Page 30 of Stealth Mission

Part of it’s guilt. Or maybe greed.

I could have woken her before leaving—and part of me wanted to, just because I’m hungry for more of her time—but I didn’t want to disturb her. She needs the peace of sleep where no one is bullying her, hurting her feelings, or scaring her.

All of which makes me furious and makes me dead set on fixing what I can. That starts now with me talking to Vik.

As agreed upon, he’s standing by his car waiting on me. A man of his word, he’s right on time.

When I realized I couldn’t leave Marianna last night, he offered to pick me up. It wasn’t without a warning glare. The message was clear.

Fuck with her and you’re dead.

Today he looks more like an operator than a chauffeur, now dressed in a black T-shirt, black and gray camouflage pants, and combat boots. The expression on his face is even more serious than it was last night, which says a lot.

There’s a dangerous cocktail of exhaustion and something just bordering on adrenaline in me as I drop in the passenger seat. Something’s got him torqued up and I want answers. “What gives?”

Vik eyes me suspiciously as he climbs in, rocking the SUV with his weight, then slamming the door. “That’s my question.”

“You look like you’re either fighting indigestion or pissed off.”

“This is my normal face. Are you saying I’m ugly?”

I make an exasperated sound because when I’m running on no sleep my patience gets thin. “You’re missing my point. Something’s wrong, what is it?”

His reply is a question. “You guard her all night?”

Ah, there it is. He’s fishing for info.

“Yep.”

His brows slowly form a hard line. Oh yeah, he’s trying to figure out if I took advantage of Marianna’s emotional state. While I don’t like the look the behemoth is giving me, I admit, I’m happy that he’s looking out for her.

“I’m not a total dick. I’m more of a man than that.”

The hard lines around his mouth ease a fraction. “Does she know you stayed?”

I scrub my hands over my face feeling every one of the hours I’ve been awake. “No, she fell asleep as soon as she walked in and is still sleeping on the couch right now.”

He doesn’t say anything else. And I’m not sure he believes me that we didn’t have sex… because I might have assumed that he did if our positions were reversed. She is a beautiful woman.

But as much as I wanted to grab her off the couch and lose ourselves in her bed, I had a job that I take incredibly seriously—keeping her safe.

I prompt, “Now that we’re clear on that, what else is wrong?”

“I don’t like bombs going off when I’m in charge of security.”

I’ll give him that.

“You find anything?”

“Not yet.”

I exhale slowly as I relax back into the seat. “Do you think that Sylvester was the only target?”

“Maybe.”

His lips flatten and he keeps that lock on them until we arrive back at the mayor’s mansion. When we arrive, the air isn’t filled with salty ocean fragrance any more; it’s rank—tinged with the lingering smell of burning plastic. A charred pile of rubble, once Sylvester’s car, still blocks one of the driveways.

From the look of the number of cars that are on hand, the party is still going strong.

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