Page 23 of Heart of a Devil

“Oh! Sorry.” He shakes his head. “She said to tell you Gloria was looking for you.”

The name hits me like a fist to the gut, and I straighten my chair to buy time. I don’t want the lads here to see me swooning like a lovesick arsehole. “Right. Okay. Let’s pick this up later. And… Well, I’m sorry for being a prick, all right?”

“It’s okay, guv,” Alex pipes up as they leave the room. “We’re used to it.”

Cheeky bastard.

He does a double take as he encounters Lauren in the doorway, and fuck me, I can’t blame the man. She’s wearing a skin-tight black pencil skirt with a little slit on the side and a red silk blouse that clings to her breasts. She looks completely edible, and my jeans suddenly don’t feel big enough.

“Lauren,” Gabriel says, nodding politely. “Nice to see you again.” He makes no comment about the Gloria thing, which is lucky—I’d never forgive him if he made me discuss her pussy with him. He makes a move to leave the office, but she holds up her hand. “Actually, this might be something you both need to hear.”

Now I’m intrigued as well as horny, and I shrug as he stays behind. This has got to be business, and I need to stop imagining what it’d be like to bend her over my desk and fill her with my now-throbbing cock.

She takes a seat and crosses one elegant leg over the other in a way that doesn’t help the throbbing. “I might need a little light security,” she says. “I thought I’d come to you guys first.”

“Why? What the fuck is wrong? What’s going on?” It comes out as more of a snarl than I intended, and Gabriel looks surprised. I’m furious at the thought of her being in any kind of danger, and I’m unable to hide it. She looks at me with those dazzling amber eyes, and her knowing smile leaves me breathless.

“There’s probably nothing wrong, and this is just a precaution. Seb, have you told Gabriel about my family?”

I shake my head. Of course not. That was private.

She flashes me a smile that makes me feel like I passed a test. “Okay, Gabriel, my father is Phillipe Montoya. My cousin is Alejandro Montoya,” she says, watching him for his reaction.

I know him better than she does, so I see the slight widening of his eyes, the way he stays completely unresponsive for a few moments. That’s his I’m-cool-as-a-cucumber fake out. “I see,” he replies calmly. “That’s interesting. What do you, or the Montoyas, need from Archangel?”

My blood rises to the temperature of hellfire as she explains what happened, detailing the cybersecurity breach in a matter-of-fact way that somehow makes it all worse. She sounds so steady, so unaffected, that I wonder if she realizes how much danger she could be in.

Or maybe, I remind myself before I blunder in there as Mr. Shouty, she’s been a Montoya her whole damn life and none of this is new to her. Fuck. My childhood was no tea party, but hers wasn’t either. I manage to keep my mouth shut until she’s finished and don’t bother asking why she’s reaching out to us and not her own family. I already know how independent she is, and she’d hate running back to them.

I look at Gabriel, and he nods solemnly. Unfortunately, we’ve both got bitter experience of the women in our lives being threatened, and neither of us will allow it to happen again. “You can count on us,” he says. “Are you open to us coming up with a protection plan?”

“Of course she fucking is, why else would she be here? And this is the plan—we don’t take our eyes off her. Ideally, we move her out to a safe house, maybe that place in Chelsea? Once she’s there, we’ll set up guards twenty-four seven, both outside and inside. She has a driver, someone to take her to and from work, and probably someone based at the law firm as well. I’ll do most of it myself, and we’ll bring in Scott or one of the others for the rest. Plus, we need to install cameras, panic buttons, the full works. I’ll need access to her diary so we can decide which appointments she can keep and which need to be canceled. No new clients at all. Until this guy is found, there won’t be a minute that she’s not watched and protected.”

“Have you quite finished?” Lauren asks, glaring up at me with fire in her eyes. “Or did you forget I was here?”

Ha. Fat chance of that. I see the woman in my sleep.

“First of all, I will not be moving out of my apartment under any circumstances barring cockroach infestation or an army of flesh-eating rats. I will accept the panic buttons and cameras, apart from in my bathroom and bedroom. I will accept extra security at the office, because I certainly don’t want anyone else caught up in this. As for taking on new clients, we’ve already decided to put a pause on those while Sam is on leave. I will ask for a driver when I feel like I’m entering a high-risk situation—and before you interrupt, I will be the judge of what is high risk and what isn’t. But I will not—and I cannot stress this enough, Seb—I will not be kept prisoner. Nobody will be in my apartment with me unless I invite them in. Nobody will be telling me whereI can go and what I can do. Nobody will be running my life except for me. Understood?”

I’ve practically got steam coming out of my ears by this stage, and I’m not sure if I want to fuck her or shake some sense into her. Both. Definitely both.

Gabriel stands and cracks his shoulders. “Remind you of anyone?”

He means Sam, of course, who is just as infuriatingly stubborn. “It does. And I remember how that turned out too.” With her being grabbed while she was pregnant with Max and almost breaking all our hearts.

He gives me a serious look. “That won’t be happening again, Seb. We’ll make sure Lauren is safe and that there’s no threat to anyone else. I was thinking of beefing up security at the law firm anyway, after Sam told me about this Volkov case. Our own house is already like Fort bloody Knox, but we could definitely tighten things up at the firm. I’m going to leave you two to sort out your differences, because something tells me I really don’t want to get caught in the middle of this shitstorm. See you later, Seb. Nice to meet you, Gloria.”

She laughs at that one, and I hate how the sound of it melts the worst of my anger. I feel so damn unstable around this woman, and I have no clue what to do about it.

She looks at me from across the desk, a little less cocky now we’re alone together. “I know you’re pissed at me, Seb, and that you’d like to lock me up and keep me safe, but I can’t live like that. I meant what I said the other night—I won’t live my life based on fear anymore. I’ve already had the lecture from my cousin, and I won’t be reckless, but I refuse to let this control my life. If this is too hard for you, say the word, and I’ll look into a different security firm.”

She sounds sincere, but the thought of her reaching out to anyone else for help breaks me in two. I shake my head andforce myself to take deep breaths. “No. We can do it your way if that’s what you want. I’ll need more information, though, all the details you can find for me, plus a contact in your family’s organization to liaise with. And before you object, I won’t be sneaking around behind your back. It’s just so we can stay up to date on developments with this Mafia-baby hacker bullshit. Plus, if I talk to someone who actually knows you, maybe they can give me tips on how not to strangle you before all this is over.”

She nods her agreement, but her eyes tell me she’s elsewhere. “You strangled me a little on Friday night.”

Boom, my cock goes hard. I’m surprised it doesn’t hit the desk. “Fuck, Lauren. Why would you say that, just when I was trying to be professional? Now all I can think about is fucking you.”

“Maybe that’s what I had in mind. Except I think I’d like to fuckyouthis time, Seb. What do you say, big man? You up for it?”

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