Page 19 of Under His Embrace

Maybe… not.If the person who had the deli shot up was who I thought of, perhaps I’d be smart to stay where Franco could protect me for once.

No. That’s stupid.I shook my head, both in an attempt to clear my wishful thoughts and to dissuade him from the ready-made assumption that I was hellbent on fleeing.

As if I could even escape this guarded house.

“I want to help you, Chloe. I’m sorry that you were caught in that shooting.”

I gazed at the sincerity in his green eyes, blazing with a firm sense of sadness that lingered. He should hate me. He could loathe me, but I knew he meant it when he didn’t wish me ill.

“But I can’t help you if I don’t know everything.”

God, no.I wasnotprepared to come clean, not about the one thing that would ensure he’d hate, loathe, and scorn me.

“Did you tell us everything?” he demanded, full of authority but not being malicious.

I nodded, swallowing down the taste of the unspoken lie so bitter on my tongue.

No, Franco. Not even close.

9

FRANCO

Knocks sounded on the door, pulling me from staring at Chloe. I wished it could be so simple, that looking at her like this, expectant and letting her see the disbelief and suspicion in my expression, would tempt her to come clean and tell the truth. She used to do this same silent-question look with me, too, urging me to spill whatever I didn’t want to share with her. That was how well we used to read each other. How well we used to effortlessly operate on the same frequency.

Because something warned me that she wasn’t being honest. Not completely. The catch was that she’d gotten better at hiding herself.

I sighed and opened the door, letting Danicia in.

“Hi,” she said to Chloe before addressing me. “How are you feeling?”

Battered. Mixed up. Confused. But she wasn’t talking to me. I thought that letting Romeo question Chloe would be the breather I needed to handle being in her presence again. It wasn’t. After losing my control and sleeping with her, I needed more than a breather. I needed my head set back on right again.

“Fine.” Chloe raised her brows, suspicious of the tall woman who entered.

“This is Danicia,” I introduced belatedly. “She formerly headed up an ER department, but now she works for the family.”

“Ah.” Chloe clamped her lips shut.

“And I heard that you got knocked out,” Danicia said, not reacting to Chloe’s mild snark.

“It’s just a mild headache…” Chloe said.

“Humor me,” Danicia said. “I’ll take a quick look and make sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I’ll be back,” I told the women. I doubted that they’d need privacy to make sure there wasn’t a concern about a potential concussion or anything, but it would be better if I stepped out.

As soon as I strode down the hall, I wondered what she could be hiding. Chole and I hadn’t seen each other for ten years, and a lot could happen within that time. From what she did share, some things didn’t add up.

Like why she moved so often.

Or why she wanted a job that paid under the table.

And how she managed to stay on the move without caving to her parents’ pressure to stay where they could control her.

I sighed, running into Andy and Vic, two guards who’d served the family for many years.

“Franco, we got a situation.”

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