No problem. I get how intense the emotions can get when you first get with your old lady. I hope the fuck that never happens to me.”
“I’m gonna try to refrain from pointing and laughing when it happens. They say the men who don’t want to get married always fall the hardest.”
Rob headed for the door. “I can’t imagine being felled by love of all things. We’ve got a club full of bunnies I can chase. No reason for me to tie myself down to just one.”
The door closed firmly behind him, I locked it and quietly made my way to the bedroom. I gave a warning knock and then stepped inside the room to find Aprilia sitting in the middle of bed, hugging her knees. She wasn’t exactly crying, but she was deep in thought, so deep in thought that she didn’t notice me at first.
Chapter 19
Aprilia
Ilooked up to find Mason staring at me. He was wearing his cut and holding a white bag in his hand. “Where have you been? Did you go out for food?”
He moved closer and sat on the edge of the bed. “I went to buy you a gift. Are you feeling okay? I heard from Rob that you got more messages from your friendly neighborhood stalker.”
“Yeah, it made me sick to my stomach, but I did the little heart emoji thing Anthony suggested.” I shuddered.
“Well, put all that out of your mind. He can’t get to you here and will be too dead to bother anyone in eleven days.”
I nodded and sucked in a deep breath, trying to get my emotions under control. “I’ve just been sitting here imagining what my life would be like if I’d ended up married to him. What it would have been like trying to protect my children from him. I realized that I’d have to poison him or something. Before I let him touch my kids, I honestly would kill him. Realizing that I’m truly capable of murder was mind blowing.”
Mason moved closer. “Under the right circumstances, anyone can become a killer.”
The tight knot in my stomach loosened a bit. “I suppose you’re correct about how anyone can become a killer when put in the right position. It’s just one of the thousand and one things I’ve never really considered before.”
“I could totally see you turning into a mama bear,” he replied with a guarded smile. “If you want, I can even teach you some basic self-defense moves.”
“I’d really love that.” I didn’t tell him that I already knew how to fire a gun and was pretty adept at taking care of myself, my father might have been an overprotective mobster, but he wanted to make sure that I knew how to defend myself if push came to shove.
He held up a slightly crumpled gift bag and handed it to me.
“I hope this isn’t one of those get to know each other board games that ask a bunch of boring questions.” I said trying to bring some levity to the situation.
“It’s nothing like that. This is something I believe you’ll like, cher.”
I peered down into the bag and saw a long velvet box. I gently pulled it out, it was heavy, and the velvet felt thick and luxurious. When I opened the case, there was a lovely gold choker inside. It was so beautiful that it stole my breath. I took a minute to gaze at the elegant curves.
“Do you like it?” Mason asked. “The moment I saw it I thought of you. It’s modern and streamlined, like your other jewelry.
