I can’t help but drop my eyes to her body as she moves off the bed and comes my way. Two nights ago, she wore a dress that hid her curves. Today, her body is barely covered and I’ve got curves for days coming at me. My gaze zeroes in on the skimpy tank that meets pink panties before leading to long tanned legs made for sin.
Christ.
I jerk my eyes back up to hers. “Go back to bed.” She doesn’t need to know why I’m here; I don’t want to scare her.
“Go back to bed?” Yeah, she’s pissed.
“Yes.”
I’ve almost made it back outside when her fingers curl around my bicep and dig into my skin as she attempts to slow me down. “Do you storm into people’s houses often or are we the lucky ones?”
“Fuck,” I mutter as I stop and face her. “I don’t have time to get into this with you, Zara. I have shit to do for King.”
Her hands go to her hips and she flashes anger at me. “I don’t give a shit what you have to do for him; I want to know why you came here and why you think it’s okay to wake us up and then leave with no explanation.”
“I told you,” Holly says as she comes down the hall to where Zara and I are arguing. “She’s grumpy in the mornings and doesn’t like being woken up.”
“Yeah, I’ve got that.” I look back at Zara who’s still shooting daggers at me. “King will fill you in.”
Before she can keep at me, I stalk outside to my bike and make a call to King.
“Yeah?” he answers.
“We may have a problem. Ricardo made a threat against Zara and I couldn’t tell if it was legit or not. I’ve just checked on her to make sure she’s okay, and she is, but do you want me to stay here and keep watch until we can figure out what the go is, or do you wanna send someone else so I can get over to Hagarty?”
“Fucking hell.” His wrath surfaces and I can imagine the look of extreme displeasure crossing his face. “What the fuck do you mean you couldn’t tell if it was legit? You couldn’t find a way to drag that information out of him?” Zara mightn’t be his daughter by blood, but they sure as shit share the same temper.
“He stopped breathing before I could get it out of him.”
He’s silent for a few moments, which is not like King. That lets me know this shit is as serious as I thought. Fuck knows what King has going on at any time; he keeps a lot close to his chest and only shares information when it’s absolutely necessary. When he answers me, his voice has the low, vibrating anger I don’t hear often from him. It’s the anger that means he’s not only pissed, he’s out for blood, too. “Stay there for now. I’ll find someone to replace you.”
The line goes dead at the same time Zara gets in my face again. She’s dressed now, wearing a loose, black dress that can only be described as dull, and yet, because I’ve now seen those curves of hers, it seems anything but dull.
“Can you please tell me what’s going on?” Her anger is nowhere to be seen now, but I’m getting the sense she’s still feeling it, just not showing it, because those brown eyes of hers are still flashing wildly at me. But also in there is something else. Fear.
It’s the fear that reaches me; it reminds me of what I saw too much of in my mother’s eyes while growing up. So I give her what I can to calm that fear. I figure that living with King has opened her eyes to the shit that goes on in this world, so there’s no need to hide the basics. “A threat was made against Storm; I had to check you guys were okay. You are, so all is good.”
The fear doesn’t leave her eyes. “How bad is this threat?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Are you staying?”
“Yeah. Until King sends someone else.”
She relaxes a little. “How worried should I be?”
Fuck, this is the shit I don’t want to get into with her. Not when I don’t know how King wants this handled. “How about you go back inside and leave me to deal with this?” My voice has turned hard in an effort to stop any further conversation.
“And how about you stop treating me like a child and give me some information?” The attitude blazing from her could start a fire.
“Last I knew, you are a child. At least, you act like one. So do us both a favour and go inside and stop asking me shit you know better than to ask me.”
Her lips press together. “I’m almost nineteen; that’s hardly a child.”
“As far as I’m concerned, Zara, you’re King’s child, so I’m gonna leave this shit for him to tell you. Now get your ass inside and let me do my fucking job.”
Those lips of hers smash together even harder. “Has anyone ever told you you’re an asshole?”