Ghost (Boston Underworld #3) - A. Zavarelli Page 0,75

information I’ve been keeping on Arman. He is here in the states, staying in a posh hotel while he awaits the return of Talia. He’s going to be waiting a little longer.

Franco returns with the file a moment later and hands it to Rory. But it is Ronan who will carry this out. This is his specialty.

“These are the locations of two warehouses where he is holding our shipments. I need you to hit them and make it look like an Italian job.”

He raises a brow at me, and I shrug. “Or someone else. Whatever you choose, so long as it is not one of us. There can be no doubts.”

“I will sort it out,” Ronan gives me his assurances. “Two days maximum.”

It’s a reach, considering his current state, but I don’t argue with him. I just need it done, and it can’t have any implications that it was connected to the Vory in any way. Arman will look like a fool again, and it will buy me more time. More time to study his operations and find the best way to make him disappear without raising questions.

“Would ye mind terribly if we crashed here for a wee bit?” Rory asks. “We’ve caught some heat back in Boston.”

I don’t particularly care to have them roaming my house. This is why I live so far from everyone else. Because they don’t visit as often and leave me to my solitude. But now that we have an alliance with them, it is my duty to be hospitable.

Before I can even give them an answer, Ronan takes it upon himself to add another reason. One he knows I can’t turn down.

“Sasha is having my baby. We need a safe place for her to stay.”

“You can have the third floor,” I tell him. “But you’ll need to use the back entrance when you come and go. And stay off this level. I have my own pregnant wife to worry about, and we like our privacy.”

Ronan is surprised by my words, but I don’t give him any further explanation. I am anxious to get to my bed. To be inside of Talia.

I move to the door, and Rory follows.

I leave them to their business and move down the hall to my room.

Talia is asleep. Her blonde hair spread like a halo across my black pillow. She looks beautiful. And when I lift the covers and see her naked, my cock is painfully hard.

But I don’t wake her when I climb in behind her. Instead, I simply pull her against my body, breathing in her scent and soaking up her warmth. She sighs a contented sigh and nuzzles in closer to me.

And that’s exactly how we fall asleep.

41

Talia

Life with Alexei is a pattern.

Never a straight line. Always a series of highs and lows as we get to know each other. Discover more of each other.

I learn new things about him every day.

Everything he does is done with precision. Carefully considered and weighed out before he decides. A simple trip from his home often takes him several days to prepare.

I know it is because the world has been a cold and cruel place to him. He doesn’t like to feel vulnerable. But he is. He is especially vulnerable when he leaves the house. Always worrying that his secret will be discovered.

His mind must be switched on all the time. He muttered to me once, under his breath, that I had become a distraction for him at the dinner parties. It worries him. But he likes it too.

I like being his distraction.

Which is why I often find myself in his office, in the middle of the day, like I am right now. He likes the way I look on the outside. And he accepts that I’m a whole lot of fucked up on the inside.

But I make myself pretty for him. Every day. In these designer clothes that don’t belong on the likes of me. And then he dirties me up with his eyes and his hands and his cock.

When he sees me today though, he seems distracted by something else. And I don’t like it at all. I want to be the center of his world. I want to be so much more than his wife in name and his fuck toy in the bedroom. Want is a dangerous thing.

Still, I walk around behind him and touch his shoulders. He tilts his head back against the chair to look up at me, and I lean down and