7. Benito

CHAPTER 7

Ipat her back and smile at her weight across my chest, her soft breath puffing into me and warming my whole heart.

"Hey, Red. Wake up, sleeping beauty."

She slowly stirs, her little body moving like she's half asleep. Her head lifts, her silvery-blue eyes glazed, slumberous and sexy as hell.

"Hey, baby. Are you alright?"

Slowly she wakes and then she moans, lifting herself off of me and my dick fucking protests like he's about to revolt. He doesn't want to leave his home and I don't fucking blame him.

No woman has ever made me feel like she does. My heart aches at the way she stumbles up and smiles, loopy and punch-drunk.

I stand up and pick her up. I glance at the time and groan. I'm supposed to be meeting Damian and we're conference-calling with my brother who thinks he's found something.

I settle her in her desk chair and hand her her clothes, watching as she seems to come to, her cheeks flushing as she covers herself with the pile of clothes. I lean down and grasp her chin lightly, loving the soft, smooth feel of her skin in my hands. "Hey, don't look like that, Red. I don't want to go but I'm meeting Damian about something my brother found out about. He's gonna help us. Damian has some experience with investigation."

That's an understatement but there's a reason he doesn't talk about it much.

"I'm gonna be back here in a couple of hours and in the meantime, do not leave this place. Stay inside and I'll come back and walk you home."

She glares at me for one second and then she looks away, her cheeks flushed. "I'm perfectly capable of walking myself home. I don't need a man to do it."

I hold her in place, my hand tightening on her chin so that she can't look away from me. "Hey. I'm not doing this because I have to. I'm doing this because I need to. I need to take care of you, princess. If anything were to happen to you I don't think I'd survive. I'm telling you this now and I hope that it doesn't scare the hell out of you, but I love you. I probably have from the first second I saw you in that window, smiling at somebody who doesn't deserve that smile. I don't deserve it and I know it. But I'm a selfish prick of a man, Red, and I'm gonna take everything that I can get. But I promise I will always come for you."

Her eyes are shimmering pools of light and I can still see the uncertainty in her gaze but she doesn't look away. She just nods.

I let her go and stand, pulling on my clothes. "Oh, and by the way. You don't have to tell me right now that you love me. I know you do. Sooner or later you're gonna trust me enough to say it though."

She watches as I gather up my things and throw the burger in the trash. Then I grasp her chin and kiss her, my tongue pushing against her lips, demanding that she let me in, swallowing her groan as she gives in and opens. I rasp my tongue along hers and devour her.

I stand up straight and stare down at her. "Fuck, do I want to stay here. I'll be back. Remember what I said. Don't you dare leave this place alone."

I can see the fire in her eyes and I hope to fuck she actually listens to me. Because if she doesn't I might paddle her pretty ass.

I wait until she's dressed and she follows me out then grab her again, pulling her tight into me and grunting when her soft curves hit my dick. Fucker's still sensitive and hungry.

I smile down into her quicksilver eyes. "Promise I'll be back soon. Just stay put. I'll come for you."

She nods her head but I'm worried she'll fight me so I hurry out the door, intent on getting this over and done with as quickly as I can.

Damian is waiting for me at the cabin up the mountain. He's pacing and yelling into the phone and I eye him askance.

He hangs up and growls, running his hand down his face. "Family," he grunts.

"Yeah. I know the name of that song. Let's call Tomas. Have you heard or seen anything strange?"

"Not really. I heard something about a hunter, possibly a poacher being up her on the mountain where he's not supposed to be. He's actually been on this property."

My head turns quickly and my mind races. That seems strange. I'm new here and there's somebody on the property that I'm renting.

"Did they have a gun?"

"Must have if they thought they were a poacher."

Nodding, I pick up my phone and call Tomas. "Hey, brother." His face scrunches.

"You look blissfully happy. Ugh. Is that what a woman does to you? I hope to fuck I never have that happen to me. You're smiling too much. It's disturbing. You look like a serial killer."

