9

Aurielo

“I’m ready,” Karina says, lugging a massive silver and black suitcase.

“I have to search you,” I say, reminding her of our agreement.

Karina scoffs at my suggestion. “The hell you do.”

She shoves the suitcase at me to carry her eight flights of stairs. While I intended to take her bag, I didn’t plan on the attitude.

“Did you change clothes?” I ask, noticing her in a bright red dress.

I can’t remember what the hell she was wearing, but it wasn’t that sexy little number. She’d had something much more practical on at the hotel.

“You’re observant,” she says.

My eyes twitch, and I spin her around and push her up against the wall.

“Ow,” she mumbles. “Let go of me, you Ogre!”

I spread her legs and keep her pinned between the wall and me.

“That’s not part of the deal,” I say into her ear. “You assured me that if I wasn’t coming into the apartment that I could thoroughly search you, and I intend to do just that,” I say.

While I don’t have to run my fingers along her bare legs, I take the opportunity to frisk every inch of her thoroughly.

“Search me for what? I’m barely wearing anything,” she retorts.

Isn’t that the point of why she changed? Why else did she slip into a dress that’s suggestive and revealing unless she’s trying to hide something from me?

My fingers roam up her thighs, pushing the hem of her skirt higher to ensure that she isn’t hiding a knife or any other form of weapon under her clothes.

“Get off me, you pervert!” She slaps my hand away.

I spin her around, her back still pinned to the wall.

She wasn’t like this in the elevator, pressed against my body, fighting me. She’d willingly kissed me.

What changed?

Was it all an act because there had been others watching and she was afraid?

“In case you’ve forgotten, I’m saving your life,” I remind her.

“Yeah, right,” she snorts. “Kidnapping me and dragging me from my home isn’t saving my life. You’re ruining it, you mafia monster.”

I stare into her blue eyes. There are flecks of emerald that I hadn’t seen earlier.

Something isn’t quite right, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I don’t trust her.

“We’re going inside, and I’m strip-searching you.” I can’t bring her into the compound brandishing a weapon and risking Don Rinaldi’s life.

We’ll both end up dead.

“Get your grimy paws off me!”