Smoke (The Carelli Family Saga #1) - Eden Butler Page 0,53

on whatever it was that he’d been taking. I’d always assumed he’d stayed that way for the past year. “If he’s gotten sober, then he’s a dangerous man.”

Smoke smiled, the same smile he reserved for me when I tried to leave his bed in the middle of the night. It meant he’d end up getting his way.

“I know you’re dangerous too…”

“Baby, you don’t know the half of it.” He lowered his smile but didn’t let it drop from his mouth.

I rested against the wall, taking his hand when he kissed my palm. “Maybe not, but if Alejandro is motivated and sober? Then we’re in trouble. He’s the most motivated man I’ve ever met when there’s something he wants.”

“You’re saying he wants you?”

He looked away when I shrugged, seeming indifferent about my non-answer until he grabbed me around my waist, kissing me one last time. “He’s too fucking late and I don’t give a shit what he wants. You and that baby,” he nodded toward the stairs, punctuating his point by pulling me close, “you are mine, same as I am yours. There’s no way I’m letting some drugged-out asshole take you away from me.” He stepped back, gripping my fingers in his hands. “Now come on.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, as he moved us to the building entrance.

Dimitri paused long enough to open the door and stretch out his arm for me to walk inside. “To get our boy and call-in reinforcements.” When I stopped, tugging on his hand, he grinned, holding up his palm to calm me. “Stop worrying. It’s not what you think.”

“And what am I thinking?”

He scratched the stubble on his chin and nodded me toward the lobby. “That I’m gonna lock you and the baby in a room with a bunch of no-neck guards sporting nines and wearing holsters.”

When I shot my eyebrows up and tilted my head, giving him a silent confirmation, the man laughed, rolling his eyes.

“Give me a little credit, yeah? I’ve got something scarier than that shit planned for your ex.”

“What the hell could be scarier than armed guards?” I asked, waiting as he pushed the call button for the elevator.

He grabbed me around the waist again, kissing me once before the doors opened. His laugh was calm, sweet and got lowered when I looked at him.

“Me, baby, and whatever the hell I come up with to protect what’s mine.”

14

Smoke

She was still nervous. Maggie clutched my hand as the elevator shot up the building, moving her fingers in a beat across the top on my hand. One two, one, two, until the skin on my knuckles itched.

I covered her fingers, grinning down at her. The woman smiled back, the same lazy, sweet gesture I got any time I’d done anything that made her feel good.

“You’re fine. Promise,” I told her, meaning it to put her at ease, calm her a little as the car stopped and the doors opened.

“I am now, but we have to hurry. I’ve left them alone too long already,” she said, though it came out through a sigh. She hated admitting she liked my being there to have her back. I understood wanting to find your own way without anyone’s help, but this was different.

This was no street tussle.

She let me hold her hand. I felt the way her fingers trembled, how she couldn’t keep the shake out of her limbs, how her gaze kept jumping to the numbers above the elevator door. Maggie was terrified. Whatever this asshole had done to her—and I suspected it was plenty—one thing I knew was her fear was about more than any threat he posed to her.

Fear was my bread and butter. I knew it when I saw it.

And I knew when someone’s worry had nothing to do with them. When they were vulnerable. Maggie didn’t look at me when I squeezed her hand, didn’t pull her gaze from the numbers climbing higher and higher above the doors. It was obvious.

This was about Mateo. Nothing else mattered.

The second we stepped out of the elevator and came ten feet from her door, I knew something was off. Maggie seemed to sense it too.

We stopped at the same time, spotting her door and the sliver of light coming from it underneath and at the side.

“Do you ever…” I started.

But she held on so tight to my hand, her head moving in a wordless shake that I didn’t have to finish asking her.

“Shit.”

She came with me slow, not arguing, not putting up a