“I know,” I agreed.
Gregory was a force to be reckoned with in Miami. He was extremely rich, and donated money to politicians and law enforcement to keep them indebted to him. He didn’t have the power of a Lawson or a Colter, but his multimillionaire status made him a VIP in all of South Florida.
He stood up, pulling me to my feet because of his grip on my hand. “I’m glad you understand me,” he answered with a smirk.
“Are you leaving already?” I questioned, looking up at him with a tremulous smile.
“I have things to do,” he affirmed. “But I had to check on you.”
“Thank you,” I said.
He pulled me against him and dropped a kiss on my mouth before he answered, “I had to make sure you knew how I felt about not seeing you at my club last night.”
His emotions were pretty crystal-clear, actually. Greg was a control freak, and anything he couldn’t make go his way wasn’t acceptable.
“I won’t let you down again,” I promised.
“That’s good. Very good,” he answered as he finally let go of my hand. “Stay healthy, Dani. I want to see you in my bed as soon as you’re feeling better.”
I wanted to shake my hand to return the circulation to my extremity, but I didn’t.
His announcement about wanting to have sex with me wasn’t a surprise. He’d made it perfectly clear when we’d met that he wanted me.
And I was pretty certain that up until last night, he’d always gotten what he wanted.
I followed him to the door and saw him out, leaning against the wood after I’d flipped the bolt.
“That didn’t go exactly the way I’d hoped,” I whispered to myself as I blew out a breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
Greg would never be a warm and fuzzy kind of guy. He had an extremely hard edge to him that should make me want to run away from him as quickly as possible. But I didn’t because I really wanted to get close to him.
I straightened and pushed myself off the door, starting to feel as exhausted as I told Greg I’d been the night before.
“How do I get close to him when he never lets his guard down?” I mused aloud as I walked to the kitchen.
Greg hadn’t told me when he wanted to meet again, but I knew there would be more dates, more time spent together, and I’d do everything in my power to try to be his confidant.
I refused to accept that our relationship would go any other way.
Marcus
“Son of a bitch!” I cursed as I saw Gregory Becker leave Dani’s apartment.
I was sitting in the parking lot near Danica’s condo in my luxury rental car, doing surveillance. It was difficult for me to force myself not to go after the little weasel.
Had the bastard hurt Dani?
What was he doing at her place?
I’d spent plenty of time thinking about Dani and Becker together, but my gut still hurt every time I thought about Becker laying a hand on her.
Why in the fuck am I sitting in her parking lot alone, watching her condo?
I took a deep breath and let it out as I watched that dickhead Becker get into his presumptuous luxury sports car and leave. I couldn’t approach him. Not yet. I needed more information, which answered my question as to why I was watching Dani’s condo.
Somehow, I’d known that Becker would show up.
And I was, after all, a goddamn spy. Being patient and collecting information was what I did. And I was very good at doing that.
I just didn’t like it very much right now, especially not the being patient part of the task.
I didn’t want to wait.
I wanted to confront the asshole right fucking now.
There was no question as to whether or not I was going to check up on Dani. If Becker had been at her place, I wanted to make sure she was safe. At least that was how I rationalized driving closer to her condo, getting out of my vehicle, and making my way to the entrance of her condo building.
There was minimal security at the entrance, and it wasn’t difficult to gain entry by simply following another occupant through the door once they’d entered the code.
It hadn’t been hard to get all the information on Dani that I’d wanted once I’d requested a file on her from DC. And yeah, I’d rationalized that action too, telling myself I needed her address and any other recent information I could get because she was dating somebody who was on the radar of the federal government. Hell, I’d been sent a loaded file of information, but none of it was all that relevant to her current status as Becker’s love interest.
I grimaced as I rang her doorbell, the thought of Becker so much as touching a hair on Dani’s head making my gut churn.
She’s one of my best friend’s sisters. It isn’t abnormal for me to be concerned.
Really, I pretty much knew that excuse was bullshit, but I let it roll off my back. Danica Lawson was off-limits, even if I did get hard every time I saw her. She always had been. Dani was Jett’s sister, and I absolutely couldn’t just nail her without everything becoming complicated. And I hated complications. Now that I had my priorities straight, I was determined to keep a level head.
“What are you doing here?” Dani asked, her voice disapproving as she stared at me from the door she’d just opened.
Christ! Didn’t she bother to ask who was ringing her doorbell before she just opened the door that way? “You never answered all my questions,” I replied, inviting myself into her home as I brushed past her.
“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” she said huffily before she closed the door, turned toward me and then crossed her arms stubbornly. “You need to leave. I doubt that Greg is always watching me, but I don’t want him to know you were here.”
“Do you do everything he tells you to do?” I remarked as calmly as possible. “Doesn’t it concern you even a little bit that you aren’t sure whether or not some guy is watching you?”
Hell, it worried me that Danica might be in deep enough with Gregory Becker that he might have put somebody on her to watch her every move. She should be terrified.
“No. It doesn’t bother me.” She eyed me suspiciously as she added, “I see you lost the custom suit today.”
“It’s Saturday,” I answered. “I don’t wear a suit on the weekends.”
She snorted. “It’s good to know you lighten up two days out of the week.”
I frowned at her. “I don’t ever lighten up. I just dress more relaxed.”
Danica looked beautiful in a casual yellow dress that made her hair appear to be a deeper red. And if I appeared more lax than usual, it was because of my father. He’d always tried to be with his kids on the weekends, and he lost the suit on Saturday and Sunday when he was home, and tried to just be our dad. For some reason, I always followed his example, even though I didn’t have anybody who cared what I wore. But it made me somehow feel like I was following in his footsteps when I wore jeans and a casual shirt when it wasn’t a workday.