Hunter (11 page)

He nodded, but didn't speak as he sat on the other side of his desk. He leaned forward and dug his fingers into his hair. Minutes passed in silence, and I didn't dare speak first.

I didn't have much, but I had respect for Darien. A part of me hated him for sneaking Adriana away that night. A part of me fucking hated him for keeping her hidden, although I understood why it was done. Ironically, I respected him for the very same reasons I hated him.

Because he'd taken her away. Because he'd kept her safe.

What better person to keep you safe from death than a man who'd delivered it to so many?

“She trusts you,” he said hoarsely. He slowly looked up and dropped his hands, and his dark eyes pierced mine. “And I think she's a fool, blinded by the past.”

“Maybe she is,” I agreed. “But that doesn't mean she's the only one.”

“I understand your role in the family. I was you, once.” He scratched his jaw. “I think you'd kill her tomorrow if a gun was put to your head. You're playing a dangerous game, Carlo. Russian Roulette isn't for the faint of heart.”

“Then it's a good thing my heart is made of stone.”

“Is it? She's alive. How can you say it's stone when you've had two chances to kill her and haven't?”

“Then why don't you trust me, Darien? You just said it yourself. Two chances, and I didn't.” I stood without breaking our gaze.

“Third. Time. Lucky.” He almost spat each word, slowly coming to stand himself. He leaned forward and grasped the edge of his desk with one hand. With the other, he opened a desk drawer and pulled out a 9mm pistol. He cocked the safety and pointed it at my head.

Reflexively, I pulled my own from my hip, took off the safety and aimed it at his forehead.

His lips twitched on one side. “What if I said to you right now that you had to kill her? That this gun would be pointed at you until you put a bullet between her eyes? And if you didn't, I'd put one between yours?”

“I'd shoot you first.” My grip on the gun, like my gaze, was steady. “Because I'd rather kill you and have her hate me, than die and offer her up to her father on a silver platter.”

Darien's eyes flitted across my face, intense in their scrutiny of me. I didn't move a muscle as he studied my expression. I refused to. He didn't trust me as far as he could throw me, I could see it, and I'd bet he couldn't throw me very fucking far.

He raised his thumb and replaced the safety. He slowly lowered the gun and replaced it in the drawer, slamming it shut. “Put it down, Carlo. No one is shooting anyone today. Unless that motherfucker sends his lackeys over here.”

“He already did,” I remarked smartly, putting the safety on my gun before settling it back in my holster. “Why'd you put it back?”

“Because you're a killer, but you're no liar.” He dipped his head slightly. “I believe you. The Pontarellis are a different matter, but much to Armo's annoyance, he does what Addy says.”

“When she decides she's a princess, right?”

His lips tugged up on one side. “You got it. Sometimes she's princess, sometimes she's queen, sometimes she's nothing more than a twenty-three year old girl, but she's always in control. She assumed that role the day her mamma walked into the hospital for chemotherapy.” His smile dropped. “She used her against me, you know that? Spun me the guilt trip, and I'm not even mad, because everything she said was fucking true.”

“Sounds about right.” I perched on the edge of the sofa. “She guilt-tripped me into baking brownies once, not long before you left. I was told to look after her, and in her mind, that meant chocolate brownies because she was on her period.” I sighed, but my lips fought to smile. “Two trays later and she finally gave up the trip.”

“Like I said, always in control.” Darien's smile returned briefly and he sat back down. “Now I'm worried about her. Her plan is crazy, Carlo. She can't take Enzio down.”

“Unfortunately, if she doesn't, he's going to send someone else here to get her. I bought a couple more days, but I wouldn't be shocked if he already had someone in the air to come keep an eye on me.”

“Who would he send?”

“Isaiah, probably. He's the only one he trusts.”

“This could work in our favor.” Darien touched his fingertips together in front of him.

I cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Because I can't see any situation in which Enzio's
consigliere
coming to Los Angeles, where Adriana is, working in our favor. Unless we're trying to get her killed, which defies the whole point of this conversation.”

He laughed. Loudly. Even threw his head back for a moment before he sobered. His amusement still shone in his eyes, though. “Isaiah is my cousin.”

“Does he know his cousin didn't crash a car because he was lovesick over Alexandria? Because that's Enzio's story.”

