No answer and a long moment of silence.

“She worth this?” Darius asked quietly.

“Jet?” Eddie asked in return.

“Yeah,” Darius said.

I opened the door and did it as loudly as I could, then walked to the bathroom.

I didn’t want to hear Eddie’s answer and I didn’t think I could close the door without them knowing I was listening.

It was while in the bathroom that I realized I had no underwear on.

Wonderful.

I made noise in the bathroom, banging stuff around and turning on the sink. Then I went back to the bedroom, my eyes avoiding the living room. I stood there wondering what to do, then I dug in my bag, grabbed a pair of jeans and yanked them on.

Then I walked out into the living room, pul ing my hair out of my face.

I looked to Eddie, then to Darius. Both of them were standing in the living room, both of them were watching me.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

I stopped next to Eddie. His arm went around my neck and he pul ed me into his side.

“We wake you?” he asked softly, looking down at me, his arm stil wrapped around my neck.

I shook my head and then stopped and stared at him. He must have worked out his anger earlier, his eyes were back to warm and tender.

I slipped into a mini-daze and murmured, “Felt you gone.”

His eyelids lowered a bit and his mouth relaxed.

“Go back to bed, I’l be there in a minute,” he said.

I gave a nod, put my hand to his stomach to push away but Darius broke in.

“I’m outta here. Be in touch.”

I looked at him, he was talking to Eddie but looking at me, his face was blank but his eyes were assessing.

Eddie told me he was a drug dealer and he talked casual y about ordering people’s deaths. I felt something very sad about that because I had this weird feeling he was a nice guy. I had a feeling that this wasn’t who he was but who he had to be.

Darius left, doing some kind of hand gesture to Eddie and not saying a word to me.

Eddie locked up after him and he and I walked back into the bedroom. He’d put on his t-shirt and jeans to talk to Darius. He took them off in the dark.

I took off my jeans, left on the sweater and got into bed.

Eddie joined me, his hands coming under the sweater and whipping it off.

“I’m cold,” I said to him.

He tucked me into him, front-to-front.

“You won’t be for long.”

He held me awhile and he was right.

I was nearly asleep, don’t ask me how, probably the warmth from Eddie’s body and something to do with his arms wrapped around me.

Then Eddie spoke and made me jerk awake.

“How much did you hear?”

Damn.

Caught.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “A lot?”

Eddie didn’t say anything.

“It was wrong to listen,” I said by way of apology.

“I would have listened,” he told me.

I couldn’t help it, I smiled against his neck.

“You’re going to have to explain to me about Darius,” I whispered.

Eddie didn’t hesitate.

“When we were kids, we were close. He was a good guy, a little wild, less wild than Lee and me.” From what I learned that night, I thought it would be difficult to be more wild than Eddie.

Eddie kept talking. “His Dad was murdered and he and his family had it rough. He took a road that seemed easy at the time, quick money and a way to work out his shit. That road became harder but he’d chosen the path and, now, refuses to look back.”

“That sounds very sad.”

And it did.

Eddie made no comment. Being Darius’s friend through it al , he knew just how sad it was.

“Why was he here in the middle of the night?” I asked.

Eddie paused, as if wondering whether it was safe to share. Then he spoke. “We work together sometimes, when it’s mutual y beneficial, but we keep it quiet. The Department wants him taken out and they aren’t too happy with our relationship. I’m Vice and not tremendously popular with the brothers.”

“It’s not safe,” I concluded.

“No. It’s not safe.”

“For either of you?”

“No.”

“But you’re working together now?”

He didn’t answer.

“For me?”

He didn’t answer.

“I think you might be a little scary,” I told him.

He turned to his back and pul ed me into his side.

“Don’t listen to my aunts. I’m not nearly as scary as they want me to be.”

He was wrong.

He was terrifying.

Chapter Sixteen

Coffee Maker

The alarm went off, Eddie touched a button and rol ed out of bed.

I snuggled into the pil ow.

He wrapped a hand around my wrist and pul ed me out of bed.

“What are you doing?” I asked, half asleep, half pissed off and halfway across the room.

“Time to shower, then time to find bad guys,” Eddie replied.

Shower?

I was stil waking up when he picked me up and put me under the hot water. I looked up at him in disbelief, blinking as the water came down on me when he joined me and pul ed the shower curtain around us.

“Something to learn about me,” I told him, “I’m a Snooze Button Girl.”

He smiled down at me, reached around and grabbed the soap.

What he didn’t do was respond.

I turned my back on him, the best way to hide my na**d body.

Why were men so okay with nudity? It wasn’t fair.

Of course, Eddie had a great body, he certainly had nothing to hide. If I had Eddie’s body, I’d probably wander around na**d al the time. Not that I had a bad body, I had curves in al the right places. They were curvier a few months ago, when I had time to eat.

“I real y don’t like you,” I said to the showerhead.

His soapy hands came around my middle, he pressed his body against my back and his mouth found my neck.

“Something I have learned about you, you’re grouchy in the morning.”

“I’m not grouchy in the morning,” I grouched.

His hands at my middle separated. One went to cup my breast, the other to cup between my legs.

“No, you’re grouchy al the time,” he said this like it was amusing.

I was only half paying attention. I was more interested in what his hands were doing. His fingers on one hand did a rol on my nipple as his other fingers pressed deep.

It felt nice.

My head fel back on his shoulder.