Page 4 of The King of Hearts

“Of course.”

My brows pinch together. What is Dad hiding? Obviously, it’s something he thinks will upset my mother and me. Something big, considering the severity in their voices.

To say my father and brothers are protective of the females in this family would be the understatement of a lifetime. Sometimes, they take that protection a bit too far. Most times, I get it. Especially considering what my family does for a living. Even more so because of what happened when I was thirteen.

“Does your father know you listen in on his private conversations?”

The deep voice comes from so close behind me that I can feel the heat of his breath.

I spin around, my heart damn near in my throat. I clap a hand over my mouth to hold in my screech of surprise. I stare at the man, wide-eyed, for all of two seconds before I recognize him.

“Hey, Vina,” Tomas, my longtime friend, greets me, his white teeth flashing with his big smile.

I shove a hand against his chest. “You’re an ass for scaring me like that.”

He laughs, the sound deep and boisterous. “Yeah, but it’s fun.”

“Jerk,” I mutter, but my lips twitch.

“Bitch,” he says right back.

I roll my eyes, my lips going up into a smile. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be gone a couple more days.”

“Shit happened and we had to move up our timeline.”

Concern settles in my stomach. “Is everything okay? Did it go as planned?”

“Yes. We just had a hiccup, but the end results were successful.”

I breathe a little easier. What Tomas does for my father’s company, the not so legal side of The Raven Group, is extremely dangerous and potentially disastrous if things don’t go according to plan. It happens; plans shift, schedules change, and we do what we must to accommodate those alterations, but it’s stressful as hell when it happens.

My best friend has been gone for five days. It was his first official assignment as Lead, and while I don’t like knowing he was out in the field, I know how much it means to him to be part of something as big as this. It’s been radio silence from him,something I expected. When you’re out in the field, the last thing you need is distractions from the outside world. The mission is too important, the stakes too high, to lose focus.

I’m glad he’s back and safe, and because of that blessing, I step up to him and wrap my arms around his waist. He folds his arms around me, and I soak in the woodsy smell that’s uniquely attached to him. My shoulders relax in relief, thankful I don’t have to worry about him any longer. At least not until the next assignment.

Leaning back, I peer up at him. “Missed you.”

He drops a kiss on my forehead. “Missed you too.”

It was strange not having any form of contact with him. This was the longest we’ve gone without at least talking. He and his dad, Rafaele, moved to Hollow’s Reef when I was seven and Tomas was nine. He, Emersyn, my other best friend, and I became fast friends when his dad started working for mine, and we’ve been inseparable since.

I let him go, and he pecks his lips against my nose, making me laugh and wrinkle my face.

As a boy, and up to his middle teens, Tomas was always lanky and somewhat awkward, nerdy even. Once he hit puberty, his cheeks were covered in pimples and he started wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He’s always been tall, but he was rail thin, and he kept his brown hair longer than was socially acceptable.

He’s changed a lot over the last several years. He traded the glasses in for contacts, which brings out the striking blue in his aqua eyes. I’ve always been jealous of his eyelashes because they’re so long and full. His dark-brown hair is cropped on the sides with the top just long enough to run fingers through it. His body, once slender to the point of bones protruding, has filled out and is now packed with hard muscles.

He has on a pair of well-worn jeans and a V-neck t-shirt. Boots cover his feet, and he wears a baseball cap flippedbackward. Several colorful tattoos are inked on his forearms and biceps. He has a few more on his chest and a couple on his back. He’s told me he wants his entire chest and back, along with his arms, covered. He lets me draw the designs.

All in all, my best friend is smoking hot and has starred in many a girl’s wet dreams.

“I look good, don’t I?” he asks, wide grin still in place.

“Whatever.” I slap the back of my hand against his hard abs and scoff. “You know you do.”

His eyes roam up and down my body. “It’s a good thing you look good too, or I’m afraid we couldn’t be friends anymore.”

I shake my head at his ridiculousness. “You’re impossible.”

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