Page 21 of Enforcer

However, it’s entirely my own fault.

“Hello,” I answer, and Ardesia immediately discusses their flight and how they’ll be going straight into the meeting tomorrow, so he needs me to go with Alyssa.

I tell him I’m on guard duty, and he tosses back that I’m to remain with Alyssa, use the second guest room to get some sleep, and get another guard to stand watch at the door.

When I try to argue, he shuts me down.

“Got it, Boss. See you tomorrow,” I tell him through gritted teeth.

When the next guard arrives, our cousin, Marco, I let myself back into the apartment. I’m met with Ms. Roebach’s angry stare, ramen hanging out of her mouth, and her furious eyebrows furrowed.

The way I’d left things nearly three hours ago wasn’t ideal. Now, I have some backtracking to do.

I put my hands up in defense. “Listen, I’m only following orders.”

“So get back outside,” she growls in reply.

“Ardesia and Brynne are landing and going right into the meeting, and they want both of us there tomorrow. He told me to sleep in the other guest room, and Marco will guard the door.”

“And we all know you’re the perfect little puppy for Mr. Ricci, so you’re going to listen to his orders to the T.”

Her words might as well have been a shank.

“You’re right. I value my fucking throat, so I think I’ll listen,” I toss back, anger building in my chest.

She points to the spare room she’s not occupying. “Well, go on, then.”

I huff as I trudge toward the room, only stopping and hanging my head when I realize I owe her an apology.

“Listen,” I start.

She cuts me up, her tone clipped, “Save it, Dante.”

The way she says my name, even when her tone is gnarled, fills my veins with heat.

“You know what?” I march back over to where she’s on the couch.

She sets her food down and stands, readying to go toe-to-toe with me. It’s what drives me wild about her: her tenacity.

“I’m not sorry. You were being a little fucking brat, and you deserved that spanking.”

Her mouth drops open, her cheeks filling with the perfect shade of red: crimson.

“I was not!” She stomps her foot, and I grin at how childish she looks.

She realizes it, too, because her face grows even more angry.

“Listen here, you pig-headed beast of a man, we can’t be any more than we were on that fucking plane.”

“And in the bathroom in Florida. Both times were bathrooms. Got a thing for bathrooms, Ms. Roebach?” I eye her ruefully.

Her cheeks’ color deepens. “Maybe I like to fuck you near toilets, for when I eventually throw up afterward.”

I laugh, and it sounds just as mocking as I’d meant. “Now,” I step into her, “you know that’s a lie. I watched the concern filling your pretty eyes when you came for me, minaccia.”

Another step. “You were worried that you wouldn’t be able to quit me.”

I don’t know why I’m toying with her. There’s just this underlying current between us that’s addictive as hell. Even while I’m accusing her of not being able to quit me, I can’t quither.

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