Page 41 of Lost Kingdom

“Bullshit.” She moves away from the door and stalks across to sit on the table in front of me. Then she looks down at her feet, wrapped in sexy gold heels, and twists her ankle to show off the glinting best friend’s anklet I had soldered onto her body. “This isn’t boss and bum, Aubree. This is friend to friend. But it’s also Archer Malone’s wife, enquiring about Timothy Malone’s behavior. Is there something you want to talk about? Something youneedto talk about?”

“Apart from the fact my stomach hurts every single time he’s within ten feet of me?”

Her eyes narrow, and heat pulses from her every pore. She’s a fierce mama bear checking on her annoying little cub. “Are you afraid of him?”

I turn again and reach up to fix my earrings. “And if I said I was? If I said I didn’t want him near me anymore? No more dinners at the bar. No more fraternizing with him, because he terrifies me. What would you do about it, Chief? He’s your brother-in-law.”

“So?” She sets her hands on the crisp, white vanity top and leans into my space, her nose just inches from mine. “I can like him, and I can have him in my life, and I canalsoshield you and enforce that space. I’m a multi-faceted woman, and believe it or not, but if I told him you wanted out, and you really meant it, I think he’d respect your wishes. So…?”

“So what?”

She makes a face of impatience. Wrinkled lips and flat eyes. “So, if you need me to run interference, then I will. But before I do, I need the details. You know I do nothing without the facts, Doctor Emeri, so if you feel unsafe, explain it to me. If he simply annoys you, then get in line. It’s a Malone family trait. But go back to my first question: are you sleeping with him?”

“Ya know…” I fold my ankles beneath my chair and practice my very best posture, arching my spine and elongating my neck. “It’s funny you think I need to explain my sex life to explain the rest. I could be, and that wouldn’t have any bearing on wanting him out of my life, would it?”

“Well, no. Having sex in the past isn’t a free pass for him to hound you in the future.”

“Which leads me to believe you’re just a big fat nosey noser who wants to know my business.” I rest my hands in my lap and watch the woman silently implode. “No. We haven’t had sex. In fact, I am currently a twenty-seven-year-old forensic scientist who is in love with an exceptionally experienced, powerful man.Also,I’m a virgin.”

“Ladies, you’ve gotta—” In the same second those words leave mymouth, Cato busts through the door without knocking and skids to a stop, trembling like electricity vibrates up through the soles of his shoes and out the top to sizzle his hair. “Virgin? D-did you say virgin?”

Minka shoves off the vanity and stalks to the door before I can blink. She grabs the boy’s suit sleeve, yanking him into the room with one hand while slamming the door with the other. Then she shoves his back to the wall, his six-foot something frame hitting the plaster with an aching thud. And still, he lights up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Beaming with pleasure and quivering with an animalistic frenzy.

“She said virgin!”

“She said little boys who know things they shouldn’t risk losing their nuts. One at a time, with a sharp scalpel.” She grabs Cato’s chin, digging her nails in unapologetically, and forcing his eyes away from the meal he so desperately wants to consume.

Me. I’m the meal, and he’s the kid who was never taught to go slow.

“What’s that word mafia goons use for silence amongst the ranks?”

“What?”

Except, because of how her fingers dig into his skin, the word comes out a bit like ‘whur’.

“Don’t play stupid, stupid. You’re New York. I know you know what I’m talking about. It’s where you choose silence. It means not talking to anyone, not even to say, ‘Hey, cop. I’m innocent. I didn’t do it.’ Because by saying so, you’re essentially snitching on someone else. And snitching, in the mafia, is how you end up with heavy shoes. What’s the word?”

“Omertà,” he garbles. “It means you shut your fuckin’ mouth, or else.”

She smirks, dark and dangerous, and really quite terrifying to anyone who doesn’t reallyknowher. “Omertà. That’s what’s happening here. You say that V word outside this room, and I’ll tear your tongue out through your stomach.”

He chokes out a carefree giggle. “Yeah, right. I?—”

“I’m not playing.” She grabs his jaw, her thumb beneath his chin and four fingersinsidehis mouth so she can control every movement. He can’t bite unless she lets him, and he can’t close his mouth unless she gives him the go ahead. With just a little tug down, she can cut off his air, and the only way he could stop her would be to fight her.

A different guy might. A bad guy. But not him.

“That word is her business. And it’s especially important, because that word is possibly going to become Tim’s business. But what it isnot,isyourbusiness. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

“You make it not fun.” He practically dribbles around her fingers, slurping to keep the mess in his mouth and not on his suit. “We’re all virgins at one point. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Except his words are hampered by her hand. So ‘we-aw-a-vgen-a’-sm-pnt. Nuffin-poo-be-shamd-ob.’

“No one is ashamed,” she translates easily. “Except you, perhaps. I’m going to have to wash my hands thoroughly once we’re done here. Not a single word, Cato. Do you understand me?”

“Knock-knock?” I stand and gulp when the door opens again and Tim steps in. So friggin’ handsome in his suit and tie. His hair combed neatly and his beard styled to perfection.

He smiles at first, his eyes lifting and falling in long sweeps to study my gown, only for his expression to falter when he sees mydeer in the headlightslook. Then he peers to his right and finds his baby brother physically restrained by his sister-in-law.

Me: shock.

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