Page 44 of Broken Saint

"We were a little surprised to find out you were engaged to be married. I thought you might have been getting serious in a totally different direction."

Oh my God. Was that his way of saying he knew about Rock and me? I dropped my head onto my hands and groaned. In the back of my mind, I'd known that privacy was limited living in a casino hotel, but I hadn't allowed myself to examine what that meant when it came to what Rock and I had going on. At the very least, I figured no one would care.

"It's not that big of a deal." He said with a pat on my hand. "There may be eyes and ears all over this resort, but that doesn't mean we're not discreet. You have nothing to worry about in that regard. But I thought maybe you'd want to talk about it."

"Does Nina know, too?"

"Normally my wife knows everything I do, but in this case, I won't violate your privacy like that. So, if you need to talk about what's going on, and you don't want anyone else to know, I'm here for you."

I managed to hold in another groan, although barely. I still couldn't hide the fact I was mortified. Although he was right about one thing. It was no one else's business, unless I made it their business, including him.

I lifted my head and turned to face him. My face felt hot, but it wasn't shame I was feeling. "I'm actually not onboard with the marriage my family arranged for me. I'm currently trying to negotiate my way out of it." Whoa. That is not at all what I had intended to say. I pushed my drink away. That was enough of those for one night.

"An arranged marriage is pretty old-fashioned. I didn't think many cultures in the US still used them."

"So I keep hearing. My family is pretty old school. We definitely don't see eye to eye on a lot of things."

"I kind of figured that, since you've never mentioned anything about them. Do they live here in Vegas too?"

Crap. I had opened the door to this conversation and now I didn't know how to close it again without insulting my boss. "Close enough," I said, hoping that would be sufficient.

"Don't worry. I get complicated family. I could tell you about mine, but then you might run screaming."

"I thought you were close to your brothers." I blushed. "Nina might have mentioned them a time or two, and I think I met one of them at a party not too long ago."

"Yeah, Levi. He's in charge of the security systems here. He makes frequent visits to check up on things. Tucker and Mason are a little different. But yeah, I guess you could say we're close, all things considered."

I didn't know what that meant exactly, but I could hear the affection in his voice. Gabe and Nina didn't have any kids of their own yet, but I could see he was already one hell of a family man. Which made him worlds apart from the kind of man that had raised me.

"I—"

"Am I interrupting?"

My entire body went rigid at the sound of Rock's voice behind me. I let the deep bass of it wash over me for a second before I gave up and gave in. Leaping from my stool, I flung myself into his arms. When he wrapped his arms around my waist, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wow. I guess I should have come sooner."

I reluctantly pulled myself free from our embrace. "Yeah, you should have."

A wide grin split his face. "Good thing I'm here now, then." He tipped his head towards Gabe. "Gabe."

"Reed." Gabe returned the greeting, but his voice had changed. It had a chill in it I'd never heard before. He turned to me. "I guess that's my cue to head home. Just remember what I said. if you need to talk, my door is always open."

"Thank you." I gave Gabe a quick hug and then returned to Rock. Gabe left the bar without saying anything else, which left me wondering what his deal with Rock was.

"Do you and Gabe not get along?" I asked.

"We get along well enough.”

"That's a little cryptic."

Rock laughed and squeezed my waist. "It was meant to be. My history with Gabe is kind of a long story, and the nitty gritty details would certainly bore you."

I highly doubted that, but I would let that go for now. I was just really glad he'd shown up. I didn't want to spend what little time we had together trying to analyze him.

"Do you want to join me for a drink?" I asked, pulling at his hand in the direction of my seat.

"I want to join you, but not for a drink." The low growl that came out with those words caused a tingle to work down my arm.

"What did you have in mind?" I couldn't hide the smile playing at my lips. We both knew exactly what he was referring to and I was absolutely not opposed. I couldn't think of a better way to take my mind off the stress and decisions I had to make.

"Let's go for a ride."

---