Page 19 of Courting Danger

Each one brought a little spark of hope that Garrison could understand the violent life I came from. Maybe, once I scraped up the courage to admit who I really was, I wouldn’t have to lose the man I’d just found.

CHAPTER 8

Garrison

I had planned to return to my apartment at some point, but after falling into bed with Alex, we’d ended up spending the rest of the day and night together.

It hadn’t all been sex, though there had been several rounds of that. Later in the evening, Alex had to make a series of phone calls, and several packages arrived for me. Raymond must have worked overtime to get all of my clothing tailored in a matter of hours. However, no quality had been sacrificed for speed. When I tried on the suits and other outfits, they all fit perfectly.

Before I knew it, morning had come, and Alex and I had spent nearly twenty-four hours together.

As we were eating breakfast, the apartment’s intercom rang. Alex answered it, then a few moments later met someone at the door. He never let them inside, just spoke with them across the threshold before accepting a box and closing the door again.

Back at the kitchen table, he handed the box to me. “Here. I’ve got a meeting today, and you’re going to need these.”

At first, I thought the tailor had forgotten something, but when I opened the box, I didn’t find clothes inside.

The box was filled with weapons.

Nothing spectacular. Just a standard Glock with several styles of holsters, and a few combat knives that could be hidden in different places around my body.

No, the weapons themselves weren’t a problem. As a bodyguard, it was expected for me to be armed.

The speed at which these weapons had been procured, however, was a concern. Especially with guns, proper licensing took time. I wasn’t in the military anymore, and a lot more paperwork was needed for civilians to carry weapons.

When I asked about this, Alex claimed that I would have to speak with Valente. The man was in charge of security for everyone in the Mariano family, and that included weaponry.

In the end, I gave up asking, but vowed to demand answers from Valente the next time I saw the man.

When Alex and I were alone, it was easy to forget the situation that brought them together. However, the world kept spinning even when we weren’t paying attention. Someone had tried to kill Alex. My first instinct was to keep Alex safe and locked away, but that wasn’t possible. Alex had a family business to run.

So, I dressed in one of the new tailored suits, strapped on the provided weapons, and prepared to stand as Alex’s bodyguard.

I’d expected a business meeting to take place in an office. Instead, Alex’s driver took us just across the border into New York and dropped us off at an aquarium.

“Offices are boring,” Alex said with a shrug. “Besides, the people I’m meeting today aren’t exactly friendly. They do business with my family, but they’re more like rivals than allies. Meeting on neutral ground like this keeps everything… civil.”

Family?

The choice of words caught my attention.

Every time Alex mentioned his family business, he always put more emphasis on the family than the business. Most of the time he seemed to forget that there even was a business, referring to family matters and business matters like they were the same thing.

My hand drifted toward the new gun strapped to my hip.

The front of the aquarium was locked, but Alex led us around to a side door. To no one’s surprise, we found Valente already waiting for us.

“Everything is prepared. The others arrived just a few minutes ago.”

He gave me a short, pointed look before holding open the door.

I bit my tongue to silence the questions I wanted to ask and followed Alex inside.

Like most aquariums, the lights were turned down low to highlight the various tanks. We stepped into a world of contrasting shadows and lights. There was no one else around, but I still kept my voice to a whisper as I spoke to Alex. “What’s prepared? Something I should know about?”

Bright blue light from a nearby tank illuminated one side of Alex’s face. The rippling water created a pattern like scales on his skin.

“Valente has set up our own security around the building. The aquarium doesn’t open for another hour, so we don’t need to worry about crowds, but we still want to be safe.” He stopped to coo over some small orange fish in a nearby tank, rubbing one finger on the glass like he was scratching behind a dog’s ear.

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