“I would ask for your help if I had a lead, Cosette. I hate to admit it, but I’m at a dead end right now. I have no leads as to where this Nest could be. If only I had the manpower of the Azuls at my complete disposal, I would’ve found it already. But alone?”
I looked at the bags getting darker under Dex’s eyes, and I couldn’t stop my finger from gently tracing them.
“Please don’t give yourself such a hard time, Dex. Yeah, you’re freaking amazing at this. But you’re also only one person. You’re close to your 20s, but right now, you’re still a teenager. Do you even get enough sleep?” I asked, the worry in my voice impossible to hide.
“I try. And I hear you. I’ll guide you through everything later with all the information I have right now. Maybe you can see something we don’t,” he said, eyes closing and head leaning against my touch like he craved so much of it. “After all, you’ve seen something in Siege and me that not many do.”
He opened his eyes, and it’s been a while since they held such softness that I looked forward to having my guys out of this damn family business to see if I can get more of that look from them when they’re finally free.
“Yeah? Like what?” I asked, lost in the browns of his eyes.
“Like our heads between your thighs.” Then he was laughing as he caught me off guard, breaking the solemnity of the moment with his dirty jokes yet again. “What? It’s true. Siege and I talked about it. We don’t really give women head until you.”
“You’re always so disgusting, I don’t even know why I fell in love with you.”
It was supposed to be just for me to tease him. But as soon as I realized what I said, the world stopped.
“What did you just say?”
It’s the widest I’ve seen Dex smile.
My eyes widened, my throat feeling like it’s closing up, and my cheeks were warm, and I know it’s not because of the sun that was bathing me with its light earlier.
“You’re disgusting?” I asked in a playful voice, with my own grin coming out.
Dex was quick to wipe it off my lips with his lips pressed to mine, making me turn into a puddle of goo against him.
It wasn’t a hurried, lustful kiss like the ones he usually give me. This time it was innocent, full of youthful love that you’d probably see being shared by older couples than rowdy, hormonal ones like us. Yet at this moment, it was perfectly us.
“I love you too,” he said, making me feel each whispered word with his lips a breath away from mine, his gaze alternating between my eyes and mouth like he was deciding between kissing me and just looking at me.
“Good. Though I’m disappointed, you had to wait for me to say it.”
“I was finding the right moment, sweetheart. You beat me to it.”
I closed my eyes again, waiting to feel his kiss once again, but it never came.
What did, however, was a sound that rang around the mansion that meant the sensor at the gate detected an unidentified face.
Dex was up in an instant, with Siege and Nero stopping their game and immediately going over the pool’s edge, almost breaking out in a run to build a two-person wall in front of me.
“Who is it?” I asked while Dex touched buttons on his iPad, zooming in on the figure that we could see through the gate’s camera.
“I don’t know,” Dex replied, and I figured as much when I saw the puzzled look written all over his face.
“Well, she looks… homeless,” Nero said.
If there had been any hint of elitism in the way Nero said those words, I would’ve told him off. But he wasn’t wrong. The little girl looked malnourished, and even though she was tan, the high quality of the camera could pick up the dirt and what looked like mud on her skin and clothes.
I reached over and touched the button with the microphone symbol on Dex’s iPad, hoping to get some answers.
“Hey there. How can we help you?”
The girl looked up at the camera, probably following the direction from where she heard the voice, and instead of speaking up, she only pursed her lips, looking angry.
A frown found its way to my lips, curiosity and concern taking over me as I said, “She doesn’t look dangerous, you guys. Let’s go out there and talk to her.”
“No,” Dex said at the same time Siege did, but Nero was already nodding, leading the way.