“Of course it is. Enzio Romano has a God-like complex with a terrifying need to be the innocent party. I expected nothing less. But yes, to answer your question.” Darien stands and opens his office window. “He knows I'm alive. You don't honestly think that the Pontarellis alone protected Adriana for this long, do you?” He turned, his eyebrows raised. “Come on, Carlo. You're smarter than that. Enzio may trust Isaiah, but trust is easily misplaced.”

“Wait. Are you telling me Isaiah's been hiding Adriana?” I couldn't wrap my head around that. “Then why did he allow Enzio to send me here? Did you know I was coming?”

“I don't know, and no. I had no idea you were coming. Neither did she.” He sighed. “I guess Isaia trusted you not to kill her.”

I'm glad someone did. Fuck knows I didn't trust myself not to.

Sometimes I wonder if I even do now.

“Darien, where's the—oh.” Adriana stops dead in the doorway. “Crap. Sorry.”

“Don't worry.” Darien laughs quietly. “Where's the what,
bambina
?”

My eyes slid toward her and I smiled at the nickname. Baby girl. Of course.

“I... Shit. I forgot,” she muttered, her cheeks flushing pink. “Never mind.” She turned around and walked out the door.

I felt Darien's eyes on me, so I looked at back at him. “What?”

“The way you look at her. It's the same way you looked at her when you were kids.” He tilted his head to the side. “Maybe Isaiah was right to trust you on this job.”

“Doesn't matter how I look at her.” I bit down the annoyance, along with the emotion I could feel rising. I didn't want to feel. “She pretty much hates me, even if she hides it well.”

“Sure she does.” He snorted and stood. “I have to go to work. Stay with her just in case Carlo two-point-oh doesn't make assassination attempt number two, will you?”

When he put it like that, it was hard for me to argue. Even if I knew all she'd want to do is talk about how to get to New York and overthrow her father. “Sure. But she might kill me first.”

“I doubt that very much.” He picked a tie up off his desk and tucked it beneath the collar of his button-down shirt. “She looks at you the same way you look at her. Don't like it much myself, but hey.”

And with that, he walked out, knotting his tie, leaving me staring after him.

***

Adriana groaned as I found her out in the yard. She was wearing a plain black bikini, and she tugged up the top. “What are you doing here? I thought you went with Darien.”

I shook my head and sat on a sun lounger. Thank fuck she was under the water. My cock was already twitching at the knowledge she was in nothing more than two tiny bits of fabric.
Focus, Carlo. Fuck.
“He's worried your father will send someone to come check up on me... and you.”

“Great. So you're babysitting me? That's just what every girl wants—an trained killer to babysit her.”

One of my eyebrows quirked upward. “Doesn't that make me the perfect babysitter? Who's gonna hurt you?”

Her lips parted, then she flattened them into a thin line. She splashed some water in my direction, but all that did was make me grin.

“Shut up,” she said, swimming over to the edge of the pool and resting her arms on the side. “I don't need to be looked after, Hunter. I'm a grown woman.”

The top of her cleavage was just visible over the edge of the pool. “I noticed.”

“Are you staring at my boobs?”

“Should I be?”

“You're supposed to be looking after me, not dreaming about me naked.”

I snapped my eyes up to hers. Did she honestly think it was the first time I'd thought about her naked? Fucking hell—I'd thought about a shit load more than just her naked. It was like a goddamn reflex now. Every time I was alone and thought about her, my cock stood to attention and there was only one way to get rid of the erection.

“You are,” she accused, narrowing her eyes. “You're thinking about me naked.”

“You want me to lie,
Principessa?
I can.”

“You can try to lie, but we both know you won't.” She swam to the other side of the pool and reached for a towel. She wiped her face and then looked back at me. “Admit it,” she called. “You were.”

“I was,” I begrudgingly told her. “Still am.”

She grinned. It was the kind of grin that made her bright blue eyes dance with laughter. “How are you supposed to protect me if all you can think about is me without any clothes on?”

Oh, man
. I so badly wanted to reach down and adjust my pants. My cock was fucking throbbing against the zipper. “If you think that's all I'm thinking about...” I clenched my jaw.

She slapped her hand over her mouth, and her cheeks blazed a bright red, screaming of her embarrassment. For some reason, it made me want to laugh. She'd just spent a good few minutes forcing me to admit I was picturing her naked, and then when I was honest, she was suddenly shy.

