I laughed lightly and finished up what I was doing, pulling the screen of Rhiannon back up. I wonder how pissed she’d be if she knew I had cameras in our room.
Would it make her feel better if she knew I was the only one who could access the feed? It was probably best not to tell her at all. She tended to overreact sometimes over the littlest things. Our engagement dinner was a prime example of that.
“Why are you in here and not with the princess? How did the dinner go?”
I proceeded to tell him about the dinner, starting from our drive to my famiglia’s home that morning. He listened intently, not commenting or saying a word until I was done.
“I don’t see a problem,” he said after pondering over something. “I mean, I do but that isn’t where I was going with this.”
“But what is the problem?”
“I’m not going to answer that we’d be here until next year. It seems to me you two are picking up where you left off before we all pulled a Punk’d and Marcus’ bitch ass was killed.”
I wasn’t amused. “Was the last part of that necessary? The prank part, you know I agree about Marcus. Evie can’t join him soon enough.”
He sat taller and clasped his hands against his stomach. “You haven’t told her yet, right?”
“No, my sister did but Rhiannon hasn’t brought it up yet. I’ll guide her into that conversation if need be. Rhiannon needs to feel like she’s got a semblance of control until she’s ready to help steer the ship. Things will go as they should.”
“And Rochelle?”
I furrowed my brows, not understanding his question. “What about her?”
“Don’t you think that might be a problem?”
“She’s a means to an end. She’ll meet her soon.”
His eyes widened in genuine shock. “You’re bringing her here? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Why else would I be doing it? That aside what did you do with the pills I had you switch?”
“I hid them in the warehouse office safe.”
I nodded to show that was good. Taking notice of the time I began shutting my system down. It was a little past midnight which meant my twenty-four-hour promise had more or less been fulfilled.
“Where is my revolver, the silver one?” I asked, making sure I grabbed Rhiannon’s new set of keys and cellphone.
“In your third safe…do I want to know why?”
“It’s sentimental.”
“Bullshit if I ever heard it,” he retorted. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing.”
He sighed and leaned forward, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Then why are you asking about a gun?”
“I want to make my future wife’s first time unforgettable.”
He nearly fell out of his chair scrambling after me as I exited the room.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
When emotions were running rampant, I seemed to overlook specifics. It was a bad habit that needed to be broken pronto if being with Judas was my new reality.
The room seemed larger than it had last night. I was just as exhausted, if not more so than when I crashed out. Yet, for some reason, I couldn’t find that same dreamless escape. Every ten or fifteen minutes I was waking up. It wasn’t helping any that Judas’ house was as silent as a crypt.
I was going to turn the TV on, but the remote wasn’t in any of the obvious places.
I considered going to find Audrey, but I didn’t have it in me to have that conversation either, not tonight.
I gripped the comforter and pulled it over my head as I rolled onto my stomach. At least the bed was comfortable. Squeezing my eyes closed, I began to count backward from a hundred inside my head. My goal was to pass out in-between counts.
I got to sixty when I heard the bedroom door open and close with a soft snick. I knew right away it was Judas. My heart lurched but I continued to count, forcing myself to remain lax. At fifty-three the edge of the bed dipped as he sat down beside me.
“You can’t fall asleep.” I more felt than heard him shift. His hand came to rest on the center of my back.
I pulled the blanket down just far enough to look at him. “I don’t know if it’s creepy or endearing that you still know me so well after all this time.”
“We’re still the same people, principessa. We’ve grown up is all. At least one of us has.”
I failed to suppress a smile at his teasing tone. “Yeah, I’ve always heard girls mature faster than boys. When do you think you’ll catch up?”
He grinned and shifted so that his body was more angled towards mine. As he stared down at me, his smile slowly faded and the hand on my back began to move in circles. I couldn’t bring make myself look away, remembering the first time I’d seen him after our late-night rendezvous.