Page 34 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
But that physical part was calling him too. He would love to hold her, and for her to hold him.
And just as he touched her back, and leaned her back, and they stared into each other’s eyes, and just as he pulled her into his arms and held her there, the pain of Niko’s absence haunted them both. And they remained where they were, frozen in place, as if by their force of will alone they could turn it all around. And turn back the hand of time while they were at it.
But before they could even entertain any of that, the doors to his parlor flew open and Scottie, Olivier, Freddy, and Kalayna came hurrying through.
Marcellus removed his arm from around Savannah, who had welcomed every second of his brief touch, and they both sat up from their relaxed, slouched positions.
The reality of Niko’s disappearance, and the fact that they were once again practically strangers to each other with feelings they couldn’t even verbalize, reclaimed the room and refocused their attention away from each other, and back to the present. Their feelings were still there, and they both still wanted to comfort each other, but they were savvy enough to know how to box up those feelings and put them aside.
“We just got some intel,” said his hard-charging son Scottie as he charged his way toward his father. But his eyes were staring at the strange woman that had been in his father’s arms, and how she was much older than the bimbos he usually fooled around with.
Like an upgrade.
But still a whore.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Get lost,” Scottie said to Savannah as soon as he made it up to the sofa.
Marcellus immediately frowned. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”
Scottie didn’t skip a beat. “One of your bimbos.”
Marcellus’s teeth clenched. “Apologize to Miss Richardson. She’s nobody’s bimbo!”
Olivier and Kalayna looked at each other.Theirfather was taking up for Niko’s ex-secretary? A woman he didn’t even know before her arrival at his home? Was he for real? He never took up for any of those other ladies they saw him with, and most of those young ladies he actually knew. But he was offended that Scottie thought she was one of his usuals? Really?
“I apologize,” Scottie said. “But who are you?”
“She’s Niko’s secretary,” Kalayna spoke up for an embarrassed Savannah.
“His secretary? The one he fired?”
“You are so diplomatic, Scottie,” Kalayna said to her brother. “Just United Nations quality.”
Scottie was flustered by his father and now his sister’s insolence toward him. “What are jumping all over me for? I don’t know her.”
“You were supposed to run a background check on her,” said Freddy.
“You think I got time to do it myself? I had it done. She checked out.”
“That’s good to know,” said a surprised Savannah.
“You said you had some new intel?” asked Marcellus. “What is it?”
“We have Niko’s abduction on camera.”
When he said those words, the entire room went still. Marcellus and Savannah both were shocked.
“It was caught by outdoor cameras at a local restaurant in the area. We saw the cameras, paid a nice sum of money to the manager to hand over the full video without him seeing what we had, and here it is.”
Scottie sat his iPad on the coffee table between the chair and the sofa and everybody gathered around Marcellus.
“Do you mind?” Scottie said to Savannah, who was anxious to see the video too, as if he expected her to move out of the way and let him sit next to his father.
Marcellus gave him a hard look. “Didn’t I tell you to leave her alone? Sit your ass somewhere else, Scottie. She’s off limits!”
As Olivier and Kalayna glanced at each other again, baffled by their fathers surprising respect for Savannah, Scottie, flustered, walked around and sat beside his father on the other side of the sofa. Olivier, Kalayna, and Freddy stood behind the sofa and looked too.
