AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My gut told me that the silent manner he handled himself was a cover. Maybe it was the pauses with scowling, pinched eyelids? I didn’t know for sure, but he hadn’t showed any signs of happiness like he did when I’d been little. I missed how he once smiled at everyone, but the military erased that. He needed something or someone to ground him again. And there wasn’t anyone except for me.
Rafe loped after me, meeting me at the mouth to the bunnies’ rooms and then following me all the way down the hall. I threw open the door, but he calmly closed it once we were both inside. When I spun around on my heel, he was scanning every surface as if there might be a bomb hidden in plain sight. Then, his eyes lingered on the bed for a moment. Finally, his cautious gaze stopped at my feet.
He had been in here before, so why did he look at it differently now? Maybe my bedroom was bugged like I suspected from the start.
My uncle’s throat bobbed, and he clamped his lips shut.
Getting frustrated with the stoic silent treatment, I snapped, “No urge to kiss me now?”
When he didn’t answer, just put on the placid military officer’s face, I rolled my eyes and stalked into the bathroom. Reaching behind the tile wall, I turned on the shower.
Rafe didn’t follow me.
Instead, he lingered by my bed until I yelled, “Come here!”
He appeared in the doorway a few seconds later, red blooming on his cheeks.
“Tell me what happened in Church,” I demanded, voice drowned out by the splatter of water echoing around the close quarters.
Too close for my tastes—a small closet-like shower, a counter around the sink that wouldn’t hold half of my makeup items or hair products, and a toilet. Nothing like the soak tub and vanity I had at my father’s home, but at least, the toilet wasn’t a hole in the ground that I had to squat over.
Rafe stiffened. “The MC is planning to intercept a load of jewels from the cartel.”
“Jewels?” I played with my diamond necklace.
That was a product I knew well and understood, thanks to Nonna. Along with her belladonna patterned dresses, she wore a ring on every finger and had her ears pierced three times in each lobe just so she could wear more diamonds. All were good cuts, the ones that made the stones catch even the smallest rays of light.
“I don’t get it.” I stuck my hand under the water, testing the temp.
“Don’t get what?” Rafe focused on the black-and-white tiled floor.
“Why the MC would be trying to steal jewels from the cartel when they needed to be paying them off for lost drugs? Won’t that just piss the Rojas brothers off more?”
My uncle had thinned his lips, wearing a grim frown. He clearly wouldn’t be spilling his guts to me about MC business.
Crossing the small bathroom to stand in front of my uncle, I dragged my wet finger along the strong line of his clean-shaven jaw. “You won’t share with me, Rafe?”
Again, he studied the floor, but I didn’t miss the shiver that ran through him.
“Will you pass the information along to my father?”
If my father was up my ass to find out information about the MC, then he sure as hell had to be up Rafe’s too. Still, Rafe held his tongue.
“Where did the MC go tonight?” I asked. “For the jewels?”
“No jewels tonight.” He shook his head. “There’s bonfire up at Red Rock Canyon.”
“Oh sure. Someone mentioned that,” I mumbled, “but what does this have to do with the jewels?”
“They’re celebrating.”
I groaned. “They haven’t done shit to get out from under the cartel, and they’re celebrating. Where’d Papà find these clowns?”
Rafe shrugged. “I think it’s just celebrating because they decided what to do.”
“Did you tell them a celebration is premature?” I demanded. “There are a lot of fucking ways this could go sideways.”
“They aren’t thinking they’ve won because of the jewels,” said Rafe.
