Page 7 of With This Kiss
Makar handed me a fresh cup of coffee. I nodded in thanks and took a big gulp, ignoring the scalding hot liquid as it flowed down my throat.
Fuck, but I was tired.
The sun wasn’t even up yet. I was here by three this morning, and already things were moving along. I didn’t sleep. I lay in bed for about two hours, my mind racing a million miles an hour, and the fucking demon was running rampant in my brain, making it impossible for even a minute of peace before I dragged my ass out of bed and drove here with a still-drunk Baran.
I looked around me as men moved the goods off the ship and into shipping containers nearby. Those would be transported out of the port and into one of the Bratva-owned warehouses around the city.
There were cops posted at a shipping port, but it was the wrong shipping port, about three hours away from where we were. By the time they realized the information they got was false, we would have already moved the goods out of here.
“Is Kingston expecting trouble with the Caparelli Famiglia or something? Is that why he wants us here for this?” Makar grumbled, sipping his own cup of coffee.
“Or he just wants to show us who’s boss,” Baran said quietly under his breath.
I elbowed him on the side. “Stop talking shit and stay vigilant.”
“I doubt we need to bethatvigilant. You already planned the entire thing to a T. We have men posted in and around the port, as well as within a five-mile radius. We will know ahead of time if trouble decides to show up,” Makar commented.
I grunted. I didn’t want there to be any surprises. It didn’t hurt to be extra cautious, and it wasn’t like the Bratva was short on men.
Still.
There had been a restless feeling inside that I didn’t know how to explain away.
It was as if something big was about to happen, drastically changing everything for me, whether I was ready for it or not.
Fuck me, but I didn’t know what that was.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out.
Rose’s name flashed on the screen.
Shouldn’t she still be passed out drunk on the bed I had put her in earlier? Why the fuck was she calling me now?
“Aren’t you going to answer?” Makar asked when my phone vibrated with another call.
I held in the irritation I could feel building in my chest and answered the phone, holding it up to my ear.
“Baby,” she breathed out over the line. The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end, and I nearly hung up without saying anything. The only reason I stayed was that Rose was nothing if not persistent.
“What?”
“Where did you go? I miss you,” she slurred.
“You’re still drunk. Go back to sleep.”
“Am not,” she argued, sounding like a petulant child, which filled me with disgust.
I grunted.
“I’m going to sleep in your bed. Naked. I don’t know why you put me in the guest room, but I don’t like it. And when you come home later… we can play.”
I kept my face neutral, not saying anything. Baran obviously heard her through the phone, though, because he started making crude gestures with his hips. I kicked the back of his knees, knocking him off balance. He turned and glared at me while Makar snickered.
I hung up the phone without answering her.
She could sleep wherever the hell she wanted in my apartment. I wasn’t coming back home until later tonight, anyway. And hopefully, by the time that happened, she would already be gone.
“Brother, you either have to cut her off or marry her. The girl is clinging to you tighter than kittens to their mother’s tits,” Baran said.
