Page 102 of Mob Knight

“Little one, you’re going to get fed up with me hovering. But I may never leave your side. I never want to be that terrified again. I doubt Seamus ever wants to be in a car with me when I’m that terrified. I’m pretty sure he was reciting the rosary—in Latin.”

“Is Sean okay? His head was bleeding really badly.”

“Yeah. He has a row of stitches. Fortunately, we’re all so fair his singed eyebrows don’t look odd.”

“Will you hold me?”

He looks skeptical for a moment, judging whether he can get on the bed without jostling me.

“Cor, I really need you right now. It’s coming back to me, and I’m about to lose it.”

It hit me like a tsunami when I asked about Sean. How he stepped in front of me because he would have done a sweep of my apartment before letting me in all the way. I was rushing because I needed to get back to work before I could meet Olivia for lunch. I wasn’t thinking about the protocols I’ve known since I was a child. It was inevitable he went ahead of me, but it should have been me who was closer to the blast.

Cormac hurries to shed his clothes but leaves his boxer briefs on. We’ve had a couple heated—dialogues—about those wretched things. He insists he has to wear them to keep the entire world from knowing he gets hard the moment he thinks about me, which is, apparently, about every thirty seconds. I told him if I have to go without panties because he wants free access to my pussy whenever he wants, then I should get the same for his dick. He only wins when he points out it would draw anyone’s attention who’s into dicks.

He eases onto the bed as he pulls the covers over him. He lies on his side, resting his head on the fist of his bent arm. He reaches for me, and his thumb brushes my cheek. He sprinkleskisses over my cheeks, my nose, and my forehead before leaning farther to kiss along my neck. He lays his head beside mine, and his arm drapes over my stomach. He’s careful not to drop the full weight on me. I press down with both hands until he relents. I sigh.

“I should have had better security at your place. Finn’s combing through the footage to find the breach. I want to know who did this.”

“How did Sean and I come away with so few injuries? It was so loud, and the fireball felt scorching.”

“We won’t know until Tiernan investigates. But while Meredith had you out to stitch up your leg and head?—”

“My head?”

No wonder it hurts like a motherfucker.

“Yes. You had a cut near your crown, likely from the edge of the door across the hall when you hit it as you fell backward. Tiernan thinks the trigger was on the door handle or hinge, but the actual explosives were somewhere across the apartment or in the bedroom. The blast was big enough to cause a serious fire and hurt you, but it didn’t explode your entire place. She thinks whoever designed it made it big enough that you’d get hurt but not killed opening the door, and it wouldn’t endanger the entire building. Apparently, your sprinkler system and some of our guys with fire extinguishers got it under control before the fire department arrived.”

“Your guys? I thought there were only two staking out my place, plus the one who’s Sean’s guard.”

“There were only ever two you saw. I had more around your block. I didn’t want anyone else to see them, and I didn’t want to worry you. They got there within minutes.”

“Has it always been like that?”

“No. Only since the car incident. I was going to ease off, but then you had issues at work almost immediately after. This confirms I was right to assign the team.”

“Who do you think it was?”

“I have suspicions, but nothing confirmed.”

“Who, Cor?”

“If this is about your dad, then any of the Culiacán’s rivals.”

“The Diazes?”

“They’re certainly on the list.”

“But not at the top.”

“For now, no. If this is about my family and me, then the list gets a lot longer.”

“I was supposed to meet Olivia today.”

“I know.”

“Could meeting me have been a distraction to keep me from my place? Could the bomb have been on a timer, and it was just bad luck Sean and I stopped by?”

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