Chapter Eight: Mike

When Lola and Sylvester told me I’d be on guard duty for the mayor’s daughter, I’d wanted to argue with them. I’d wanted to tell them that I’d had enough of guard duty when Richie had put me and Viper on Lola, when he’d made one of us be with her twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It was boring, and when it came to Lola, someone who wanted to either be killing or fucking every minute of the day, it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

Oh, yeah. I’d seen things, things I probably should’ve turned away from, but that was neither here nor there. Things were different now.

Things were so different.

Laina was both like Lola and unlike her. Spending so much time around Lola had helped me see it, see the signs that everyone else seemed to miss. Laina was hurt, just like Lola, only in a different way. Whereas Lola had been abused for years by her brother while her parents looked the other way, Laina had struggled to make her father see her, she’d been kidnapped, and when she finally managed to escape, she came back to her life only to find her father had essentially moved on.

Vance had gotten a new wife, a new job, and was making a name for himself. It was more than plain he didn’t need her.

And Laina was smart enough to know it. Maybe that was why she wanted to act out a bit; she’d spent her life before doing what her father wanted, and look at where it had gotten her. Kidnapped.

Of course, when Lola and Sylvester had sent me over, I didn’t think they’d anticipated the fact that Vance would station one of his own men at his daughter’s side. Kieran Miller, Tessa’s younger brother and Laina’s new step-uncle.

Kieran, I’d noticed, paid a lot of attention to Laina, especially when she wasn’t looking at him. Being quiet and observing everyone around you, you tended to notice things other people might not, and Kieran’s fascination with Laina was something I didn’t think anyone else picked up on.

He didn’t just watch her. He got jealous over her. He didn’t like me being near her, and he definitely didn’t like it when I touched her. The night Laina had wanted to go clubbing with one of her old friends, I’d picked her up and carried her out of the club. I’d deposited her into his car, all the while knowing he glared at me.

Holding her heels, apparently, was a poor substitute for holding her.

I didn’t let his stares bother me, and that was why, when we made it back to the house, I carried her inside as well. Kieran had been in the process of helping her out of the car, but her legs were still weak, and when I offered to bring her upstairs into her room, Laina had reached for me, wordlessly asking for me.

Kieran didn’t like that at all.

Into the house we went, up the stairs, to her room. Kieran trailed after us, the distrust coming off him in waves, like he thought I’d try to take advantage of her or something—but that wasn’t me. That wasn’t the type of guy I was.

I brought Laina to her bed, setting her down gently, and she gave me the tiniest of smiles and whispered out, “Thank you.” Her pink and blue hair was wild and uneven after so much sweating and dancing, her light blue eyes lingering on me.

All I could do was nod as I pulled away from her. Kieran was by her side in the next moment, setting down her heels and asking, “Do you need anything else? Some water, maybe?” His voice came out tender and soft; it was the only time he sounded like that.

She nodded once. “Water might be nice.”

Kieran tossed a look at me, his black-eyed stare narrowing as he wordlessly told me to go fetch her some water.

Normally, I wouldn’t take orders from someone who wasn’t a Luciano, Lola, or my brother, but I turned and left the bedroom all the same. I wasn’t getting the water because Kieran had told me to; no, I would get it for Laina, because she needed it.

She… she needed more people that cared about her in her life. I didn’t know her too well, but from what I did know, she didn’t have anyone. Vance could play the father figure all he wanted, but with how little time he spent at the house, actually with Laina, it was clear he preferred his job. Tessa was hardly around, too.

Laina was basically alone, and that had to hurt her.

I went downstairs, got her a tall glass of water, and took my time in heading back up. As I walked up the stairs, I thought back to when she’d pushed out of the club. The look on her face had told me how conflicted she was, how she wanted to run… cry, even. I’d asked her if she was okay, and she’d told me no, and when she’d told me she didn’t want to talk about it, I’d let her be. Pushing and prodding wasn’t what she’d needed.

She just needed someone to be there.

She’d surprised me, then, when she’d leaned into me. At the time, I didn’t know what to do, so at first, I did nothing. But then I’d lifted an arm and draped it across her shoulders, around her upper back. Not tightly, not firm, but gentle.

Laina was more broken than she wanted to let on, I thought.

My pace slowed when I reached the second floor with the water in my hand, and I stopped just outside her room when I heard her and Kieran talking. Laina was busy saying, “You shouldn’t stare at him like you want to kill him.”

“If you wanted someone to carry you upstairs, I could’ve—”

Ah, they were talking about me. I hung back, out of sight, just before the open door. Eavesdropping wasn’t something I normally did; my only undercover stint hadn’t gone too well, although the outcome had been good enough. Being silent and deadly wasn’t my forte; that honor belonged to Roman and Carter. Me? I much preferred barging in and taking care of business immediately. No sticking to shadows, no hiding for me.

“Kieran, stop.” Laina’s voice was soft but firm. “Mike seems… nice. I like him.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“Then it’s a good thing he’s not here for you, isn’t it?” she shot back.

Kieran’s voice dropped when he said, “I’m here for you, Laina. I’m here—” He spoke in a bare whisper after that, so softly I could no longer hear him, and I took that as my cue to walk in.

When I strolled into the room, I found Kieran sitting beside Laina on her bed, his body angled toward hers. His brown-haired head was bent in her direction, an intense but tender look on his face. His leg was directly beside hers, pressing against her outer thigh. All in all, I’d say it wasn’t a position a step-uncle should be in with their step-niece.

She was nineteen, of course, old enough to make her own decisions when it came to men.

“Here,” I spoke, causing both their heads to turn toward me. Laina gave me a smile while Kieran frowned at me. He made no moves to scoot away from her, as if purposefully staying close to her and marking his territory.

Seriously, it was like that look and his body language was trying to tell me: she’s mine .

I handed Laina the glass and started to leave the room, mostly because I didn’t want to press anything with Kieran. When I reached the door, Laina called out, “Goodnight.” My legs stopped when I heard her voice, and I tossed a glimpse over my shoulder at her, finding she’d leaned around Kieran to watch me go.

“Goodnight,” I told her, and then I left for my own room.

These past few years had involved me and my brother bouncing around from place to place; we’d started at our own apartment in the city, but then it had gotten shot up. I’d gotten shot, Richie had decided he’d had enough, and the Luciano business fell upon Sylvester. Then we’d moved in with Lola, in her new mansion, but then we’d all gone to the Luciano house. Back and forth, back and forth, it was like I was a vagabond with nowhere to go.

My bedroom was just down the hall from Laina’s, and I shut the door as quietly as I could. I set my gun on my nightstand and started to take off my clothes. Once I’d changed into sweats, I flipped the light off and crawled into bed.

Normally I didn’t have trouble falling asleep, especially when I stayed up late, but that night, I struggled to fall asleep. I couldn’t get my mind to shut off, couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the one person I shouldn’t catch myself thinking about.

Laina.

All my life, my job had been either to kill or protect. It was what it was. I’d viewed it all as duty, something you were supposed to do even if you didn’t want to do it.

But here, now… when I thought about that girl and the life she had, when I pictured the way Vance Hawkins was so dismissive of her and the way Tessa acted like she didn’t exist, I got a little riled up. Laina didn’t deserve that. She deserved a family that would love her, that would care for her, that would protect her, whether it was from the criminal underbelly of this city or her kidnapper coming back for round two.

No, this time, it wasn’t just duty. This time I wanted to do it.

I wanted to protect that girl.