At first I thought he was just pissed and I was about to let him have it, until I saw the real fear in his eyes, he was terrified. "I was never in any danger Shane." I ran my hand up and down his back soothingly; I could feel the pounding of his heart through his jacket. Fuck, I'd really scared him. "Take care of that." He ordered his team before dragging me out of the room. We took the emergency exit out the back and he had his phone to his ear as we went around the side of the building. "Any sign of this fuck yet?" I guess that was a negative because he hung up the phone with a furtive 'fuck'. I was gently placed in the front seat of the car he had waiting, my seat belt buckled for me before he climbed into the driver's side. All this was done with not one word to me. I kept watching him out the side if my eye as we drove through the empty streets. We drove into the underground garage. I was once again helped out of the car. All the way up in the elevator

My life was one of peace for all of two hours, maybe. What made me think this shit would be any different was beyond me. No sooner had I left the apartment to go get started on what the fuck I had to do than the twins were calling me to tell me what she was up to. What part of, 'stay your little ass in the house until we catch this finger fucking guy' she didn't understand I don't know. I picked up the phone to call her. "Where were you off to sneak?""My apartment, I need to get some of my things. In case you haven't noticed since you dragged me off to your cave I haven't been back to get my necessities." "You had a chance to do that and you used it to sneak out and go work at the club, or did you forget that?""That was then, this is now... I hung up the phone. She'd argue me to death otherwise. I was satisfied that the men could keep her in check while I saw to things, they'd assured me that they knew her fighting style now and that they'd just b

"Where is she?""I think she's laying down in the room, she's been in there for a good twenty minutes and we haven't heard a peep, but the monitor indicates she's not moving." "Her trackers in place?""Yep.""Any word on this fingers guy, what the fuck? How many three fingered guys we got walking around this shit anyway?" "Honestly, I think the guy bounce. No one's seen him anywhere and you know your guys would've flushed him out by now. I seriously think he's running from her. I don't know if you've heard, but since you had our guys head to Chi Town there's been a lot of rumblings." "Seems your girl has a bit of a rep and the families that are going after her aren't just doing it because of her father. They think she'd be worst than he ever was, at least that's the word on the street there." Yes, I know that's the word on the street in Chicago, that's why I'm being extra fucking careful to keep her ass here. No one's invincible and as good as she is, th

"He was, I wasn't, what if?" She shook like a leaf as she rambled; I knew what she was trying to say. We were almost ambushed she hadn't been prepared. Right now my only concern was the safety of her and our child. I knew enough to know that this type of stress wasn't good for them. "Babe, you gotta breathe, look at me, breathe in, hold it, breathe out, keep looking at me, there's nothing else, just you me and him." I put my hand over her flat tummy. "You with me, it's all about him, you get overexcited he doesn't stand a chance against that kind of stress, knock it back babe." I pulled out my phone while I held her against me. "I need clean up at my place." I closed the phone and headed to the couch with her in my arms. We sat like that until she calmed down and I could think once more. "I'm done.""Thank fuck." I knew what she meant; she was done with her vigilante bullshit."Are you still gonna leave me?""The bag's empty Mouth.""The...you..."

"Wait Poppy, you knew about this shit?" He didn't have to answer; the guilty flush on his face said it all. "Never mind, carry on." I held the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger where I could feel a headache coming on. "Well, as I was saying, we think just cutting her off cold turkey might not be the way to go, you see, you have to wean her off these things, little by little, it's like you, you can't just go legit, you have to maneuver things around and set things up just right before that can happen, just as with her...." "Poppy what bullshit, it's only the business part of things that takes time, but I can keep myself from going out and offing a motherfucker if I choose to." "Yeah, then why do you have guys in Chicago right now?" "Because those fucks back there are a threat to my wife and besides if I don't do it, she will and I'd be damned if I let that happen." "Son, you're forgetting one thing." "And what's that Rossi