Page 5 of Hidden By His Side

“Summer,” he pushed. He’d hoped she was past this, past the bullshit she’d been trained to believe—that it was wrong to complain about anything, selfish even.

Her eyes shifted back to his, still the brightest blue he’d ever seen. “Not yet,” she murmured.

His hand curled around the edge of his desk.

The office phone rang, and Summer brightened at the interruption. “I’ll get that!” she called back, already halfway out the door.

Ramiro wanted to tell her to ignore the damn phone and get back there, but he knew she prided herself on being the best secretary she could be. She’d been nervous when he’d offered her the job. Before that, she’d only worked in retail and restaurants, the kinds of jobs that someone who’d dropped out of high school and gotten her GED could get.

When he’d first taken her in, setting her up in a separate apartment had been the best option. Too many men that he wouldn’t want knowing about her could have dropped by his place at any time.

He’d been trying to keep her away from his life, but she became more and more insecure from his help when she couldn’t make ends meet on her own. Since becoming his secretary, she’d started to grow in confidence again.

His inner-office line beeped, and he picked it up.

“I’m transferring Diego over to you,” Summer said, her voice light and breezy.

Ramiro wondered if her face would match, or if, because she was out of sight, she let herself look sad. “I guess I’ll talk to him,” he said, rewarded by her huffed breath of a laugh.

Summer finished the transfer, and Diego’s murmur filled Ramiro’s ear.

“After this, do you wantto—”

“Please tell me you’re not flirting with your new wife while calling me,” Ramiro interrupted.

Diego chuckled. “I like that. Wife. Still getting used to it.”

“The church wedding was only a couple of days ago.” They’d donated a ton of money to smooth things over with the pastor after Diego threatened him into it. Well, Ramiro had made Diego donate the money; it was his damn wedding after all. “Why are you calling me? Shouldn’t you still be in the honeymoon stage of things?”

“Hannah didn’t want to go on one. She’s still getting morning sickness.”

“Regretting knocking her up?” Ramiro shuddered at the thought. Kids terrified him, and there was something creepy about pregnancy. A woman’s body should be worshipped, not fed off of, especially from the inside.

“Of course not,” Diego said. “You should come over again soon. I’ll let Emma torture you some more.”

“Very funny,” Ramiro growled, only it wasn’t. The toddler Diego had adopted was a menace and handsy as hell. “Stop threatening me and tell me what you need.”

“It’s about that new client I set up surveillance for. I caught something and wanted one of your guys to gather more intel for me. That way I don’t have to leave my new, pregnant wife.”

Ramiro snorted. “Send me the details.”

From outside his office, the bell of the outer door clanged. Ramiro frowned. He wasn’t expecting anyone that day. It wasn’t like their office was an actual business with visitors. Hismen sometimes showed up, but only when he nagged them into it.

Summer’s hesitant tone drifted to him from the lobby. “C-can I help you?”

“Ram?” Diego’s voice sounded like static in his ear as Ramiro stood. “I asked if you’d seen any movement from the cartel.”

Summer’s choked off scream had the phone clattering to the desk as Ramiro rushed out of his office.

A man had Summer trapped against his chest. Her terrified expression was all he could focus on. That and the knife pressed against her delicate white throat, right where she’d rubbed it to soothe herself before.

“Freeze, or I’ll kill this juicy piece,” the man taunted. The fluorescent lighting glowed on his bald head, and he had a tattoo under his left eye.

The lighting also glowed off the knife. The man held a knife on Summer.

It was going to be the last thing he fucking did.

Chapter 2

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