Page 64 of Charity's Redemption

Max wrapped me in his arms and pulled me tight against his side. “Our girl here knows what happens when she’s a tease. It’s that right,bella.”

I snorted.

How could I forget?

Pulling myself from Max’s grasp, I stood, and then with a seductive smile, I kissed each of them on the cheek, accepting the implied challenge. “Goodnight, boys.”

I swung my hips as I left the office, then turned back and winked before walking down the hall and up the stairs towards the guest room, where I slid back inside the sheets and closed my eyes.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I would need to explain a plan I didn’t have. I’d only thought about how to get to Zoe, which now seems impossible, given that she never leaves her tower. No, somehow, I needed to get into a private area with a senator who had suddenly become paranoid.

What the hell had I been doing all this time?

My rock-hard cockached as I thought of her in bed, moaning softly in the darkness with my face buried between her thighs. It had me fighting everything in my being from running upstairs right this minute and finishing what I’d started.

But I didn’t move. Instead, I stared at Luca as he poured himself a glass of whiskey, then took his seat.

“Why do I feel as though we’ve come full circle, and you are going to say something about Charity that will not only piss her off, but us as well?”

I’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop the moment he interrupted us and called us downstairs.

“You’re wrong. I’m just thinking.”

“I’m not sure I like that either.”

He took a sip of his whiskey, giving me a craving for that malty hops tang on my tongue. I stood and waltzed into the kitchen, grabbed a cold beer from the fridge, and popped the top.

After wandering back into the office, I plopped back into my same seat and took a swig, then placed the bottle on my thigh, choking the neck with a tight hand. Reticence filled the void between us as Nico scrolled through his phone, and Luca stared at the stack of books along the library wall.

“Since she’s so bound and determined to do things her way, maybe we can help her do that,” Luca said, breaking the silence.

“And how do you suppose we do that?” I asked.

Nico put his phone down and studied Luca.

We all knew Charity didn’t want help unless she asked for it. And to assume she’d lay down and accept it now was asking for a miracle.

“We listen to any and all ideas she may have, then help her execute it. It’ll be safer for her to have one of us with her, and it’ll give us peace of mind while she’s out there.” He took a sip of his whiskey, the light catching a jagged angle on the crystal he held in his hand.

“Before anything gets done, though, I want you and her to take those bodies out and bury them.”

“Me?” I said, pointing a finger at myself, making my beer fizz in the bottle.

“Yeah, you.”

“What did I do?”

“You convinced her to leave.”

I reared back, affronted. There’s no way he’d know that.

“How do you suspect that?”

“Charity doesn’t run from her problems. She faces them head-on.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his ankle over his knee. “You were the one to see her out. So you honestly expect me to sit here and think you didn’t have a hand in that?”

Busted.

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