Phoenix laughed. "Well put your party hat on, my friend, because it's about to get real."
"And it's been what?" I leaned back in my chair. "A cakewalk all up until now? Do you even realize how many times we've almost gone to war with other families in the past two years? How many lives have been lost? How many lies I've told?" My voice was getting louder and louder. I couldn't help myself, I was pissed. It wasn't Phoenix's fault. Hell, the guy had more of a reason to be pissed than I did, and there he was, passing out top-secret folders and smiling.
Jackass.
His wife probably had something to do with it; well that, and they had a baby on the way. Lucky bastard.
"Read the folder," he said again, then tapped his knuckles against my desk. "And try to get some sleep. You look like hell."
"You do realize I used to say the same thing to you not so long ago."
"Karma's a bitch." His snarky reply as he slammed the door to my office, leaving me alone with the folder.
I reached for it, but something stopped me, something that felt a hell of a lot like fear.
Fear that Luca had known things that I'd done — things I still hadn't 'fessed up about.
The bodies I'd hidden for the FBI. The ones I'd hidden from them.
The people I'd killed, all because it had been my damn job.
And the families I'd destroyed all in order to save my own ass.
I knew I was a selfish bastard; I just didn't want others to know how deep that selfishness went.
Deciding against it, I pushed away from my desk and got out of my office before I did something stupid.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I hurried into my room then froze. Shit. Andi was sleeping in my bed.
I had at least twenty-two other rooms I could sleep in — I lived in a mansion, for shit's sake.
But my bed.
She was in my bed.
FML. Seriously.
I had two choices. I could get my head out of my ass and walk backward, slowly out of the room, and crash somewhere else.
Or I could watch her sleep like the creepy son of a bitch I was… no way I would actually be able to succumb to sleep if I was next to her.
She was too…
Everything.
The decision was made when she made a little moan, not one out of pleasure, but something that sounded fearful, like she was afraid of the dark and needed a teddy bear.
Shit, had I really just thought teddy bear?
And unfortunately my body reacted — responded, one foot after another — and suddenly I was pulling my shirt off and lying down on the soft mattress.
Like a pubescent high-schooler, I stayed on my side of the bed, careful not to touch any area she'd been on.
It worked for about ten minutes.
And then an arm plopped onto my chest, followed by a leg covering my leg, and then, I was getting used as a giant ass pillow.
My teeth clenched. My body tightened with awareness, and just when I was getting ready to get the hell out of there, she whispered.
"Safe."
I was anything but safe. But, in that moment, I vowed never to let her feel fear again, even if it meant I had to kill every son of a bitch in my way.
Safe I could do.
Safe I could promise.
CHAPTER TEN
Andi
I KNEW BEFORE I EVEN OPENED my eyes that I had molested poor Sergio in his sleep.
I only felt sorry for him because I knew my sleeping habits. I wasn't one of those girls who slept quietly with their arms folded across their chests, their hair softly lying across the pillow, lips glossy, makeup still on.
Um, no. Sleep for me was a full contact sport — one I embarked on with my mattress nightly.
It wasn't rare to find me on my ass on the floor, because somehow during the night I'd decided that my sheets were trying to strangle me alive, and in order to protect myself, I'd had to pull them from my bed and create a makeshift fort on the floor.
My favorite position usually consisted of my feet being where my head should be and my head nearly teetering off the bed, hands hanging in front of me, just ready for someone to pull me the rest of the way off and onto the floor.
Needless to say, I was a bit cautious when I opened my eyes.
First off, I'd feel horrible if I'd accidentally punched him in the eye or something. Heck, I wouldn't put it past me to knee him in the balls a few times just because I wasn't used to men sleeping with me.
They were never welcome.
The few times I'd had one-night stands, it had been to gain intel for dear old Dad. Love had had nothing to do with it.
Survival — did.
Sergio's chest rose and fell with a slow rhythm. He was still sleeping, or I assumed as much, so I stared like a raging lunatic.
I took inventory of his abs, noting that they were, in fact, as cut as I suspected; my fingers itched to trace the hard edges, and when my eyes drifted lower, I fought this insane temptation to see if the rest of him was that impressive.
Unfortunately, he'd kept his pants on from the night before; meaning, if I wanted to explore, I'd need to actually unbutton said pants, and that set me up for risk of exposure.
Ha! Exposure.
I held in a giggle at my own joke.