Fuck.
I erupt all over the shower wall, thick ropes of come making my tip hum and ache.
When it’s over, just like the other times, I quickly shower myself off and promise that was the last time. I’ve made the same promise twice before.
And broken it both times. I rarely break promises, especially to myself.
If I tell myself I’ll work out, or read a book, or shatter a man’s teeth, I do it.
But when I tell myself, I won’t think about Celine and her perfect body, I fail. Every damn time.
Maybe the fourth time’s the charm.
After the shower, I check my cell. What the hell?
Nine missed calls from Julian. I sit on the edge of my bed and call him back.
“Has anyone seen you?” he snaps.
“What? Slow down. Explain.”
“Are you home?”
I laugh without humor. “Where else would I be?”
“That’s my goddamn point. I’m coming by. Unlock the back door.”
“Don’t let anyone follow you.”
Now, it’s his turn to laugh. “If there was a one percent chance of that happening, I wouldn’t come by. You know that.”
Something climbed up his ass and died, clearly. He hangs up before I can ask what happened. I head downstairs and crack the back door. Check the front. No cars, no tails, nothing unusual.
He arrives ten minutes later, ignoring my offer of a coffee and pacing up and down the kitchen.
“You need to be honest with me,” he snaps, staring into my eyes. For a brief moment, I see him as a boy, before he became neat and nondescript. Long wild hair, rosy cheeks, big grin stuck to his face before life wiped it away.
I spread my hands, waiting.
“Did anyone see you?”
“Not by anyone still alive,” I tell him.
He doesn’t stop pacing. “Rico visited Celine at work.”
I bite down. Hard. Teeth feeling like they could shatter. It’s difficult not to let it show. I need to pretend my reaction is based on something other than protective fire.
“Oh,” I say.
He stops pacing, tilts his head. “Oh? This is a goddamn problem.”
“What did that little rat say?”
Rico is a low-level fixer. Not an enforcer, not an earner, a bastard who never graduated from running errands and takes out his resentment on anyone who gets in his way.
Julian hesitates. A flicker of… something. If he were anyone else, that would make me suspicious, but this is Julian, the man who saved my life. “A bunch of vague and threatening shit. But the headline is, Celine now knows I work for organized crime. I think she’s known for years, honestly. It’s been like this big thing hovering between us all the damn time, no matter what we’re doing. It’s always there.”
“He threatened Celine?” I snarl, trembling, hands curling into fists, ready to wreak havoc.
