Page 114 of Enigma: The Complete Collection
I try to hide my smile, but the smallest one curves my mouth. You couldn’t hear the pure disgust in his voice. He’s mortified just at the idea of watching Isaac and me get naughty.
Hugo tries to do a better job of explaining himself. “Isaac went in brutal, but you didn’t even blink at his aggression.” He smiles a cheeky grin. “Well, you did, but it was more that girly flutter-your-eyelashes-excessively type of blink that makes guys wonder if you have something stuck in your eye.”
“Kind of like the look Peta was hitting you with earlier?”
He gives me a playful wink. “Something like that.” He waits for my eyes to stop rolling before adding, “After I told Isaac to pull his head out of his ass, I said the same thing to him that I said to Cormack. Isaac didn’t handle it as well as Cormack did. Even intoxicated, his right hook is hard as fuck.”
“He hit you?”
Hugo’s shoulder touches his ear. “He wasn’t aiming to kill. He was just pissed. I’d have been more concerned if he didn’t react to my taunt. You should have been, too.”
Honestly, I’m torn on the whole situation. Did Isaac respond because he was jealous, or did he just not appreciate Hugo telling him what to do? I know without a shadow of a doubt that Isaac hates being strong-armed, so perhaps it had more to do with that than jealousy?
With my head not held as high as it was moments ago, I lock my eyes with Hugo. “Do you want to come up? I could use a drink or four, and I’d love some company.”
I’m also enjoying Hugo’s frankness. He's sharing information left, right, and center today, so anything I can do to extend that, I will. Even after investigating Isaac for six months, and dating him for one, I’m still only just scratching the surface of his enigmatic personality.
“Are you ready for the repercussion that may bring?”
I stare at Hugo, confused by his statement.
“First, Isaac saw us together at Destiny Records. Now, he’ll see me walking into your apartment.”
“You think he’ll react?”
“I’m not assuming anything, Izzy; hewillreact. It just may not be in a way either of us are prepared for. He’s naturally dominant, but when it comes to you, he’s beyond saving. I’ll come up if you want me to, but you need to make sure that’s a step you want to take.”
I take a moment to contemplate. I want Isaac to interact with me, but not because he’s coerced to. I want him to talk to me because he wants to, not because he's banging his chest in an alpha male turf war.
I return my gaze to Hugo, who’s watching me intently. “Thanks for the lift.”
He dips his chin, only just hiding his smile. “If you need anything, you have my number.”
“Thanks, Hugo.” I press a kiss to his cheek before curling out of his car. My backside is halfway out when a question I should have asked at the beginning formulates in my head. “Do you know why Isaac was arrested?”
He shakes his head. “I figured if anyone would know, it’d be you.”
“I'm as clueless as the rest of us.”
With a shrug, I exit his car and make my way to my building. Hugo waits until I'm in the lobby before pulling his car away from the curb. His engine is so loud, I can hear it even when he's halfway down the block. While exiting the elevator on my floor, I ruffle through my handbag hunting for my keys. When I lift my gaze, a squeal erupts from my lips. Agent Theresa Veneto startles me from stepping out of the nook in the entryway of my apartment.
I skirt past her and walk to my door. “I'm not talking to you without a lawyer present.”
Fiddling with my keys, I fight them into the lock. My hands are jittering so badly, I can’t get the darn key into the small hole.
“I’m not here on official business.” Theresa’s whole composure is pretentious and mocking. “I'm here to talk to you, woman to woman.”
Ignoring her no-doubt lie, I jam my keys into the lock, sighing when the lock mechanism clicks in the uncomfortable silence of my hallway.
“Isaac Holt isn’t who you think he is.”
My slitted eyes snap to hers. “No, he isn’t whoyouthink he is.” I turn to face her, standing eye to eye. “Isaac’s file leads you to believe he's a terrible man, but when you look past the highly fabricated documents, you'll see he isn’t close to that.”
She grins an evilly mocking smile. “I heard you were stupid, but I didn’t realize you were also naïve. You're swimming way out of your depth, little girl.”
I plaster my best fake smile onto my face, striving to portray that her words didn’t bruise my ego. They did, but I’d rather she didn’t know that. After returning her mocking stare, I walk through my apartment door, closing it behind me.
“Isaac attacked his last girlfriend's brother so horrifically, he spent weeks in the hospital, recovering from the multiple injuries he sustained.”
