Page 21 of Blood Ties

“I’m supposed to meet with Justin’s attorney, too,” she murmured as she stared sightlessly at the contents of the mug.

“For what?” Matthew and I both stilled as we watched her closely.

“I don’t know.”

Matthew and I shared a look. Then he casually tapped away at his phone before he set it to the side. “I want you to call him back and reschedule for the end of next week.”

“So what, I’m just going to live my life in hiding from now on?” Exasperation colored her words.

“No, but this is serious, sweetheart. Just give me a week to see what I can come up with. Please?”

Her shoulders slumped.

“Okay, regardless, I need clothes. I can’t keep wearing the same things I arrived in, nor do I want to wear Alessio’s clothing.”

Ouch. That hurt.

It shouldn’t, because she’d already made it glaringly obvious she felt what we did was a mistake. And why was I upset? A beautiful woman had essentially given me amazing sex with no strings. That should make me happy. Ecstatic, even. Yet there was this primitive monster within that wanted to lash out and snarl that she wasmine.

Fuck. Where did that come from?

“I can go by and get clothing and hygiene items for her,” I offered.

Matthew was nodding, but Nivea’s once pale face flushed hot pink. “Absolutely not! I don’t want you pawing through my… clothes. I’ll get what I need. If you can just drop me off at the front door of my building, I’ll pack enough for a week and we can come back.”

“Niv—” her dad began.

“No. Non-negotiable,” she snapped.

“I can buy you some things to get you by,” I told her. After all, I could certainly afford it.

“Thank you, but that’s silly. I have plenty of my own things and it’s wasteful to buy more just so I don’t go home. I live on the top floor, it’s not like someone is going to come in through a window,” she grumbled.

“I’m not worried about someone going in through a window. I’m worried about who could already be there waiting. There’s the little fact that someone is after you and that condo of yours is open almost all the way around it, with a hundred different vantage points.” Her dad glared.

“I agree with your father.” I knew the layout of her block and I hated that the parking garage alone had a ton of places that were perfect for a sniper to post.

“This is ridiculous,” she tried again.

“Niv….” Matthew sighed and his head briefly fell forward. Then he stared at his stubborn daughter before he turned to me. “We go at night. Keep your face averted. No one can know. And Nivea, you arenotgoing. If you can’t agree to this, then you wear whatever Alessio can scrounge up.”

Though I could tell she was ticked off, she nodded.

That night, I had Vittorio and Kendall come across the hall to my place to stay with Nivea. After introductions, Matthew and I left dressed casually in jeans, hoodies, and jackets. Thankfully, since it was winter, no one looked strangely at us for having the hoods up as we stepped into the stairwell that we had to have badge access to enter.

We were avoiding the elevator because, according to Matthew, there were cameras in it.

“I can’t believe she would want to live here with so little security up front,” I muttered.

“Oh, her condo itself has plenty of security. Trust me on that. And she wanted to live in this old building for some unearthly reason,” Matthew replied. “Her mother and I bought out the entire floor and had it converted into one large, loft living space. I’m not gonna lie, I would’ve preferred to get her a place in your building. I’ll give you credit, that place is damn near Fort Knox. I’m impressed.”

“Thanks.” I cocked a brow at him in surprise. With each floor we passed, I noticed each floor had a badge scanner to enter. I was minimally comforted.

We let ourselves into the condo with a code and Matthew disabled the alarm. We left the lights off and worked from the surrounding light that came in through the windows.

“If there is this level of security to get up here, how did someone get into her condo to send emails from her laptop?” I asked as I gazed at the laptop sitting on the kitchen counter. Seeing it had reminded me of that.

Matthew froze in place. Then he slowly spun to face me. “What?”

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