Page 28 of One Filthy Kiss

“He’s in LA.”

Something cold and slimy crawls down my spine.The video. What are the odds of Steve Barone watching that video in the short window between it being uploaded onto YouTube and taken down again on my orders? Or has he been tracking them all this time?

My mind is frantically trying to figure out why he would follow them to LA and rear his ugly fucking coward head now. Unless he was already here in the States, and someone alerted him to their presence. But why now? Does he understand how vulnerable Meggie is so far away from home or is this nothing more than a sociopath trying to finish what he started?

“You’re sure it’s him?”

The fear in her eyes is back ten-fold. The green has darkened to the color of wet leaves in a stormy forest, and the way she looks at me, pleading with me to make this all go away tears my heart in two. Ripping the fucker’s head off is too good for him. I want him to know how it feels to be afraid, to understand that his death is going to be insufferably slow, and that no one will be around to hear him scream.

When she speaks, her voice is little more than a whisper. “Someone has been looking for me. Nikki thinks it’s him.”

“Meggie, you’re safe here with me.”

“No.” She shakes her head, tries to pull away from me like I’ve got her trapped.

I don’t let her go. The instant I move my hands from her shoulders she’ll bolt like a racehorse hearing the starting bell. She isn’t thinking clearly. If she runs, she’ll play straight into his hands because men like Steve Barone will always choose the easy route, the one that presents no danger to themselves.

“I have to get back home.” She twists her head to locate Amber and visibly slumps when she finds her on her knees with a doll in each hand. She faces me again. “I have to get Amber away from him.”

“What will you do when you get back to England?” I need her to think about this logically. Consider her options.

“I-I’ll take her away. We’ll disappear again. We did it before. My dad will?—”

“Meggie, do you have any idea how many people live in New York City? Even if someone tells him where you are, he’ll never find you. He’ll never get past my bodyguards.”

“Oh my God.” She swallows hard. “Nikki. What if he…”

“I’ll have Nikki guarded. He won’t get within a mile of her without getting something broken.” I hold her gaze, wait for her to process what I’m saying. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you, Meggie. I promised that I would keep you safe, and I never break a promise.”

“But what about you, Gio?”

I smile. “What about me?”

“What if he tries to hurt you?”

I can’t believe that the man she is terrified of; the man she has spent the past five years trying to avoid finally surfaces, and she is worrying about me.

“If he has an ounce of sense, he’ll stay as far away from me as he possibly can, or he’ll find out what happens when someone tries to harm the people I care about.”

A tiny glimmer of hope appears in her eyes. “The people you care about?”

“Si, fiore. I care about you… Both of you. I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

She sucks in a deep breath and manages a small smile. “Is it the accent?”

“No, it’s you, Meggie. It’s everything about you.”

I cup her face with both hands. The panic is subsiding, and I’m confident that she trusts me to not let anything bad happen to them. I’ve only known her for a few days, but she seems to have snuck underneath my skin and made herself at home, and I like having her there.

My lips brush hers as Amber’s voice bursts the bubble surrounding us.

“I can’t decide. Can I have both dolls? Please?”

I release Meggie and smile down at her sister. “You can have all the dolls you want.”

“No, Gio. You can’t say that to a five-year-old.”

But before either of us can put Amber straight, she’s off to find a shopping cart, Ric one step behind her.