Page 136 of Dangerous Contract: Part 1

She was starting to feel alive again, happy again. As she opened the drawer where she kept her journal, a sudden noise from the living room jolted her out of her thoughts.

“Damn, they’re impatient. I haven’t even been in here that long,” she muttered to herself, assuming her friends had followed her inside to rush her out. Monique walked back into the living room, still clutching her journal. “What, you guys needed to use the bathroom or something?”

But when she turned the corner, the laughter died in her throat as she saw an intruder standing in her home. Fear squeezed her heart, and her breath caught as she stared at the stranger. The man, clad in all black, turned to face her. A smirk streaked across his face. No, this wasn’t a stranger.

Monique knew this man well.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

ORAZIO

––––––––

A sense of dread washed over him as soon as he ended the call with Monique. Standing in his father’s library, he stared out the window. The rain had stopped a while ago. He wished it had rained on the casino’s side of town.

If so, maybe Monique would’ve stayed inside instead of going out for food and drinks. There were restaurants in his casino. They had boutiques, bars, a spa, and a theater. Everything she needed was there.

Yet, she’d gone out for food. Raz sighed. Why was he blaming her? It wasn’t like he’d told her to stay at the casino. In fact, he’d left his car with her so she could leave the casino.He’d wanted her to go out and have fun.

He couldn’t blame her. He blamed his current situation for the way he was feeling. This shit with Trevor and the Tatums had him feeling...unsettled. If only he’d fucked Trevor up right after the bastard divorced Monique, they wouldn’t be going through this now.

If the casino hadn’t encountered some trouble during that time and needed Orazio’s full attention, Trevor would already be dead. While Orazio had been handling business, Trevor had gone underground, damn near disappearing completely.

Raz had known he’d had someone helping him, but he hadn’t expected the Tatums to be on the list of Trevor’s backers. But that wasn’t what worried him the most. After the first night he’d seen Monique and decided he had to have her, he’d had cameras put up in Monique’s neighborhood, and a team had been tasked with keeping an eye on those cameras for him.

He hadn’t trusted Trevor to stay away from her. On the cameras, his team had once caught someone snooping around her window late at night. A guard had gone to check it out. The guy got away.

Since then, there had been two other encounters of someone pulling up to her house in the middle of the night and just sitting in the car. When he’d had the tag for that car traced, it came up stolen. The incident reeked of Trevor.

Because of those incidents, Orazio had new cameras put up. Cameras equipped with facial recognition. If Trevor went to her house now, those cameras would snap his photo and run it through the database.

Once verification was made, Raz and his team would be alerted right away. They’d put those same cameras up around the casino the night after Monique had stepped to Orazio because of a dare from her friends. Raz smiled at the memory.

Maybe he was worrying for nothing. Even without a guard, he’d put precautions in place to keep her safe. His mind knew that. Yet, his heart couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Raz found himself sighing again. Why hadn’t she taken a guard? Why hadn’t he ordered a guard to go with her? Perhaps he hadn’t told her to take a guard because he hadn’t wanted to frighten her. But he’d rather have her afraid and safe than unafraid and in danger.

Fuck!Raz massaged his forehead in an attempt to ease the dull ache building behind his eyes. But there was no stopping theheadache from forming. He wouldn’t be able to work if he didn’t take care of this right now. Raz dialed Leo’s number. The guard answered on the third ring.

“Hey, boss,” Leo answered.

“Why didn’t you go with Monique and her friends on their outing?”

“Because Toya told me if I came near them, she’d stab me twenty-three times.”

Raz inhaled deeply and released the breath slowly. Why did women have to be so damn violent?

“And you let that stop you?” Raz asked.

“Yes. Plus, your father already told me to come by the estate in time for your meeting with the Tatums.”

“Change of plans. I need you to go to the restaurant Monique is at. Follow them back to the casino without them knowing, and keep an eye on them for me.”

“You want me to spy on your girlfriend?”

“I want you to protect her in my absence. You have time to do that and then come here for the meeting. Cas and I still have to go to Club Belview to grab Jacob.”

“You sure he’s at the club? It’s still kind of early.”

---