“What's up,
bella
?” Now I grinned. “Am I putting ideas in your head?”

Adriana shook her head. Fiercely, like she was trying to convince herself of that fact. “Like what?” She came back over to my side of the pool, but this time, she walked, carried the bundled up towel over her head. Her tits raised above the water level, and her pebbled nipples pressed against the wet fabric of her bikini top.

I swallowed hard. Fuck. I couldn't fight the urge anymore, so I adjusted my pants so the zipper wasn't completely against my dick.

Her eyes laughed at me.

She knew what she was doing.

Vixen.

“What's up,
Cacciatore
?” she teased. “Am
I
putting ideas in
your
head?”

“Like what?” I fired her words back at her the way she did me.

“You tell me. You're the one who started with the ideas.” She threw her towel at me.

I caught it, and she motioned for me to open it, so I stood and held it out. She pulled herself up and sat on the edge of the pool, grabbing her hair. She wrung it out before she stood up and came to me.

I loved it when she looked at me with those eyes. Bright, happy, playful. They were the eyes I remembered.

She snatched the towel out of my hands and pushed me toward the pool. I laughed, sweeping my arm around her waist. She screamed as I tugged her against me and her shove took us both into the water.

“Oh my God!” She gasped, emerging from the water. “Hunter!”

I pushed my hair from my eyes, still laughing. Thank fuck I'd left my gun and wallet in the kitchen before I came outside. “You pushed me!”

“You weren't supposed to take me with you,
idiota
!” She slammed her hands against my chest.

I caught her wrists before she could back away. She stilled as I wrapped one arm around her back and held her to me. “You pushed me,” I said quietly, my lips twitching to one side. My pinkie finger brushed the waistband of her bottoms, and my hand twitched with the desire to slide down and cup her pert ass cheek. “You should have known I'd take you with me.”

She pursed her lips, looking more mischievous than I'd ever seen her. All it made me want to do was kiss her. I didn't give a shit that we were soaking wet or that I had no dry clothes here. I just wanted to take her mouth with mine and consume her, breathe her in until all there was, was her.

“You're right,” she whispered. Her fingers jerked against my chest, and she glanced at them before meeting my eyes. “I should have.”

“You should have.” My eyes dropped to her mouth.

She parted her lips. My heart thundered in my chest, and fuck—there I was again. Wrong. I shouldn't have been thinking about kissing her. No matter how much I wanted to. Nothing good would come of that.

As cliché as it fucking was, she needed someone who was better than me.

“Addy?”

She jerked back from me at the sound of a guy's voice. I didn't want to let her go, but she pushed herself away from me like I was on fire and she was getting burned.

“Gaige.” She sounded shocked. “What are you doing here?”

Gaige.
That answered the Pontarelli question. I turned in the direction of him and saw him standing on the path that lead to the pool area, his hands tucked into his pocket.

“I tried calling you.” He said the words to her, but he was staring at me—and he didn't look fucking happy. “I wanted to make sure you were all right. Given the circumstances.”

I was a circumstance, was I?

Adriana got out of the pool and quickly wrapped herself in the towel. “Sorry. I had school work earlier and then I got given a babysitter.” She motioned to me. “Gaige, this is Carlo Rosso,” she hesitantly introduced us as I followed her out of the pool.

Fuck, I was soaked.

“Hunter, this is Gaige Pontarelli.” She awkwardly waved her arm between us.

Gaige held his hand out toward me, and I accepted the shake. “You didn't kill her yet, then.”

“Gaige!” Adriana hit his other arm. “Don't be a dick!”

“Nope,” I responded. He tightened his grip on my hand, so I returned the favor. “That means there's still a bullet in my gun for anyone who pisses me off.”

“Hunter!” Now she whacked me. “Don't be a dick, either!”

Gaige smirked. “There's two in mine.”

“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow. “I don't need two.”

“Enough!” Adriana snapped.

I dropped Gaige's hand.

“I am not in the mood for you two to have a pissing contest!” She looked between us both. “Now there's no chance I'm getting rid of you,” she paused to glance at me, “So, Gaige, I'm fine, I'm alive, I don't plan on dying anytime soon, and I promise to call you tonight, but I'm not putting up with this testosterone fueled bullshit.”