Mine to Keep (NOLA Knights #3) - Rhenna Morgan Page 0,42

let out a heavy sigh. So, now what should she do?

Um, getting your ass to work would be a great idea. If the sun’s that bright, ain’t no way you’re the early bird today.

Shit.

She scrambled out of bed and patted her pockets. Where the hell was her phone? Her backpack? Hustling to the chair, she set aside her boots and checked her jacket pockets.

Nothing.

Okay. No reason to panic. Roman probably put her backpack down when he was carrying her in. Hard enough to navigate a dark house while lugging a woman around. Freeing up a little extra weight seemed reasonable. So, she’d just hit the restroom, see if she couldn’t get what felt like fuzzy socks off her teeth with her finger and head downstairs. Easy peasy.

She did her business in the bathroom, only marginally gaping at the fancy details she found there. Like how the vanity appeared to have once been a wide dresser from an historic home and was topped in a gray marble that perfectly matched the accents in his bedroom. Or the bathtub that was capable of letting a man his size plus a few friends soak for however long they liked. And the shower...gee whiz. Yeah, she’d seen commercials on TV where people had more than one shower head, but actually seeing it in person was a trip. Did he actually use them all at once? Or did he favor the wide waterfall one at the top?

She shook her head, wiped her mouth with the hand towel she’d found waiting on the vanity and folded it back the way she’d found it. “Rich people are weird.”

Boots and jacket back on, she eased open the bedroom door and listened.

No sounds greeted her, but the unmistakable nutty scent of coffee hung thick in the air. Really freaking good coffee by the smell of it. The kind that hit you with that rich, caramelized warmth you got whenever you walked into a coffee shop.

She eased forward, slowly taking in the details as she went. Pale gray walls. Brushed silver accents. Tasteful pictures and more of the gray carpeting that muffled her every step.

Yeah, be careful about sneaking up on him, yo? Or have you forgotten how easily he stuck that knife in that dude’s back?

She shook her head and made her way down the stairs. No, she’d never forget that. Not as long as she lived. Or the raw fury and wildness on his face as he’d done it. Roman Kozlov was absolutely a dangerous man when crossed. No doubt about it. A fact she’d be wise to remember going forward.

He would never hurt you.

The thought whispered through her as her feet hit the first-floor landing, a surety behind it that seemed incongruent with the violence she’d witnessed.

But he had been kind to her.

Protective and patient.

She shook off the internal debate and focused on getting her bearings. Nothing else mattered right now. Only getting to work and figuring out what the fuck she was going to do next.

To her right, a simple, yet tasteful living room full of ivory and gold décor stood empty, so she turned for the kitchen with the Travertine floors in soft taupes and grays on her right. The space was nowhere near as large as Evette and Sergei’s kitchen had been—more of a long gallery with a cooking space on one end and a cozy nook at the other with a wide window overlooking the street. The details were nothing to sneeze at, though. The stainless steel cooktop and oven with its massive overhead exhaust looked like it had been picked for a giant, and all of the other appliances were equally shiny and new. The cabinets were stained a deep cherry and looked like they’d cost a mint.

But there was no sign of the Russian.

Tucked to the right of the wide sink, a fancy-looking coffee maker sat with a half-full pot of coffee. Her stomach grumbled in encouragement, but the blue neon clock on the display doused any hope of lingering for a caffeine jolt. If it was already 11:45 a.m., she was already nearly four hours late to the station. First order of business was finding her phone and talking Roman into a ride. “Roman?”

“In here.”

She padded through the kitchen to the exit at the far end which put her back out in the main hallway. The soft click of fingers on a keyboard sounded in the room across the hall. His office—and a really nice one at that. Lots of