Page 60 of The Saint

After he took my virginity, he’d muttered that he loved me. But then I’d left him. And though everything in my being screamed that I was in love with him, I didn’t want to be that girl. The one who threw herself at his feet, so desperate for the love she hadn’t even felt as a child that she’d proclaim her feelings aloud when there was a chance she’d ruined everything by walking out of his life.

“Come on, David,” Rolly murmured, moving his mouth to my lips, kissing that haphazard smile off my face. “Let’s not keep the man waiting.”

But I would have. As much as I’d wanted this very thing, a callback into the world I felt I belonged in, I would have walked right out the door if it meant Rolly could forever be mine. If he loved me the way I loved him.

From my head to toes, to the blood pumping in my veins, I loved him.

Rolly tugged at my hand, pulling me along behind him, his grip only loosening when his foot crossed the threshold to the kitchen.

“Have a seat.” Zee pulled out a chair at the table, that hard look he’d given Rolly earlier returning. Rolly did as he was told, and Zee immediately lifted his arm, pressing his fingers into the muscles of his shoulder as he manipulated the injured appendage. “You playing ball?”

Rolly looked up without raising his chin, and from where I stood, it looked like he was rolling his eyes. “You know I haven’t.”

Zee let out a huff, then clapped Rolly on the back. “I had to ask. Now, take off your shirt.” He turned his attention to me as Rolly complied, and I forced myself not to watch. Not to revel in the sight of his hard, gorgeous body. “We’ve had an incident, and we need someone to handle the aftereffects.”

I glanced at Rolly and back, my brow pinched. “Don’t you have someone for that?”

Zee grimaced, and Rolly winced as the doctor dug his fingers into the muscles of his shoulder again. “Our fixer is otherwise indisposed. And I figured you’d jump at the opportunity to do something other than—” His gaze darted to Rolly and he lifted a brow. “Than sitting on your duff and waiting for something better to come along.”

I nodded, forcing myself to let out a slow breath. “Tell me what you need.”

“We’ve stumbled upon a plot on someone’s life,” Zee murmured, voice quiet and eyes lowered to the work he was doing on Rolly’s shoulder. “It’s a friend of the family, in a way. And the man hired to do it is a new player in town. Didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he took the job.”

“You need me to take care of him?” It wouldn’t have been the first person I’d put a bullet in, but it had my gut twisting all the same. Taking out men shooting at me and my crew was one thing. Flat out assassination was another.

Zee peered up at me, studying me almost like Rolly had in the hall. When he shook his head, it made me think he didn’t like what he saw. Like my hesitation to take someone out wasn’t what he and D’Angelo’s syndicate needed.

“Not in the way you think.” Zee returned his gaze to Rolly’s arm, lifting it straight out to his side. “Hold it up.”

Rolly complied, and Zee pushed down on his arm, testing his strength. He repeated it on the other side, then went back to rubbing the muscles in his injured shoulder.

“Hector Alvarez,” Zee continued, as if what he was doing with Rolly hadn’t interrupted our conversation one bit, “will be coming into the fold.”

“Does he know this?”

“He may need some convincing.” A smirk pulled at his lips, and he dropped Rolly’s arm, placing both hands on his shoulders and turning his full attention to me. “And we’re going to need it quick. He’s already had a dressing down, and he’s scheduled to help us out in a matter soon. But I don’t want him running.”

Zee’s phone on the table dinged, the screen lighting up with an incoming message. A split second later, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Rolly reached for his own, tugging it free from his pants and staring at the screen, brow pinched.

“Details just hit your phone,” Zee said, gesturing to the device in my hand. “Should be a rundown of the prior incidents as well as all the fine points of our offer to Alvarez. I want you to take the night, review what you’ve got, then plan on hitting him up tomorrow morning for a chat.”

Zee grabbed Rolly’s t-shirt from the table at his side, then tossed it in his face. “Now get out of here. You’ve both got studying to do.”

“Both, sir?”

Rolly stood, his big body looming over me as he shook his cell phone in his hand. “I’m coming with you, David.” He tossed his shirt in my face, grabbing it away from me before I could get a grip on the material that smelled way too much like him. He slung his arm around me, but rather than prodding at his side and trying to get loose, I only wanted him to hold on tight. “Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.”

Zee gave a chuckle, his deep voice tumbling through the air, warming my cheeks as I sucked in a breath filled with Rolly’s scent.

“You let me know if you need anything at all. But I have faith in you. I know you two can get this done.”

16

JAEL

An electronic chime sounded as I swung open the door to Alvarez Autobody. According to the files we’d received the night before, that chime was new. Something that had been installed after a break-in earlier in the week. The sound of it eased the last remaining bits of discomfort from my mind.

Rolly and I had been up until nearly two o’clock this morning, reading over all the intel that had been gathered by the notorious hacker, Zak Shaw. Shaw had helped in the war against the Silvas earlier in the year and had proven more than capable of handling this kind of work. Hearing that chime, seeing the beefed-up security that had been pointed out in the reports, made it feel like I had Shaw’s voice in my ear.