Page 33 of Because I Need You
“What warehouses?”
“The ones your father owned. I need those keys from you. I’m assuming that’s why you and I are in the situation we’re in to begin with, to ensure they don’t land on anyone else’s’ lap.”
“Oh.” I rocked back slightly and decided to get out of bed because this was suddenly feeling weird now that Nadia wasn’t here. I stood at the edge of it, by the bench, and set a knee there. Giovanni stopped pacing momentarily, and let his eyes fall over me again. He looked like he wanted to eat me whole, and I felt like I might just let him. No. I have a boyfriend. I dropped my knee and straightened. He returned to his pacing, so I spoke again, “My father didn’t leave any keys. Not that I know of, anyway.”
“Trust me, he left them. We just need to find them.”
“What’s in the warehouses?”
He stopped pacing again, looked over one of his broad shoulders. “It’s best you don’t know.”
“Oh,” I whispered, trying to figure out why, then I realized my father definitely was involved in illegal activity and said, “Oh.”
“Exactly,” he said, “Which is why it’s imperative I find this before whoever came after you does. Did they have accents? Tattoos? Anything you can remember.”
I thought about it. “They didn’t have accents when they spoke English, but two of them were speaking another language that I didn’t know.”
“Spanish?”
“I know Spanish,” I said. “This was nowhere near Spanish.”
At that, he stopped pacing again, just a few feet in front of me. He looked at me again, as if I was some kind of puzzle he couldn’t solve. I would have thought a man like him would have all of my information by now, down to my grandmother and mother’s names at Ellis Island. Apparently, not, though, because I could see the questions brewing behind those dark eyes. For some strange reason, I wanted to answer each and every one of them. Maybe it was because I’d met a different version of him. A charming, funny one. One that I was sure I wouldn’t see again, and somehow, that made me a little sad. I inwardly slapped myself again.
“What were they speaking then?” He took a step forward. It made butterflies come alive in my stomach.
“I don’t know. I don’t know every language in the world.” I looked down momentarily, desperate to get out of the intensity of his stare. “When can I call Will?”
“Not yet.”
“But when?”
“Soon, okay?” He shut his eyes and tilted his head back. I kept my eyes on his long neck, the dip of his Adam’s Apple. He straightened and looked at me again. I wasn’t sure what expression was on my face, but it must have been something he wasn’t expecting, something he liked, because he ran his tongue over his bottom lip and looked at mine, eyes darkening again. My chest tightened and it suddenly felt ten degrees hotter in the room. His mouth twisted into a slow, sexy smile that made my pulse race behind my ears. “You sure it’s your boyfriend you want?”
Holy shit. My heart went into overtime, as fast as it was beating. The door opened behind him. His smile dropped, expression blank, just like that. In a blink of an eye, he’d composed himself, while I was trying not to clench my thighs together. We both looked at Nadia, who didn’t say anything as she walked over to me with a piece of aloe. Not a bottle, but a piece of an aloe tree, broken in half. I raised my arms and turned them over for her to apply it.
“I had to go outside and cut this, so it took a little longer,” she said, “And my girls left with their dad, so I had to say goodbye and kiss them twice.”
“You have daughters?” For some reason, that soothed me as much as the aloe.
“Five-year-old twins.” She looked up at me. “They’re the biggest pains in the ass, and the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“I taught first grade for a year,” I said, “They’re so cute at that age.”
“What grade do you teach now?”
“Seventh and eighth mostly.”
“God.” She laughed, setting my arms down slowly. “That sounds worse than being Gio’s assistant.”
“Probably equally as taxing.” I smiled, looking over her shoulder, where he was standing, still staring at me with that unreadable expression on his face.
“Probably.” Nadia laughed lightly. “The housekeeper is making pancakes. You’re free to stay here, resting, or go down there and eat. I think it’s best if you stay in this house until further notice, though, at least until we know it’s safe.”
“Okay.” I swallowed, nodding. “I need my phone, though.”
“No.” Gio’s voice boomed behind her. “Not yet.”
“I won’t tell Will what happened,” I said. “But I need to tell my friends I’m safe. I was talking to Luke when I got to the house, and they were shaken up about the bar getting ransacked. And Will is going to call on his way to work, so I need to answer, otherwise, he’ll send the cops looking for me.”
