Page 22 of Her Billionaire Protector

“Well, for fuck’s sake, Dave. Open it. What’s it say?”

Dave takes an impossibly long time. I want to throw him out of his gaming chair and put a couch pillow over his face. “He skipped town.”

“Blagas isgone? Where?”

“Sunbreak Harbor, it says. Down south.”

The DA dragged his feet so long Harvey waltzed away. Classic. The only person who’d dealt him any actual consequences was Armin.

And I was grateful. Not only had he saved me from an assassin’s bullets, he’d rescued me from the most mediocre dicking down of my entire fucking life.

“What about Armin?” I worked hard to keep my tone level, not to choke on his name. I had to pretend he was still alive, or I wouldn’t get through this wretched conversation.

“Who?”

“The HPG agent at Morrow last night. Did he make it?”

“Doesn’t say.”

“Were there casualties at Morrow?”

“One.”

A wave of dizziness washes over me. I can’t breathe. I snatch the coffee out of Dave’s hand and down it in one gulp. It tastes like burnt garbage.

I need to get back to my apartment, to make sure Harvey’s skipped town. I stumble out and slam the door behind me, climb back inside the SUV and start it up. The only place I ever feel the least little bit safe in this city.

Besides with Armin.

My chest is tight; I struggle to drag a deep breath into my lungs.

I take the side streets to the highway, and turn towards home, or home for now, my horrid apartment above the club. I work to concoct a story in my head about what went down last night in case Dave is full of shit and Harvey’s there, enjoying a relaxing concussion. I assemble a new string of lies, a summary of what happened after Armin dropped Harvey like the sack of shit he is.

I have to keep the charade going. I can’t stop until he’s behind bars.

But my body won’t let me. My migraine screams, and my vision tunnels. I can’t do it. I U-turn on the highway, brakes squealing, cars honking around me, and I floor the gas pedal in the opposite direction.

Towards HPG.

I need to know if Armin is dead or alive. My head and my heart won’t have it any other way.

twelve

. . .

Armin

The door handleturns and I brace myself for a hail of insults from Evie or Vance. Or both. I don’t rush to greet them. I don’t take my eyes off the city skyline. I can only stand there and wonder where Mia is by now, and it’s the not-knowing that pounds a dull ache into my chest.

Maybe she’s already gone, to follow Harvey to Sunbreak Harbor.

I flick my eyes from the reflection of the door behind me to the city below, back to my own sorry-looking reflection in the glass, subdued by the same anhedonic stupor I’m always in after she’s left me.

And she walks in.

I have no control, not anymore. I’m on her before I can stop myself, shutting the door behind her, my lips on hers.

She breaks the kiss to hold my face in both her hands. I can’t read her expression.