Damian laughs. "Well…"

"Hey! I never killed unless I had to."

"Well, there must have been a lot of people just begging for it then."

Tomas laughs. "Okay. That's enough. I've got some news. I got a trail for you. You know that runt that was working for the Sullivan crew? The one that we got ahold of that turned on them before he had an accident."

"Yeah. That wasn't us. That was their own crew."

"Well, apparently the boy was one of the enforcer's boys. Like a nephew or something and he's pretty pissed that the boss insisted on taking care of him. He blames you for it. So he's apparently hired a hit man to take care of you."

"Do we know who?"

"Yeah. Specter."

"Jesus," I growl and Damian stares at me.

"Who the fuck is that guy?"

"A ghost. Nobody knows what he looks like and he's never failed to kill who he was hired to kill."

Damian grimaces. "Okay. That sounds bad."

My head comes up. "He knows what Scarlett looks like and he saw where she works and she doesn't know who he is."

"Neither do you," Damian points out.

"I've got a fucking gun. She's got a fucking cat. At her house."

"Okay. That's basically all you need to know."

"What about Sullivan's man?"

"Already working on it. We should have him taken care of tonight. He's the easy part of this because you know there's no way to call off the hit. You've got to get to him before he gets to you."

"I know," I huff.

Damian sighs. "I think we need to talk to Colt about this."

"The fucking sheriff?" I holler. "Are you crazy? There's no way he's gonna listen to a damn thing I say. I'm kinda famous."

"You're kind of an asshole too but he's not a guy who deals with black and white. Colt deals with gray. He was in army intelligence a long time ago."

I nod my head. "I guess we can run it by him. Just so he understands that I'm not taking chances with Scarlett's life. If I get a chance I'm taking this guy out. And I'm not gonna be nice about it."

Damian sighs. "Yeah. I know. I'm not sure Colt's gonna be thrilled about that walking into town but it's here and we've got to make sure that your girl's taken care of."

Tomas sighs. "Why do I have a feeling that we're gonna be having a long conversation soon." It's not a question. He knows.

I nod at him and he sighs.

Damian and I get in his truck and drive down the mountain, both of us keeping our eyes open for anything.

We don't see anything before we get into town. As we drive down the main road in town, I see a line of people in front of the bookstore and my eyes move left and right. "Why the hell are those people hanging around outside?"

Damian shakes his head. "I don't know. But there's Colt standing right there."

The big, dark-haired guy stands across the street, eyeing the crowd with narrowed eyes. We stop and get out.

"What's going on?"

The guy shrugs and eyes him narrowly. "I don't know." He stands up straight and keeps my hands in sight. "Why do I feel like you have something to do with this?"

Damian groans. "Colt. This is…"

"Benito Bonetti. Yeah, I didn't just crawl out from under a rock, Damian. What the hell are you doing in my town?" He growls.

"I'm trying to keep a low profile because there' s a man trying to kill me."

"Fuck!" He runs a big, tanned hand through his dark hair. "And you had to drag that shit here?"

"I'm gonna be around for good so you might as well get used to me, Sheriff. I'm going straight."

He huffs. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"Believe it. I'm retiring to be with my girl. The asshole actually shot at both of us last night."

His eyes shoot to the door. "And you're still standing here talking to me? Why is that door shut at this time of the day?"

All three of us study the door and Damian grunts, "I'll take the back."

I stop him with a hand on his shoulder. "This ain't your fight. I shouldn't have gotten you involved. This isn't your thing anymore."

"It's not yours either."

I nod at the door. "That's my girl. I'm going in."

I stomp across the street and Colt grabs my hand. "Hold up! You need to think before you just go in there shooting up the place and accidentally hurt her."

I glare at his hand. "What do you have in mind because I'm not standing around here all day while you pussies come up with some way to get in there."

Colt glares at me. "The more you talk, the less I like you."

I glare at him. "Ditto."

Damian holds up something on his phone. "I've got an idea."