“Adrienne?”
“Yes?”
“We’re working, not drinking,” he chastised me for the eighty-seventh time.
“I didn’t say I was sharing,” I muttered. “The cork is stuck.”
Eric reached up and pushed the little arms down no problem where King still held it over his shoulder.Fantastic.
“Well, I loosened it for you,” I said as I walked around the island and snatched the bottle from his hand. “Dinner will be ready in about five minutes.”
And then I drank straight from the bottle. No glass.
“Not sure it’s a good idea to get hammered when someone wants you dead either,” King pointed out.
“I think if ever there was a time to get hammered, it’s when you learn someone wants you dead and you find your house swarming with badasses.”
“Fair enough,” Manny said as the guys moved about my kitchen, taking over the dinner prep, pulling plates down from the cupboards, and someone even handed me a glass to go with my wine.
King just stood there with his arms crossed over his broad chest, staring at me.
I played the stare-down game with him for a minute or two while the guys moved about my kitchen before I let out a frustrated sigh and then filled my wine glass all the way to the top. I took a sip, then turned off the burners and gave the rice a final stir before calling, “Order up!”
Everyone grabbed a plate from the stack Eric set down on the counter and scooped up chicken, broccoli, and rice before filling glasses with water from the sink and sitting down at my kitchen table. I followed along and sat down in between Manny and Eric at the small round table.
“So,” I started. “Who’s on duty tomorrow?”
They all paused shoveling in their dinner, forks suspended halfway to their mouths. It would have been funny under normal circumstances, but seeing as my life was almost in the toilet, I didn’t have much to laugh about. Eric and Manny shot each other uncomfortable glances, but King stared right at me, making my belly fill with bald eagles, not butterflies.
In hindsight, what with my life being two seconds from the toilet and all, I should have known what was going to come next.
I should have braced for impact.
Unfortunately, I did not.
“I am,” King answered.
I’d be okay. I’d have the night to shore up my responses to him. When he decided to darken my door, I’d be ready. With preparation, I was sure King wouldn’t be able to push all my buttons.
“And who’s on tonight?” I asked as I smiled at Eric and Manny before looking back at King. His face was no longer blank. Now it was full of thunder. What that could be about, I had no idea.
“Also me.”
I felt my brows pull into a confused frown. I didn’t understand. If he was with me at night, how would he be with me in the morning? Didn’t he need to sleep? Maybe they took twenty-four-hour shifts like firefighters.
“Is that really necessary?”
“You think security is a joke?” King asked me, and his voice was low and vibrated with a danger that I hadn’t realized I’d unknowingly stepped into.
“No,” I said quickly—apparentlytooquickly by the mutinous expression on his face. “Of course not. It’s just that I should be safe when I’m asleep, right?”
“Wrong.” Wow, what a buzzkill.
“Umm… okay.”
“The threatening letters your father received were not a joke,” he roared.
“I didn’t think they were.” My voice came out just barely above a whisper.
