Page 106 of Kings & Corruption

Rock started cleaning up and I suddenly realized how quiet it was. Not everyone-is-in-the-other-rooms-dong-their-own-thing quiet, but silent-as-a-tomb quiet.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“Gone.”

Neo’s voice came from behind, and I jumped a little on the stool.

He walked into the room wearing basketball shorts and a tank top, the hair on his angel tattoo snaking out and up his neck. He’d obviously just finished a workout, and I tried not to stare at his cut biceps and the way his sweat made the tank top cling to his sculpted chest, but it was always hard to tell whether I was actually successful.

I realized all over again that he’d protected me last night, just like Oscar and Rock, and I felt the lines blur even further in my mission to figure out what had happened to Emma.

“Gone where?” I asked, trying to stay focused on something besides the way his muscles flexed when he moved, the way it had felt to have his body smashed up against mine on the road, his tongue invading my mouth while his hands roamed my body.

I squirmed on the stool. Thinking about the moment we’d shared in the middle of the road was not going to help.

“Gone from this house,” Neo said, moving around the kitchen as he started to make his post-workout smoothie. “For good.”

“For good?” Now I was confused.

“Like it or not, you’re a disruption, Jezebel. Can’t have a repeat of last night.”

My confusion hardened into anger. “So last night was my fault?”

“That’s not what he means,” Rock said, scowling at Neo. “What he means is that we just want to protect you.”

“Nope, I meant what I said. You’re a disruption.”

He hit a button on the blender and the kitchen was filled with the grating cacophony of the motor mixing berries and protein powder and whatever else the big asshole put in his smoothie every morning.

He looked at me with a satisfied smirk as I stared at him, Rock and Oscar also silent as we waited for the blender to stop.

“You didn’t have to make the other guys leave,” I said when he finally turned it off.

I was starting to suspect Neo just liked getting under my skin as much as I liked getting under his. I didn’t need him to tell me that what had happened with Enzo hadn’t been my fault. I’d been around enough entitled douchebags to know that. Some men just thought they had a right to take what they wanted, and nothing made them more desperate to prove it than a woman who dared to tell them no.

“It’s just a precaution,” Oscar said. “With everything that’s going on, it’s smartest to close ranks, limit the amount of contact you have with other people.”

“The letter was mailed,” I pointed out.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Neo said. He wasn’t wrong. The envelope had been postmarked from the main post office in Blackwell Falls, which meant anyone could have sent it. “And this isn’t up for debate.”

I thought about arguing the point. Neo wasn’t my boss, and it felt important to keep reminding him of that fact. But honestly? I was exhausted.

“Whatever.” I slid off the stool and took my plate to the sink, then kissed Rock’s cheek. “Thanks for breakfast.”

He blinked like he was surprised. “Anytime.”

“We leave in forty-five minutes,” Neo said as I headed for the stairs.

I flipped him off without turning around. I wasn’t in kindergarten. I knew when my classes started.

“And don’t forget,” he continued, “tomorrow you and Rock are getting those keys.”

I didn’t need the reminder. I’d been full of big talk when it had been about proving Neo wasn’t the boss of me. Now that the moment had passed and I actually had to go through with breaking and entering into Daniel Longhat’s house — while he was asleep — I was feeling a lot less brave.

Fuck me. And fuck Neo Alinari.

Chapter46

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