Chapter 190: No Immediate Danger
- LUCIANO -
"So are you going to sleep on this deck tonight or am I?" I ask Dex after Raya goes to check on Rory inside.
He gives me a wry look and then groans. "Nothing is going to happen, Luci."
"I know that’s the life that you’re used to living, cuzzo. But it’s not mine."
"It has to be exhausting to think someone is going to jump out of the bushes at any given moment."
He has no idea.
"That’s why you trusted me to watch over your girl while you were out of town, right? I anticipate the ones who come jumping out of bushes."
He nods and stares off into the jungle. "Are you ever able to relax, Luci?"
"Was Kenneth Rider the stalker you had me watching out for?" I ask instead of responding to his question.
"No, he had been caught by then. But only by a few days. I guess I was paranoid after that." His jaw grinds. "Sorry I misled you."
Normally I would be pissed to find that he lied and used me as security detail for the woman he loves when I have so many more important things to do. It’s insulting, and it shows how privileged and spoiled and entirely naive Dex is about the family. He should have never asked me to do that if it wasn’t true.
But I saw Rory for the first time because of it. And now that I’ve gotten to know these two sisters better, I can’t blame Dex for being paranoid that something else might have happened to Raya while he was gone. In fact, I think he should be more paranoid now.
"You should consider hiring security for her," I tell him.
"Why? We have that state of the art system you put in the house now," he chuckles. "It’s not like I’m a Made Man in the family."
"You’re related. Sometimes that’s enough."
"When was the last time you even had problems like that, Luci?" He asks, appearing slightly irritated now.
"You don’t want to know things like that, Dex."
When he continues staring at me like he’s expecting an answer, I sigh and rake a hand through my hair.
"Other families like ours don’t get involved on the West coast. It’s the Russian Bratva who fuck with us. They’re cocky bastards. No morals. And they really like our territory. I pissed one of them off awhile back, and since then they’ve had it out for us in a personal way."
"What did you do?" He frowns, and then his attention flickers back inside where Raya has started walking back out of the bedroom. "Never mind. I don’t want to know," he mutters before she emerges on the deck.
"Everything okay?" He asks her.
Human expressions are so fascinating. Sometimes it’s hard to even pinpoint how an emotion gets conveyed. There are things revealed with the eyes, but every single muscle in the face has a part to play, and right now several of Raya’s look drawn and tense. Her lips press together in indecision before she decides to flash Dex a crooked smile.
"What’s wrong?" I ask, hoping to retrieve more truth than whatever polite, reassuring words are about to form.
Raya is a peacemaker, and she has found herself in a difficult position. That’s what her expression says to me. I want to know what that difficult position is, because it obviously has to do with her sister.
The edge of her lips falls. "Nothing," she shrugs—lying. "Rory’s tired. She fell asleep already."
I cross my arms and watch Dex’s little liar walk to his side and sit down. When she glances at me, prepared to engage in friendly conversation, her eyes flare a little wider and dart back to Dex with fluttering lashes before returning my way. Now I have Raya looking like a startled animal and Dex glaring with that protective predatory darkness of his revealing itself again. It’s cute.
They both stare at me like they’re expecting an aggressive line of questioning, but I just cock my head to the side and wait for the truth. Raya will offer what’s on her mind. She’s not the labyrinth of darkness that her sister is.
"I’m worried," she finally says with a sigh.
"Okay." I nod calmly, gesturing for her to continue.
"We’re all worried," Dex says. "But today was a good start, don’t you think? She seems a little more relaxed than she has been. She definitely talked more than I’ve heard her in a long time."
Rather than point out that there’s obviously something new worrying Raya, I just shift my gaze her way again. By now, she’s probably getting the sense that I can read her. If she considers at all why this is a skill someone like me would have, I doubt she will bother with pretenses.
It’s not like I expect her to tell me her sister’s secrets, but if there’s something going on with Rory that we need to know, she better reveal it. And there is. I can feel it.
"God, I’m probably just paranoid now," she says, the rest of that serene facade sliding from her expression. The tension and concern return, and she looks really tired. Tired and worried.
"You have intuition for a reason, Raya. You need to trust it," I tell her. "What’s going on? What are you worried about?"
"Well... everything now," she sighs again. "But there’s this one specific thing. Rory had a hole in her heart when she was younger. She was always really tired. When she got breathless after running just short distances all the time, it was finally discovered. But it was small enough that it closed on its own. She’s still supposed to see a cardiologist for it. How tired she got today just reminded me of all those times..."
I’m out of the chair and stalking toward the bedroom before she can go on.
"Luci," Raya hisses, catching up to me and grabbing my arm. "You can’t just go in there. Please. What if you scare her? That’s the last thing she needs."
"You think Rory could have a heart problem, and you’re worried I’m going to scare her?"
"She’s not in any immediate danger," she says, tugging me away from the door. Dex is standing behind us, hands shoved in his pockets while he watches me let Raya guide me back out. "I promise you that I will keep a very close eye on her while we’re here. It’s best that she doesn’t drink much just in case. But it’s probably nothing. Like I said, I’m just... paranoid."
With a heavy sigh, I return to the chair I was in and bury my head in my hands, trying to shake the immediate anxiety that spiked with this new information. Why? Why this, too? With every other fucking thing that I have to worry about, now there’s this. And it’s not something I can shoot to get rid of.
"She’ll be fine," Raya adds, regaining that reassuring grace that makes her want to put everyone at ease.
My chest tightens.
"You two gonna be here for awhile?" I ask without looking up.
"Yeah," Dex says, and I get up—needing to move, needing to check the area, needing to do something.
I feel Dex and Raya’s curious stares follow me as I descend the steps that take me out into the forest where the golden glow of lights strung across the deck can’t reach. There’s probably some creepy shit that prowls the forest when the sun goes down. Good. I’ll fit right in.
