Page 27 of Romancing His Heart
“Okay. See ya.”
Before I can say anything, she’s gone. “What the hell was that about? And what am I supposed to do with these?” Holding up the running sneakers, I inspect them. Size fourteen. “How did she know my shoe size?” I wear a thirteen in everything but running shoes. I’m sure even Preston doesn’t know that.
Every guy in the room just shrugs. Finally, Ashton laughs. “GG must have read it in her cards.”
“Don’t go talking bad about GG,” Trevor says from the doorway. “That woman can probably put a curse on us from her mountaintop in Vermont.”
I stand quickly, happiness filling my chest at the sound of my friend’s voice. He’s had a shitty few years. His father had been an unwilling partner in my sperm donor’s illegal activities. When Trevor found out, he used all his energy to take down his father. Our stories, while different, parallel each other in ways I wish I could have prevented. Allowing the bitterness to take over Trevor’s life for so long will always be one of my biggest regrets.
I couldn’t have succeeded in my objective without his help, though. Trevor and his software played an integral role in taking down the most dangerous crime family of our lifetime. My family.
“You,” comes a feisty voice I’ve only heard a few times before.Julia. “How are you feeling?” she asks through narrowed eyes.
“I’m good. We’re just trying to piece a few things together,” I say evasively.
“Good.” She marches straight for me but stops three feet away. With her hands on her hips, she stares at me for a long time. Then the floodgates open wide.
“Thank you, Loki. Thank you for bringing Trevor back to Charlie and me. Thank you for not listening to his stubborn ass. Thank you for putting your nose into everyone else’s business. Thank you for never giving up, for always watching our backs, even when we were too dumb to know. Thank you for playing God and for manipulating so much. I want to know how you orchestrated everything, but that can wait. Right?” She looks up at Trevor, who smiles at her with love.
“Yeah, I think a lot of this can wait,” he says, coming to her side just before she launches herself at me. For such a petite woman, she sure can squeeze the hell out of a hug.
“How, how did you know everything? How did you know Lanie would be perfect for Dex or that I needed Trevor?”
“Jules, you just threw a lot at him,” Dexter says from the hallway. “It’s looking a little crowded in there. How about if we all meet in the family room, and we can let Loki have some space before the inquisition?”
“Holy ship, are you kidding me?” Lanie has squeezed her body between Dex and the doorframe to get a peek into the room. “Loki! I don’t know if I should be angry at you or hug you and never let you go.”
Peering around the room, I suddenly wish Red were here. Somehow, I know she would get everyone to back off and give me room to breathe. It’s true that I helped bring these four together, but it wasn’t entirely altruistic. I needed Trevor whole; I needed his help, and when he lost Julia, he was never the same. Bringing them back together was the only way for me to move forward. Plus, I fucking hated seeing him so miserable.
Releasing me from the hug, Julia finally takes a step to the side and laughs. She picks up GG’s note, then holds it up for Lanie.
“GG found her next victim,” she says through a fit of giggles. I haven’t heard someone giggle in years. It’s an odd sound. Do all civilian women giggle? I’m used to operatives, and they most definitely are not gigglers.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I turn to Dex. “Yeah, I have no clue what that note means or why the fuck she would buy me sneakers.”
Entering the overly crowded room, he claps me on the back before pulling me in for a man hug. “You will. It seems you’ve got a runner on your hands.”
“A runner?”
“Yup,” Preston says cheerily. “And not of the athletic variety. You may have played the merry fucking fairy in our lives all these years, but GG is the Godmother of Greatness. If she’s pulling your cards now, I’d say you’re up next for the nuptials.”
I glance around the room, and every goddamn person in here smiles and nods as if that is just a fact of life.
“I don’t know how to tell you all this, but I’m in hiding. We don’t know who is after me. I live by ahere today gone tomorrowmantra. There are no wedding bells in my future. I don’t even know a woman, let alone one that would be a runner, as GG called her.”
Don’t forget about Red, a voice in the back of my mind tries to scream, but I shut it down before it can go any further. I’m a master of compartmentalizing. In my line of work, you have to, or you die.
With annoying confidence, Preston hands me Red’s water bottle and asks, “You sure about that, man?”
I stare at the bottle for a moment, and then as if I conjured her, I hear Red’s voice behind Lanie.
“Oh, hey, Lanie. You’re early, Emory said you wouldn’t be here for an hour, but I’m glad. I may have just started a small fire in the kitchen.”
With all the chaos of a sitcom, we stumble over each other to get to the kitchen.
When I finally make it into the hallway, Red appears confused.
“Why the hell is everyone running?” she asks, my gaze locked on hers.
