Page 88 of Hold Him Like Gravity

The confused look on Bastian’s face made me think he was half-expecting me to need the ride because there was a body involved or something.

“Hey, Bass,” Kick said in a small voice, her head ducked.

“Kick,” he said, opening the door for her. She climbed inside obediently, then took Evander’s box from me.

“Just one minute, babe,” I said, closing the door.

“The fuck is going on?”

“Long story. I only wanna repeat it once, so I’m gonna get Kick settled at our place. Then we’re gonna go talk to Renzo and the others.”

“Sounds good,” Bass said, moving around the car to get in the driver’s seat. On the ride to my place, I made sure two of my soldiers were at the building, ready to keep Kick safe while Bass and I were gone.

“The fuck you got trapped in that box, a demon?” Bass asked as Evander continued to shriek.

“Sorry. He’s always been… very opinionated,” Kick said, trying to coo at the cat who was having none of it. “I’ll try to keep him quiet in the apartment, so your neighbors don’t complain.”

“You could start a cat shrieking band in the apartment and no one would say shit,” Bass said.

I glanced back at Kick, who nodded.

“Right… right,” she added, voice softer, still trying to process the whole mob thing.

There would be time to discuss that more later.

There would be time for a lot of things later.

But right now, I had to get her somewhere safe.

Then I needed to deal with this shit once and for all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Kick

Rico lived in a very normal apartment building, but on the top floor. There were only four units on the floor, and Rico led me toward his, his hand at the small of my back the whole way as I tried to hold on to the wiggling box.

Bass was behind us, but after handing off my bag to Rico, he went back down the elevator as Rico led me into his apartment.

I have to admit that I’d spent a lot of time wondering about Rico’s apartment. Especially after hearing he’d basically ripped it down to the beams and started from scratch.

The men I’d been around in my life hadn’t exactly been good about the whole decor thing. I mean, my brother and Bobby thought drink cans were art. And as for Kyle, well, when I first went to his apartment, he didn’t have a headboard or an extra towel.

Something about how Rico was always nicely put together, though, made me think that his place would be impressive.

I just didn’t know how impressive.

The common areas were open-concept and dominated by deep gray walls and equally dark hardwood floors.

The living room had a large black brick fireplace and a long sectional in this rich, burnt orange color. Across from it were two chairs. A bar cart was set against the far wall under a generic black and white landscape picture.

The kitchen was behind the living room with slate cabinets, a gray and white quartzite waterfall island, with some open shelving featuring soft white lighting.

It was dark and masculine, but still cozy.

“Wow,” I exhaled as I turned in a circle, taking it all in again.

“Yeah?” he asked.

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