The Carrero Contract - Finding Freedom (Book 3 of Contract Trilogy)

17

After I shower in my bathroom and get dressed in my usual figure-hugging dress and sleek hair and makeup, I wander back downstairs to the club to see what needs doing. Alexi never came upstairs with me, waiting for Santagato to show up and I have no doubts they are probably in the second floor VIP lounge as we speak. I've only been up here for forty minutes since we got back, and we didn't come far. The club is literally minutes from his old bolthole and I already miss it. The way he is when we were there, the break from reality to be with that version of him, I'm already craving it.

It feels odd to be here now, back to life as though nothing's happened at all; when, in reality, absolutely everything has changed. It's only been two days and yet it feels like a week has passed since the night I thought he was dead.

My entire existence has been tipped upside down and dropped on its head magnificently. No wonder I feel so shaky and fragile in myself today. I feel like someone has held me by one foot over a cliff and I'm still dangling there.

I make my way down to the ground floor, hungry and hoping the bar girl Cheyenne is on. She makes a mean grilled cheese and we skipped breakfast, even though it's almost noon already. We slept soundly thanks to a lot of alcohol and now I'm starving, and aspirin has numbed my pounding head to bearable. Hunger pangs are so intense I feel faint and just desperate to eat.

I'm surprised to meet the entourage of men coming towards the lift as I come out on the ground floor and realise this is Santagato's party showing up late, which Alexi hates. He is the only one allowed to run behind schedule otherwise it makes him rage.

A handful of Carrero familiars behind them, but no Mico as he only dropped us off then left to go run errands or some nonsense. Alexi and Santagato side by side in front of his own group of heavies too.

I come face to face with both as I step into the lobby, unaware. It's so sudden I take a sharp intake of breath and almost trip over nothing. Surprised and unprepared for this chance encounter and not mentally on the ball.

Like a complete love-sick idiot, I smile brightly at Alexi as soon as I lay eyes on him. It's impulsive and I know I do a full-on swoon smile the second I see him, but I literally cannot help the reaction. He is now in shirt and trousers, which he keeps in the office for a quick change, and back to tailored sexiness, clean-shaven and swoon worthy. He must have got changed and ready down here while waiting on his late guest.

I regret it as soon as I feel my face do it and know I just fucked up completely.

He has been getting to me on major levels, and I just failed at hiding it because I spent a night with him while being wooed to heaven and back. Such an amateur move and I know better than this. Gut cringing inwardly with a tight contraction and shame washes over me at such a faux pas.

Alexi throws me an icy glare that's usual for his normal arsehole self but because of how he has been the last few days, it hits me like a slap. It's a telling off and a bump back to reality. A pang of hurt in my heart that he looks at me so harshly and brings back a million memories of what it feels like to be out in the cold where he is concerned. Something I didn't need a reminder of today when I'm sensitive from an over excessive night and should have spent the day on the couch instead. He's instantly pissed at me and my mood dies a horrible death.

"Ahh. The sexy Miss Walters." Santagato leers at me and I throw him the same smile I gave Alexi to cover it with an 'I'm just in such a smiley and overly friendly mood' but Alexi butts in. Fury all over his face and I honestly cannot tell if it's real or not. Knowing him, most likely genuine.

"Don't you have work to be doing?" He snaps at me and it sobers all the love-sick stupidity right out of me. Faced with King Carrero and not an ounce of warmth. The wrath of a wanker and I instantly know my place when in the presence of his allies.