Chapter Two
God, she looked amazing.
“L-Levi,” Katie stammered out breathlessly.
“Good morning, Gorgeous. Can I come in for a cup of coffee?” he asked, his lips turning up into a sexy smirk.
Stupid, Levi. That was the absolute worse pick-up line, greeting in the history of the world, he chastised himself.
“Um… sure,” Katie responded, a look of disappointment crossing her face for a moment before it disappeared so quickly, Levi might have thought he imagined it. Too bad for Katie he’d been watching her closely ever since they were kids. She was the reason he’d even started being interested in girls in the first place. When thirteen-year-old Katie had started to develop, seventeen-year-old Levi had noticed, then promptly felt like a pervert for doing so. When Katie had decided to grow her blonde hair to the middle of her back, Levi hadn’t been able to resist tugging on it whenever he came over to visit. And when she’d announced to everyone that she was attending New York University, Levi had discreetly asked for a transfer from the Georgia FBI office to the New York branch.
He wasn’t a stalker, not by his estimation, he was merely trying to look out for his best friend’s little sister.
Levi rolled his eyes at himself once Katie’s back was turned. Who was he kidding? He’d been in love with “Little Kate” for as long as he could remember and as long as he could be close to her. In the same state, if not in the same neighborhood or home, had been enough to ease the tightness in his chest and the soften the blow to his gut.
“So, Levi, what brings you by?” Katie asked as she led him down her hallway to her kitchen.
Levi smiled as he noticed Katie’s coffee mugs stacked next to her Keurig ™, just like her parents. When he noticed there was one particular mug off by itself in the corner, he stepped closer to check it out.
“Your case with the ACLU. The one about the mother being arrested for breastfeeding in the school parking lot?” he murmured as he reached out to pick up the mug. He widened his eyes at the picture of himself, his arm around a beaming Katie, displayed on the white mug. It had been taken at her graduation from NYU. Katie didn’t know it, because Levi hadn’t told her or even her brother, Kevin, but he hadn’t simply been “in New York” on the day she’d graduated, he’d specifically requested that weekend off so that he could attend. He was pretty sure that if they had known he’d taken leave just to watch Katie graduate they would have suspected his true feelings.
And that was something Levi just couldn’t countenance.
When he and Kevin had been younger, they’d made a pact. Levi wouldn’t try to date Kevin’s sister and Kevin would stay away from Levi’s younger cousin, Anna, whom he loved as if she were his sister. The two of them had made their agreement after watching two varsity football players, Trent and Mark, fight over Mark dating and then dumping Trent’s sister. It was a fight the entire school had known about and weighed in on and the two boys had been shook by the level of violence the two former best friends had displayed towards the other because of a girl. Not even a girl the both of them wanted to date. Their pact had been one of necessity. One to make sure their friendship survived. And yet…
Levi had never expected to fall in love with Katie.
“What about it?” Katie asked as she went to pour him a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Levi accepted the mug with a smile when she returned, taking a healthy swallow, not surprised that she’d given it to him exactly as he liked it. Cream, no sugar. Katie noticed everything and her need to care for others meant that she remembered the preferences and aversions of everyone in her life. Levi was happy and humbled to be included in that group.
“Well it seems that the young woman you defended has ties to a known drug cartel and you’re on their radar,” Levi told her after finishing the aromatic brew. He watched Katie’s face carefully to see if there was any change in her expression. While he was almost one-hundred percent sure that Katie had no ties to the cartel whatsoever, ninety-nine point five to be exact, it was that point five percent chance that had his supervisor sending him over to the condo of the woman he loved to see if perhaps she’d gone the way of some other lawyers and been bought into the seedier side of the legal system.
Katie’s expression: wide eyes, rapid pulse at the base of her neck, and her usually pale face completely leeched of color, let him know that she was, in fact, completely innocent. The fact that the cartel had begun to speak of her with interest, and the Bureau had picked up the chatter through their CIs and Undercovers, only meant that Katie was in danger. Something which Levi could not allow.
Just as he’d suspected.
“W-why am I on their radar?” Katie stammered, nibbling nervously on her lower lip. Levi swallowed back a groan as his eyes locked in on her mouth, now swollen from her anxious actions.
I wish I could have been the one biting that lip, he thought to himself.
“Levi?” Katie’s worried tone brought him out of his lustful musings, and Levi widened his stance, coughing to clear his throat of the growl that threatened. He also hoped that Katie didn’t look down and notice the very obvious erection that bulged obscenely behind the zipper of his pants.
“We’re not exactly sure of the cartel’s purpose in wanting you. Of being interested in you per say. But apparently, your work with the young woman—”
“Gabriella,” Katie interrupted him to point out.
Levi nodded. “Your work with Gabriella has… for lack of a better word, intrigued, the head of the cartel. And since you have had no previous dealings with them and are not currently working with them…” he shrugged.
“And never will work with them,” Katie muttered. She sighed and shook her head, running her fingers through her blonde hair, tugging slightly on the ends. She walked away from him, pacing back and forth in front of the condo’s windows. Levi watched her silently. He wanted so desperately to pull her into his arms. To offer her a bit of comfort. But he couldn’t. He was officially on the job and had been from the moment he’d eliminated her as a suspect. So, now it was his job to protect Katie. From the cartel. Their associates.
And from himself.