Page 9 of Gio

“What about Cole?”

He shrugged. “He’ll be gone for a week, possibly more depending on how things shape up, so you’re stuck with me.”

Lucky me.

The room where I would be staying was bigger than I expected, fitted with a bed, a sofa, a desk, and there was another door that led to a private bathroom. “Are you sure this is necessary?”

“Positive.” He nodded, again there was no playfulness or teasing in his tone, which scared me more.

And turned me on. “And what the hell am I supposed to do here, Gio? I have a gala to finish planning. And attend to make sure it goes off without any problems.”

His dark brows shot up. “Staying alive would be a good start.” He muttered the words unhappily as if they were like glass in his mouth.

“I have to work tomorrow. It’s important.”

“So is your life.”

There was no reason those words gave my heart a little flutter, but they did. “I have to do last minute setup and check in with all the vendors tomorrow so you can either go with me or stay the hell out of my way. Understood?” My chest heaved and I readied my next argument.

Gio stared at me intently for a long damn time, his chest also heaved to the point his eyes darkened to a rich, molten chocolate color. “Don’t leave the clubhouse,” he growled, turned away and slammed the door behind him.

My response was nothing more than a smile.

Chapter 6

Gio

Istormed out of Harper’s room—my room—and stopped, leaning against the door to let out a long, frustrated breath. Harper was getting to me already and we hadn’t even been together for an hour. Another few days with her and who knew what mental state I would be in. I let out a sigh, that would be a problem for later.

The more pressing problem was the Blood Reapers MC, which meant I needed to update the guys. Now. Luckily, I found plenty of them hanging in the bar with shots and beers in front of them while they shot the shit. “Diesel. I need to talk to you.”

He took a long pull of his beer and nodded. “Talk. Or is this private?”

I shook my head. “No, it’s about Harper.” I dropped down in a chair between my brother and Diesel and snatched Rocky’s beer while I told them about the Blood Reapers. “She overhead them talking about crates of guns and they followed her to her rental, trashed the place and left a threat.”

“Shit.” Rocky let out a low whistle. “Cole know?”

“Yeah, he called me when she called him. He doesn’t know the extent of things yet, but I wanted to talk to you first. Harper’s stubborn but she needs protection.” I explained about the gala and her stubborn refusal to stay safe.

“Fuck me, I swear you boys collect damsels in distress,” Rebel said with a grin.

Right up until this moment I would’ve agreed with him. But Harper was different. “She’s Sniper’s sister.” Calling him by his club name, I hoped, would make it clear that this wasn’t actually up for discussion. “And the Blood Reapers have her in their sights.”

“Focus,” Diesel growled. “Blood Reapers aren’t your typical MC. They do business with the cartels, the Bratva, even the Yakuza. That’s a lot of fucking money and a lot of business to keep quiet.”

“Don’t forget they are delightfully violent. Tortured a man’s wife because he wouldn’t sell them gun without the proper ID.” Slate shook his head and sighed. “They do the type of shit warlords do all in the name of getting ahead.”

Simply put, Harper was in real trouble.

“We’re protecting her,” Rocky said in a tone that left no room for argument.

“We are,” Diesel agreed. “Find out everything she knows,” he ordered.

“She thinks the deal is happening at the hotel because Viper and Carl were arguing about lugging crates of guns into the hotel. Viper promised to bring a sample of their catalog as long as they had the money. The only thing she heard about the sellers is that they’re Asian and they don’t fuck around.”

“It’s going down at the gala thing?” Slate shook his head again. “That could be a nightmare, but I think I could hack into the casino security system.”

Diesel nodded. “We need to think about how to handle this, but for now it’s best that you stick close to her, Gio.”

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