Broken Vow (Brutal Birthright #5) - Sophie Lark Page 0,30
then run for the double glass doors.
Compared to outside, the inside of the office building feels warm and pleasant. I can smell coffee and fresh muffins from the cafe on the ground floor.
I escort Riona all the way up to her office. Most of the people on her floor have gotten used to seeing me by now. Especially the paralegal Lucy—she gives me a little smile and wave.
I settle down in my favorite chair in the corner of Riona’s office while Riona dives right into her work. I see her plowing through folder after folder every day, but the pile of stuff she needs to get done never seems to shrink. She must be adding to it constantly.
After about an hour, we’re surprised by a knock at the door.
It’s Dante and Nero. Dante’s wearing a proper pea coat, but Nero only has on a black t-shirt and jeans. I’m guessing he’s too hot-headed to ever feel the cold.
Dante says to me, “I thought you might want to go talk to that ex-employee with me. Nero can stay here with Riona.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Riona says without looking up from her papers. “I can be here alone for an hour. There’s a hundred people on the floor with me.”
“Well, I’m already here,” Nero says. “So you may as well enjoy my company.”
He slouches over to my chair, flopping down on it as soon as I’ve vacated the spot. He goes to put his feet up on Riona’s glass coffee table. Still without looking up, she says, “Don’t even think about it.”
Nero grins and swings his legs over the arm of the chair instead, sitting sideways.
It’s strange. I never had a problem with Nero—I like all Dante’s siblings. But I find myself not wanting to leave him here with Riona. I tell myself it’s because I’m supposed to be watching her, keeping her safe. That’s my job. But if I’m totally honest, I look at Nero with his outrageous good looks and his air of menace that I know appeals to women in a very specific way, and I feel something just a little too close to jealousy.
Which is idiotic. Dante already told me that Nero is head over heels for some girl named Camille, and Riona is likewise taken by somebody else. So there’s nothing to be jealous about here. Not even a little bit.
Still, I leave the office in a strange kind of mood.
Once we’re back in the elevator, Dante says, “How’s it going with Riona?”
“Good.” I nod.
“Actually good?” Dante asks.
“Yeah. I mean, we’ve got our differences . . . ”
Dante chuckles. “I bet. She’s great, though. Once you get below the prickly surface.”
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s what I’m finding,”
I’m not planning to tell Dante about my fight with Riona. I’m definitely not going to tell him about the kiss. That was pure stupidity. I won’t do that again.
Instead I say, “You want me to drive? I got a pretty sick ride.”
Dante chuckles. “You better. Nero brought me over in some crazy old car that felt like it was gonna fall apart trying to carry me around. I don’t think they built cars for people my size back in the 50s.”
“I don’t think they had people your size.”
“Exactly. You ever seen a bodybuilder from the 50s? They were like 178 pounds soaking wet.”
“You could have a real career in the circus if we could get you a time machine, take you back to the old-timey days.”
“Thanks,” Dante snorts. “Nobody delivers a compliment like you, Long Shot.”
Dante has the address for Luke Barker, the guy Oran fired after he apparently tried to get touchy with Riona at the company Christmas party.
It’s been almost a year since then, so it seems unlikely to me that the guy’s still holding a grudge. Worth running down every lead, though.
Dante and I drive out to his house in the Loop. It’s a pretty Tudor-style place on a tree-lined street. Looks nice enough from the exterior.
“You sure he’s home?” I ask Dante. “In the middle of the day?”
“Yeah,” Dante says. “I called him earlier.”
Despite that, it takes quite a while for Barker to answer the door after we knock. I hear the sound of something being knocked over in the hallway, and an irritated curse. Then he pulls the door open, still dressed in a bathrobe and looking bleary-eyed and unshaven.
“What?” he says. Then, on spotting Dante, “Oh, right. Come in.”
The inside of the house is a lot less well-maintained than the outside. It smells