Page 26 of Forbidden Want

When she raised a leg, intending to climb off him, he caught her knee to push it back down. “I didn’t give you permission to leave.”

“My phone is downstairs,” she said. “I need it.”

“Why?”

“I want to put your number in it, and because my brother’s going to call. My brother’s a cop, remember? If I don’t pick up, he’ll have his guys ping my phone and come find me. He already thinks I’m sleeping with Evander. Can you imagine how he’d feel when this address came up?”

“Go get my phone.”

Uh, okay… Being naked, tiptoeing across the living room to get his phone from the bar was a little nerve-wracking. If she was out there anyway, she could just hurry down the stairs to grab hers, but she was already on thin ice and didn’t want to push him by taking initiative.

She took his device back to the bedroom, putting it in his hand as she climbed over him to her side of the bed.

“Why do you need it?” she asked, but he was already on a call.

“Bluebell’s phone is in the office,” he said into his. “Put the secondary number in and chip it. And get someone to tip—yeah.”

He hung up and tossed the phone to his nightstand before putting his hands behind his head again.

“My phone needs to be chipped?” she asked, on her side, admiring his profile. “What does that mean?”

“Makes it untraceable,” he said. “By outside agencies.”

“Outside?”

“I’ll still be able to find you.”

“That’s fine. I’m used to abandoning my phone when I want to go off radar anyway. My dad started tracking me long before Evander did.”

His jaw twitched. “Don’t say his name.”

“Were you at the hotel? Did he know you were there?”

“No,” he said. “He’ll know your brother was though.”

“So he’ll be pissed at me,” she said, curling her arm beneath the pillow. That was going to happen either way. “Saved him learning about us. I don’t blame you if you want to wash your hands of me.”

“He’ll have bigger things to worry about when they cut him loose.”

“He will? Like what?”

“That shipment was his,” he said. “Not part of his father’s agenda.”

“Oh,” she said, wriggling closer. “That’s a bonehead move. His father is the head of the family. Silvio is not a guy anyone should mess with.”

“Have you met him?”

“Silvio? No, not in the flesh,” she said, smiling when his hand left his head to seek hers. He didn’t look at her, just took her hand to flatten it on his chest, his heavy on top. “We write sometimes.”

“Write?” he asked, adjusting his head to meet her eye. “You write to Silvio Manzani?”

“He wasn’t a fan of my article.”

“He threatened you?”

“He’s too smart for that,” she said, opening her fingers so his could sink between them. “I wrote to Helios too; we’ve had a back and forth for a while.” Few people knew about her connection to Vex’s incarcerated older brother, Helios “Hell” Manzani. And, yes, if the stories were true, he lived up to the title. “Didn’t Silvio Manzani and your dad used to be close?”

“The families were allies back in those days,” he said, his focus returning to the ceiling. “United against others. Silvio was closer to my uncle.”

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