Page 15 of Saving Scarlett

Scarlett huffed a cynical laugh. “Well, that’s fitting.”

I scoffed, knocking my shoulder against hers. “I’m not a slasher. We can binge the Final Destination movies if you want. I think I have at least the first three here…but I can only handle one tonight.”

With a laugh, she twisted to face me, turning off the faucet. “I’m definitely going to need a drink if we watch Final Destination, or I’ll be expecting the entire house to kill me.”

Once the kitchen was clean, Scarlett and I decided to put on our pajamas before curling up and watching a movie. It had been a long few days and we both wanted to freshen up and get comfortable. I didn’t mind how much like a slumber party it felt. In my lifestyle, nights like this didn’t usually happen, so I allowed myself to just relax and enjoy the moment for once.

Returning to my bedroom, I pulled on a pair of cotton pants and a sweatshirt and returned to the living room, adding more wood to the fire. Scarlett came out of her bedroom a few minutes later, wearing a set of purple fleece pajamas, her dark hair in waves flowing down her back.

“My sister did a good job getting you warm clothes for the climate, huh?”

She nodded as she smoothed out the hem of her shirt. “Yes. She really did an awesome job. She found a lot of stuff that fits me, even if it’s a little big. I really hope you thank her for me.”

To demonstrate, she pulled on the waistband of her pants, showing me that they were indeed a few sizes too big for her petite frame. The flash of the creamy skin of her flat stomach beneath made me have to suppress a groan. As wrong as it was, there was no doubt I would have to use my hand way more than I usually did while I was alone with her. She was a beautiful woman.

Pushing my twisted desires aside, I pulled a quilt out of a basket and handed it to her as she sat on the love seat, tucking her legs up beside her. “I’ll definitely tell her. Do you really want moonshine?”

Although my gut instinct was for her not to drink, because I didn’t want either of us to do something we would regret, I also wasn’t going to be another man telling this strong woman what she could and couldn’t do with her own body.

She scrunched her face, taking a moment to answer. “Do you have whiskey instead?”

I chuckled as I rose and crossed the room to the liquor cabinet. “I do.”

Her smile pleased me more than it should have but I did my best to ignore my mind telling me how in trouble I was with her.

After half a glass of whiskey and thirty minutes of the movie, sleep found Scarlett just as easily as death found the dozen or so teenagers who’d tried cheating it.

Turning the movie off, I carried her into her bedroom, laying her down on the bed and covering her with the blankets. It was a cold night, so I left her door open when I walked back out, and then added more wood to the fire. As tired as I was, I intended to head straight to bed also, but when I picked up my cell phone from the coffee table, there were three missed calls from Phantom. Fuck.

Taking one more peek into Scarlett’s room to make sure she was asleep, I went into my bedroom and shut the door. I would have preferred to talk on the phone outside to make sure she didn’t overhear my conversation, but it had turned frigid overnight, and I didn’t want to freeze my already blue balls off.

Once I was seated on my bed, I dialed the hacker’s phone number. He answered on the first ring.

“Boss, we’ve got a problem.”

The word sent my stomach into a tumble. I usually had nerves of steel, but there was so little I could control from where I was, and I didn’t like it. “What?”

He went silent for a moment. “Did Scarlett tell you who her father is?”

My already tumbling stomach fell to the floor as I wondered if the woman I’d saved, who was sleeping in the bedroom next to me, was hiding something from me. “All she told me was that her father is in finance.”

The way Phantom huffed a laugh did little to help my stress at that moment. “He’s in finance all right. Bane, her father is Ivy Etienne.”

The blood in my veins and the words on my tongue turned to ice, preventing me from speaking.

“Boss? Are you still there?”

It took me a few beats to respond, still trying to find my thoughts that had gotten away from me.

“Are you telling me that the woman I’m currently protecting is the daughter of one of the biggest Mob bosses in New Orleans?”

“That’s what I’m telling you, but what I want to know is why did she not tell you?”

It was the same question I was asking myself and I didn’t have an answer—unless she didn’t know.

“In speaking to Scarlett, it doesn’t sound like she has much of a relationship with her father. From what I know about him, he commits most of his crimes on the back of his businesses, so maybe she doesn’t know about his Mob dealings, and believes he’s just running a financial firm. She may be completely in the dark about how powerful and dangerous he is, just like she was in the dark about her husband. I don’t think she’s intentionally trying to hide it from me.”

I knew it may have been merely wishful thinking, but at that second, it was the reasoning I was going with.

---