Me: I’ll see you then.
“We should hit the spa at Rapture sometime soon,” Lulu says, catching my attention, and I shake my head.
“No offense, but I don’t want to spend any time at Rapture.”
“It’s not attached to the club,” Scarlett says. “It’s way different andso relaxing.You won’t even know that you’re in the same building, just like when we’re at Lulu’s penthouse.”
I take a deep breath, watching my friends with apprehension. I donotwant to be in that building.
“You can trust us,” Lulu adds.
“Oh, I trust you both. Implicitly. You guys have become my best friends, and I know that you’d never hurt me. I kind of hate that I’m afraid of a building. It’s so ridiculous.”
“You’re entitled to your feelings,” Scarlett reminds me. “But the building, even theclub, can’t hurt you. Maybe if you go with us, you’ll see that there’s nothing to worry about. I promise you, it’sperfectlysafe. Lulu and I both workandlive there.”
“You’re right.” I nibble my lip and then decide to trust my new friends. “Okay, I’m down for the spa.”
“Holy shit, let’s gotoday.” Lulu does a little dance in her seat. “I’m not letting you change your mind.”
I grin as she pulls her phone out and starts making calls. “Looks like I’m not changing my mind.”
Twenty-Four
JULIAN
“So,you suspect that because you told Natasha that you had a delivery coming to this warehouse this morning, that whoever’s been stealing your shit will show up.” Rome is sitting next to me in my Porsche. We’re alone. No security. I’ve hidden the car in the trees from a vantage point where we can see anyone coming or going from the warehouse, but they can’t see us.
“Her necklace lit up,” I tell him again, and feel nausea roll through me once more, the way it has from the minute I saw that motherfucking green light. “Jesus, Rome.Fuck.”
“Let’s see if your hunch is right. Don’t lose your shit until you know for sure.”
I sigh, hoping with everything in me that I’m wrong.It can’t be her.
It can’t be my angel.
Fuck, I love her. I’m crazy about her. If she’s been playing me this whole time, I won’t just lose my shit. I’ll go crazy. I don’t know what my life looks like without her in it anymore. After such a short time of being married to her, she’severything.
“Maybe the device I was using had a low battery,” I mutter, grasping foranyother explanation.
Rome doesn’t say anything.
He knows that’s not the case. I don’t ever let anything I own have a low fucking battery.
“I sound like an idiot.”
“No, you sound like a man who wants to believe the best of his wife. You’re not an idiot for that. You’re an idiot for a whole host of other reasons.” Rome sighs and drags his hand down his face. “Five minutes.”
I nod silently. I haven’t been this nervous in ...ever. I’ve never been nervous a day in my life. There’s no place for it in my line of work. I’m sure about every step I take, every decision I make, and I never question myself. If you falter, you die.
But for the first time in my life, my hands want to shake.
Jesus Christ, I never expected to be brought to my knees by a curvy bombshell of a woman with perfect lips and a sassy mouth. She’s finally starting to open up and tell me what she needs and wants. She’s just coming out of a shell that I know was built out of a lifetime of abuse and pain.
At least, that’s what she’s told me.
She touches me without a second thought, andneverflinches when I touch her, and it feels like I finally soothed a broken animal.
I’ve completely fallen for Natasha in every way. Her body that I know better than my own, her smart-as-fuck mind, the way she laughs, and even how horrible she is in the kitchen. And don’t even get me started on how her music is like medicine for me.
