I crouched to his level so we were eye to eye. “I wasn’t scared. Just surprised.”
He studied me with unsettling perception before he shrugged. “Okay.” I wished I could accept the hikers’ words so easily. “You seemed scared,” he added.
“I wasn’t expecting to see anyone so close, that’s all.” I took his hand, and we walked back to the house, much faster than we’d left.
As soon as we were safely inside the house, I left Mattie with math problems and went straight to Enzo. I found him in his office, where he spent most of his day. “I need to tell you something,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt.
He looked up at me in the doorway, and he was on his feet instantly. “What’s wrong?”
“Hikers,” I said. “Two of them breached the treeline. They said they were lost and they wereprobablyharmless.” I tried to sound convincing but failed miserably. “I took a photo,” I told him almost as an afterthought and shoved the screen in his face.
His brows lifted in surprise. “Good thinking.” He took the phone, examined the photo, and then tapped the screen several times before he handed it back. “Thank you, Ren.”
I nodded. “Mattie’s fine,” I added quickly. “He was completely unaware that anything was wrong, except with me.” I tried for a smile that was shaky at best.
Enzo’s gaze softened as he pulled me into the warm embrace of his strong arms. “To be a kid again,” he said with a short laugh.
It felt too good to be in his arms, and I should’ve pulled back immediately. I shouldn’t have inhaled his expensive, masculine scent, and I definitely should not have closed my eyes. It was all too much. I was surrounded by Enzo, and it was…too much.
I took a giant step back, my breaths shallow from his proximity. “I just wanted you to know. I’m fine,” I said and took another step back. “Shaken but fine.”
He studied my face like he didn’t entirely believe me. Enzo was a man who knew fear when he saw it, and I practically radiated with it.
That night, I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling as the moonlight played on the branches outside my window. I knew there was a present danger when I took this job. Hell, it was why I’d taken it instead of giving it to one of my nannies on staff. But the danger had always been theoretical.
Today it became real. Brutally, achingly real.
My heart was still racing and my palms were damp to the point of almost being soaked.
This wasn’t imagined danger. This was real.
And it was only the beginning.
Chapter 14
Enzo
Iwas already holding the phone when it buzzed and Luca’s name flashed on the screen. “What did you find?” I held my breath as I waited for him to tell me who on the inside of the DeRossi organization had betrayed me. And my family.
There was a long pause on the other end of the call. It was heavy and eternal, and this time it wasn’t just Luca pausing for dramatic effect. Something was really wrong.
“For fuck’s sake, Luca.”
He let out a rough exhale. “Some dumb fuck drove a truck right up to our fish processing plant.”
I swallowed. “The one in downtown L.A.?” It was a profitable business on both fronts, providing seafood to half the city while giving us the perfect way to move product in and out of the country.
“Yeah, that’s the one. Goddamn thing exploded in the early morning hours. Half a dozen casualties, way more injuries. The plant might be a total loss, Enzo.”
Fuck. Shit. “Might be?”
“The firefighters are still in there fighting the fire, so I won’t know for sure for another twelve hours or so.” Luca sounded sopissed off by that fact that I couldn’t help but smile. “If it’s a loss, what then?”
“We’ll move it to Long Beach or maybe San Diego. What I want to know is how the fuck they knew how important that place was to our drug operations.” On the outside, it was nothing but a smelly old fish processing plant, and we took great pains to make it appear as such, which only sharpened my suspicions about internal betrayal.
There was another long silence before Luca put a voice to exactly what I was thinking. “The call is coming from inside the fucking house.”
His words settled in my gut like a stone, heavy and gut-churning. This feeling wasn’t entirely unfamiliar, but I hated feeling out of control. I leaned back against the desk with my legs crossed at the ankles and stared outside at the setting sun. My adrenaline spiked the way it always had when danger surrounded me. “Any news on that front?”
