Page 27 of Hidden Rocco
Good. The elevator arrived and she needed to wipe out the panic part of her brain and trust her judgment again. She’d once been smart.
Rocco’s brothers had been hired assassins. He’d said his brothers were bad guys who set him up. Now she understood. She stepped inside and told her secretary, “Talk to you later.”
Mica ended the call, pressed L for the first floor, and pocketed her phone.
She’d made the right decision. She even hummed as she stepped out and headed back to the library.
Rocco still had her son and must be near the end of a chapter.
His calm voice reverberated through her when she stepped into the room. He put the book down and she saw her sleeping son on his chest. “Everything okay, Mica?”
A huge smile grew on her face and she practically jumped in the seat beside him as she said, “You called me by my name!”
His cheeks went red. “It’s not a big deal.”
She pointed to the playpen that was already set up to put Jacob in.
Once Rocco set her baby down, she took his hand and a spark raced through her. “Walk with me.”
His brow furrowed but he followed and asked, “Where are we going?”
She motioned with her head. “I want you to show me the bird’s nest you moved.”
He sped up and stayed beside her. “Of course.”
With his hand on hers, she was sure she was right. In business she was considered sharp and for once she hoped she was in her personal life.
Outside, the air was neither hot nor cold. The snow would melt away soon. “How did you even see those birds?”
“I listened.” He faced the tree and closed his eyes.
She did the same and heard the beat of her own heart. At first that’s all she heard, along with her thoughts, and then she heard a chirp.
Then the chirp became so clear. She opened her eyes and stared at his profile. Rocco’s clean-shaven face, solemn eyes that seemed to burn into her soul were right underneath those eyelids.
She was right. She had to be, so she batted her eyes and wished she was the begging type. “Rocco…”
“Yes?” He glanced down at her.
Confrontation cleared the air. She lifted her chin and met his brown hues. “Last year Roger and Harry Hellsworth tried to kill me.”
He rocked back and his face went white. “How many people try to kill you?”
Rocco's body went tight and hard--she'd shaken him.
Until now he’d always been gentle, even the night he'd broken in to avoid the storm. She hugged her waist, unsure how to explain so she said, “Well, Roger actually killed Ali, so I don’t hate him. Though it was Ali who first employed Roger.”
He ran his hands through his short hair and squeezed the back of his head. “I had no idea.”
Roger and Harry and Rocco didn’t have any facial features in common. Roger had been scarred and scary, Harry huge and brawny, as they’d stormed around her brother’s castle to murder them. There was no way the man in front of her was like… she’d been stupid once but smart most of the time. So she reached out and placed her hand on his chest. “When I saw you with Jacob earlier… are you related to Roger?”
The look in his brown eyes gave her the sense he was on the point of breaking--she'd never met a man more controlled. “Yeah, Roger and Harry were my older brothers, but I’m not them.”
She patted his shoulder. “I believe you.”
His eyes narrowed but didn’t close. He studied her face. She didn’t flinch from his perusal. Finally he asked in a raw voice, “Why? Most people who see Roger and Harry assume I’m the same.”
A small laugh escaped her lips and she went up on her tiptoes to be taller, though she still only reached his chin. “After almost being killed a few times, I feel like I have a handle on seeing evil and you’re not it.”
