Page 27 of Guarding the Shadows
“He is not in trouble. I’m the one who started this. Raff has always been completely appropriate toward me.”
“Until he wasn’t. What the fuck was he thinking? Oh, that’s right, it wasn’t his big head that was in charge here tonight, right?” he ranted.
“That’s it. I’m not having this conversation with you,” I barked.
“That’s fine. I don’t need to talk to you about it. Raff on the other hand …” he said, determinedly punching his password into his cell phone.
“If you fire him, I’ll never speak to you again,” I warned, sounding distressed.
“Oh, he must have taken good care of you when you’re defending him over your brother,” he goaded.
I knocked his cell phone out of his hand. It hit the floor and disappeared under a heavy cabinet.
“What the fuck, Beth? And they say it’s us guys that think with our dicks. Looks like it isn’t only men after all.”
“Don’t be obtuse. Let me ask you this. Do you really understand the sacrifice your security men make when guarding the Shadows? You couldn’t live safely without them. They know this and would take a bullet for you, but you can sit there and think you own them? Shame on you. We might have the same dead-beat father, Levi. But I expect better from you.”
Levi fell quiet and stared for so long, I considered whether he was conjuring up special ways of torture for Raff after having sex with me, or if he was mulling over what I’d said.
“And what if I let this happen?”
“Again, you don’t own Raff or any of the other guys.”
“I’ve known him a long time,” Levi argued.
“What the hell does that mean? Was he faithful to Gwen? Or-or, is my perception of him as a good man wrong? I mean, is he a manwhore like you were?”
Levi huffed out a breath, scooped his hair in a man bun and held it on top of his head. “You’re my sister.”
“And you’re my brother. What are you saying? Is me having a relationship with one of your bodyguards beneath me?”
Levi snorted. “Now who’s being obtuse?”
“Am I? Would it have been better if I’d found myself a rich rock star like Esther did?”
“Stop it,” Levi ground out. “Raff knew messing with family was a sackable offense.”
“He did, and he made sure I knew it. If you want to blame anyone for what we did, blame me … and yes, I hope we do it multiple times in the future,” I confessed for good measure.
“Right, I get how you feel. What does he think?”
“Do you need to ask? He thinks I’m worth the risk of losing his job. What does that tell you, Levi?”
Levi sighed. “I don’t know how this is going to work.”
“That’s the most reasonable thing you’ve said since you saw that belt.”
“I’m still getting him out of bed. If you’re hell bent on doing this with him, you at least owe me a word.”
25
Raff
“Get your ass back in this suite,” Levi ground out, sounding pissed. I blinked myself awake enough to get out of bed and pull my cargo pants on. I squinted at the time on my cell again several times before the numbers came into focus. It was only 4:25.
My heart stuttered in my chest as I staggered out of bed, and stood numbly again, feeling nervous to face the consequence of following my heart instead of my head. Yawning, I scrubbed my hand over my buzz cut and slid it down my bare chest while I tried to get my bearings. Then, I figured I had to get whatever my fate was over with so I could go back to bed.
Pulling on the same T-shirt as I’d worn before bed, I went to face the music. “Fuck. Now the shit’s really hit the fan,” I mumbled to myself. My heart pounded as I unlocked the connecting door between my room and Beth’s suite.
