THE FEEL OF HER IN my arms was almost enough to keep me there, in her apartment, until the end of time.
Ironically, it was the burning need to keep her until the end of time that convinced me to stand up, set her on her feet, and order something else entirely.
Her eyes opened swiftly, and she swayed for a moment, caught off guard.
“What are you—”
“Get dressed. We’re going to my office.”
“To…your office. For lunch?” she asked hopefully. She obviously had an underlying feeling about the true purpose of our outing.
I shook my head.
“So that I can meet your assistant?”
“No.”
“To have a visit with Cal?”
“Alex.”
“Come on!” she cried. “I don’t like the sound of this at all. You never take me to your office. Now you come in here, we have this scene, and we’re going to your office? I feel like that’s where people go to die.”
I smirked a little, even as fury still worked through me. I couldn’t not be amused by her. “For some people, I suppose it is.”
“Matt!”
“But not you,” I assured.
“I figured today wasn’t about me—”
“Oh, today is about you,” I interrupted. “It’s very much about you. But you won’t be the one in goddamn danger, that’s for sure.”
She pointed in my face, an adorable wrinkle forming between her eyebrows. “Okay? Do you hear yourself? That’s what I’m worried about.”
“Good,” I encouraged, running soothing hands down the cool skin of her upper arms. “That means you’re smart.”
“Does it mean I can stay home?” She fluttered her eyelashes, and I very nearly smiled.
Christ, she’s cute.
“No.”
“Ack!” she shouted, slapping my chest. Pride surged inside my chest at her fearlessness despite how unchecked I’d been before. “Why not?”
“Because you making a stand is important. As much as I plan to have you at my side every minute, I can’t. You need to know how these men work, how they think, how they suffer.”
“This all sounds really messy.”
“It might be,” I admitted.
“Matt,” she whined looking to the ground and stomping a foot.
“Alex,” I said softly and lifted her chin until her eyes once again met mine. “Do you want to know how to protect yourself?”
“Well, of course I do,” she snapped.
“Do you think I’m going to kill them?”
Her eyes searched mine. “I guess it depends how intense things get.”
I laughed. “A man’s vulnerabilities are his biggest weakness. One guess what mine is.”
Her. Every day, all day, I would lose everything for her. I knew it with vivid certainty, and I knew I also held the evidence undisguised in my eyes.
“Matt,” she whispered.
“I’m wholly in love with you, little one. You are my weakness.”
She smiled, blushing a little before working her arms under my heavy ones and pushing her body toward mine. “I know this is supposed to be romantic and flattering, but it’s really not sounding like it.”
I shook my head at her teasing. “It is flattering, I assure you. But it’s also why your attending this is so important.”
“I don’t get it. Why?”
“Because, little one… I need my weakness to be strong.”
She searched my eyes until she found whatever it was she was looking for. “Okay,” she whispered. And then, quiet as a mouse, she added, “I love you, too.”
Eric, Mickey, Jaybird, Harrison, and Damien all filed in to my office thirty minutes later, having been summoned by Cal on my behalf. It was a Sunday, so they knew this wasn’t a talk about their spouses or kids or anything fucking pleasant, and it wasn’t something that could wait. As a result, some of their ugly faces got even uglier.
Alex, my little warrior, was tucked away in another office with Cal, waiting for the right time to join the meeting. It was unbelievably important for her to be a part of it, but I wouldn’t subject her to undue torture. Part of this could and would be handled on my own.
“Have a seat,” I instructed by way of greeting. No one looked surprised at the lack of pleasantries.
Three chairs lined the front of my desk rather than the usual two, so that Eric, Jaybird, and Mickey all had a place to take a seat. It was all a mind game, really, having them sit and then standing myself, so that my already intimidating physical presence seemed even more so. Honestly, nearly my whole job was mind games.
Damien and Hare, already privy to the details of what had occurred at the party, stood in the back of the room with equally hard jaws.
They might not have nearly as much invested in Alex as I did, but they didn’t like scheming, and they didn’t like being lied to. The three amigos in the chairs were so mired in the shit, their eyes were brown.
“I had a conversation with Alex, and it seems her version of the story is quite a bit different from your own.”
Eric stayed quiet, diverting his gaze to the others so they’d take most of the heat. The little weasel cocksucker.
Mickey’s face was serious as he sat up in his seat. “Of course it is, Matt. She doesn’t want to look bad in front of you. But I’m telling you, it was an ugly scene. Look at all the stuff with her apartment when we moved her into it. She’s a con artist. A very pretty one, but a fucking con.”
“Enough,” I snapped. “When Alex is a con, at least she’s proficient at it. You three idiots could use some of her focus.”
“He’s never going to believe us on this,” Jaybird muttered. “He’s caught in the web of her golden pussy.”
I smiled menacingly. “Golden pussy, huh?” I asked.
Jaybird looked to Eric, but he did his best to remain neutral. The prick.
“Yeah,” Jaybird affirmed.
“It’s really interesting that you’d say that.” I grabbed the phone off the hook and buzzed the intercom in the next office over. Cal and Alex entered my office moments later. Mickey immediately became indignant.
“Great. Now we get to play some he said, she said bullshit.”
“No, Mickey,” I chastised with a tsk. “Now we get to play, she said, the camera said, the three of you are fucking dead.”
Mickey and Jaybird looked to one another with wide eyes. How they hadn’t expected there to be video of this, I had no idea. Eric didn’t look surprised at all. He had something else up his fucking sleeve.
I really wanted to slit his fucking throat and watch him choke on all the blood until he died. But if I did that now, I might never find out the rest of his plan.
I clicked the video file on my computer and let the audio play loudly throughout the office. Alex looked on confidently from the back, Cal standing sentry behind her.
“Matt put her in charge of the party tonight.” Moosa’s voice was the first to break the tense silence.
“Interesting turn of events,” Jaybird agreed.
“Excuse me?” Alex questioned defensively.
“I said interesting turn of events,” he repeated.
“You’ve got a point there, bird,” Eric said through a chuckle.
Wow. Look who wasn’t a mute anymore.
“Who would’ve thought that one pussy could be the reason for Matt to make shitty fucking decisions?”
“Must be one hell of a pussy,” Spade said, joining the conversation. My blood fucking boiled at the thought of that many men attacking her at once. “What ya think, Queen? You think she’s got a golden pussy or something?”
“I know it’s got me curious enough to want a test ride,” Eric so kindly shared. “What do you say, Alex? Let me get my dick wet inside that golden pussy.”
I stopped the recording immediately. “Ah, yes,” I murmured, my voice rough. “There’s the golden pussy you spoke of, Jaybird.”
“I didn—”
“Shut up!” I roared, nearly shaking the goddamn walls. “Spade and Hart are already one goddamn hit short of death. Now I think the three of you should join them.”
“Matt—” Eric tried to interrupt, his voice blatantly placating.
“You’re off fucking everything. King. The laundering. All of it.”
“But we’ve been working the King deal for a year! That’s supposed to be most of my salary.”
I took off my jacket and hung it on the hook behind me, rolling up each sleeve one at a time. “Good thing you don’t need money when you’re dead.”
“Matt,” Mickey said, starting to panic. “It was all just teasing, really.”
“That’s teasing to you?” I questioned. “No wonder you never get goddamn laid.”
Alex let out a startled laugh in the back of the room. Cal chuckled. “Come on, Alex. I think it’s time for us to go. Uncle Matty is about to get messy.”
I nearly rolled my eyes at his theatrics, but instead, met Alex’s sea-blue hue once more before she stepped outside.
My weakness is strong.