Page 99 of Abandoned Oaths

He was watching. The thought calmed me before I nearly threw up as my stomach rolled. He saw what was happening before that. He heard what I said.

Fuck!

I knew that. They were always watching, but I pushed that away. Too far.

Tonight, I lost it. I forgot. I needed to get back home. I wasn’t clearheaded and made too many mistakes.

Derek: Em go back to the room

That was just enough warning for me to drop my phone and run back to his room. They could alter the feeds and make sure no one saw me peeking around.

Alessio returned as I was shifting the pillows around. He stopped at the foot of the bed, and I watched him.

“Did you . . .” I couldn’t finish. I meant Millie. She wouldn’t know what to do in this situation.

“I took care of things,” he explained as he undressed down to his boxers and climbed in next to me.

He hesitated before opening his arms, and I scooted closer, resting my head on his chest as he wrapped me up. “I told you I’ll do anything to protect you. I’ll never let anything like that happen again.”

He kissed the top of my head while I laid against his warm skin.

“You’re shaking.”

A hefty dose of adrenaline will do that to a person.

“I’m so sorry.” He tightened his grip. “You should feel safe and respected in my house. Imake sure the camera footage is wiped whenever you’re over before anyone else has access. No one else can see you.”

I nodded again. Millie would appreciate that.

“Are you okay?” I finally broke my silence.

“Yes.” His response was clipped. Either he didn’t care about killing his own men, or he was compartmentalizing.

“What about the panic alert? Is everyone okay?”

He rested his chin on the top of my head. “I checked in. Everything’s secure. I’ll worry about figuring out what happened tomorrow. Right now, I just want to hold you.”

I should leave, go back to the apartment, and reset, but all I wanted right now was to stay right here.

I closed my eyes and let myself sink into him.

CHAPTER 22

Derek

“Fuck.”

I pushed away from the desk of monitors and spun in the chair to face the guys.

“At this rate, he’ll kill off his own men before we need to,” Marco laughed.

Now that we knew Emilia was safe, and the men rushing to the house weren’t there to kill her, we relaxed.

“He’s getting too close to exposing himself.” Javier leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed and a pissed off expression. “I don’t care who he is, or who he has on his pay role, he’s going to run into serious issues if he doesn’t stop and think.”

“You think any of the guys he killed have people who will look for them?” Marco asked from the chair next to me.

“I’m not sure. I don’t know how these guys work. If they’re like us, then their families know the dangers they’re in and won’t ask questions if they don’t come home.”

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