Page 44 of Hidden Rocco
Without thinking, he kissed her cheek and headed out.
The danger was likely just his imagination. Nothing seemed to stir. But his window was on the second floor and too high in the air for someone to climb.
The other rooms were locked on his way.
Nothing moved while he walked down the hall. However, his hair stood on end and his gut was tight like he expected a prison fight to break out any second.
But nothing happened. He entered his hotel room and everything was in order. His boxes of Armani, Saks, Versace, and Calvin Klein were all stacked near the door.
His cut flowers he’d put in vases he’d found in the kitchen area were on his nightstand and hotel toiletries were all lined up exactly where he’d left them.
Rocco shut the window, locked it tight, and returned across the hotel as fast as he could without making any sound.
At her door, he lightly knocked three times and then one slow as requested, watched all around him, but again nothing happened until she opened it and he slipped back in. Once she locked the door he said, “I closed the window--nothing was disturbed.”
She crossed her arms like this was a meeting. Her posture struck him as decisive with her one leg out as she stood. “Soon I’ll have the whole place automated and I’ll control all the doors and windows electronically, but the system hasn’t been installed in every room yet. I made my room to be like Fort Knox, you understand why that was my first priority.”
“Yes.”
She motioned for him to follow her into the office.
He glanced behind him toward the crib.
Best to keep the door open in case they needed to get the baby and run. Though he'd seen nothing, he remained uneasy. “Why the automated system?”
She took a seat at the desk and let the surveillance footage continue to circle on her TV screen on the wall. “A couple of reasons but mostly for me to control my energy and security costs.”
Her business attitude was better for her to take on than wine and romance. He stepped back. “I understand. I should go.”
She jumped out of her chair and came toward him. “You could stay. I’d like that.”
Mica reached for him and his heart beat changed and his pulse quickened. Her hands around his hips made him jumpy with needs he hadn't fulfilled in years. “We need to talk about your choice in men.”
She stared at his lips as she asked, “My choice in you?”
Him? This wasn’t right. She deserved someone… clean, so he untangled himself. “I’m not good.”
She hugged her waist--making the most powerful woman he’d ever met appear timid. “Who is? I’m not.”
The glistening of her eyes hit him hard, worse than being beaten in a prison riot over rotten potatoes. He glanced at the wall as he said, “Look, I have a record.”
Her cheeks blushed and she lowered her eyes. “About that…”
He swore he saw a shadow move from the corner of his eye on the security camera. “Go back.” He pointed to the camera. “Check the cameras again.”
A footstep echoed outside and Mica tossed the remote at him and ran toward her baby’s crib. She came back holding Jacob who was sleeping in her arms as Rocco studied what he saw.
On freeze frame.
The shadow seemed one man, probably his brother Harry’s size when he’d been alive, big and brawny.
Either way, someone was lurking around the chalet that shouldn’t be.
Perhaps a burglar. Perhaps someone hired by her ex’s family. “I’m nervous now,” Mica said. “That sounded like a bang.”
Rocco needed to act and going back to jail was better than having anything happen to Mica—he knew she would take care of his mother. “Yeah. Call the police, or your private security. As a backup, if we can’t wait it out here, where are your keys? How far is the helicopter?”
She went to her desk and opened the top drawer to show him her keys. “We’d have to run.”
