“Here’s good princess. Never can tell who might be lurking.” His eyes darted about looking around with suspicion.
I gazed up at him. “Okay, thank you for this.”
“It’s fine. So… you love my brother?”
“Yes.”
He looked uncomfortable and shifted his weight from one leg to the next.
“Well, it worked out well, then, and Raphe made a good choice.”
“Choice? Was there someone else?” I hadn’t thought of that.
He laughed. “Yeah, there kind of was. Me.”
I searched his eyes, and the fascination of his eye color drew me in. One blue, the other brown. “You?”
He rocked back on his heels, and the back of his jacket whipped out in the wind as the breeze rustled between us.
“Yeah, me. You wouldn’t have liked me, and you don’t seem to like squirrels.” He shook his head and smiled again.
I laughed. I couldn’t believe I laughed. “It’s gross, Claudius.”
“Needs must. Anyway, I can see it. You and Lucian, you suit each other. I don’t know about the whole cop thing though, but that’s for you to work out.”
That was another thing that was shelved to the back of my mind. There was a lot I had to face, and God, I needed to call Sinclaire and tell him about Jefferson and Holloway. I needed to tell him, even if he already knew. I’d spoken to Gigi briefly this morning. Brief because she was with Maurice and they’d sounded like the last time. like I’d interrupted something steamy. As long as they were safe, I was happy.
“I can’t go back to that life.”
“So, you want this?” He quirked a brow.
“This isn’t me either.”
“Hmmm, it’s not Luc either. That’s why I’m here and he’s out there. That’s why Raphael choose him and not me. He’s a real hardass, ruthless in every sense of the word, and he’d make a good leader of a business like this, but he’s different. He always was. We have to—” His voice trailed off as he looked ahead of me.
I turned to see what he was looking at, and my eyes bulged when I saw who it was that stood outside the fence to the premises.
Victor.
Victor Pertrinkov.
I could see the devilish smile on his face from here. We were about twenty meters apart, but I could see it, and it made my skin crawl and chills race down my spine.
“Amelia, get inside.” Claudius took hold of me.
* * *
Luc
* * *
“Did you get him?” I asked, gripping the phone as I pressed it to my ear.
That fucking Victor was outside the house. Jesus Christ. It was a joke. I was out here looking for him, and he was there. Right there with Amelia.
“No, we didn’t get him,” Claudius answered. “I sent Dante after him, and he came back empty. It was too late by the time we got back inside, and I didn’t want to leave Amelia, just in case.”
“You did right.” I sighed. “We need to find out where they’re staying.”
