“Now, eat.”
Cassandra
“I’m keeping her.”
Sheila looked furious. The older agent was fond of Connor, that much was obvious. Maybe that’s why she was so mad.
He was infuriating sometimes. But so cute. But also infuriating.
Like for example, it was a little weird that Conn kept talking about me like I was a damn pet.
“You’re a damn fool, you know that?” She sighed, looking like she was giving up. “You’re smarter than this, Conn.”
He gave her a wry smile.
“Apparently, I’m not.”
I chewed the edge of a slice of grapefruit. The last thing left from the extremely late breakfast that Connor had cooked for me.
Then he hovered over me while he watched me eat. He slung an arm over my shoulders, encouraging me to eat every last bite.
His mother and sister had peppered me with questions. I could tell they wanted to get to know me. But I had so little to tell.
They asked about my childhood. Where I was from. What I did.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Connor had told them to can it, in pretty much those exact words. I’d been grateful to be let off the hook. I already felt ashamed of my past. ‘Less than’ somehow. I wasn’t a normal girl my age, with a loving family who was headed off to college, or even close to graduating by now.
I wasn’t that lucky.
But in some ways I was luckier. I’d had it all, lost it, and been saved. I thanked my lucky stars everyday that Mason had taken me in. A big, mean looking biker with a heart of gold.
How do you explain that to two nice suburban ladies?
So I didn’t even try. I made small talk and ate. Basically, feeling like a big dork. Conn had done his best to make me at ease, wrapping his arm around me, feeding me, teasing me about this and that while his mother stared at me suspiciously.
And then Sheila had walked in.
I shook my head. For a bachelor, Connor sure had a lot of women in his life. I watched as the older woman glared at Conn, then at me, then at Conn again.
“You are out of your Goddamn mind.”
She kept insulting him and threatening to call it in. He kept asking her for time. Then she said something that made my blood run cold.
“Mason never even mentioned she was missing when you brought him in!”
I looked back and forth between them.
“Mason is under investigation?”
Connor shook his head.
“No. He was.”
I stood up. “What the fuck Connor?” I grabbed my backpack and headed for the door. Besos followed me, whimpering for attention. Connor stepped in front of me and shook his head.
“Forget it. Not happening.”
“I need to see him!”
“He refused protection. He’s not in custody. I have guys on him.”
“Tell me what is going on then!”
I poked his chest and he held his hands up in surrender. Sheila laughed and shook her head.
“I have seen everything now. I changed my mind Connor. You deserve her.”
“Can it, Sheil.” Connor rubbed his hands up and down my arms. “I told you, he’s not in danger. You are. So-”
“Actually, that was why I was looking for her.”
We both turned to look at Sheila. She chewed the inside of her cheek for a minute, like she was deciding something.
“Your little waitress here isn’t the only one missing now.” She looked hard at Connor, then at me. “We lost track of Dante. He hasn’t been seen in 48 hours.”
I grimaced and made a sound of disgust. “He’s probably in a basement somewhere, torturing someone.” Conn looked at me, his eyebrow raised.
“What? I said I knew him.”
“I didn’t realize you knew him that well.”
“He took a shine to me.”
Connor stepped closer, his eyes boring into mine. He looked dangerous suddenly. Like someone was threatening something that belonged to him.
It wasn’t hard to figure out what that something was.
Me.
“A shine?”
“Nothing happened Conn! Jesus, I told you I avoided the guy.”
“But it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he might have sent you blood splattered roses.” He paused, his jaw ticking. “Even if you hadn’t witnessed a murder.”
And there it was. He’d said it and I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. I just stared at him, my eyes wide.
“Maybe.”
He nodded and turned away.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Conn, if she’s a witness she should be in custody.”
“She is in custody. Mine.” He exhaled and leaned against the kitchen island. “And she’s not a witness.”
“But-“
“She didn’t see anything, Sheil. Forget it.”
I nearly fell over. I was sitting here, watching one federal agent tell another one to ignore the truth. The truth that was staring every single person in the room in the face.
Connor was breaking about fifty laws trying to protect me. He had since the moment he’d taken me to his house and chained me up.
And he was doing it all for me.