Chapter 19

As personal as the space was, though, there weren’t any pictures around that weren’t of the dog.

“You’re pretty popular around here, huh?” I asked Hamster, who thumped her tail, knowing she was the star in this household. “And why wouldn’t you be?” I asked, rubbing her chest. “What’s up with Carmen, huh?” I whispered to the dog, whose brows raised.

The scent of coffee filled the house as the coffee brewed. “I hope you don’t suffer with fragile masculinity,” Sofia called. “All our mugs are girly.”

“I got a little sister who used to make me and my brother play tea parties well into our teens. Pinkies up.”

That got a little laugh out of Sofia.

“Sweet big brothers are the best.”

“Do you have one?” I asked.

“You and Carmie didn’t do a whole lot of talking, I take it,” she called back. “Nope, it was just us. I think we both would have loved a nice, protective older brother.”

“What’d you need protecting from?”

“The boys at school used to pick me up and carry me around because I was so small.”

“Woulda kicked their asses for that.”

“Exactly. But Carmie was kind of like my big protective brother. She kicked the biggest one in the balls and the rest of them left me alone.”

Kicking the balls of a bully wasn’t exactly criminal activity, but it did show that she thought sometimes violence was necessary. Which made me think she definitely had a personal reason for coming at me.

But before I could get any more information out of the open book that was Sofia, the front door opened and Carmen’s voice carried through the house, excited for a moment, then falling off as she noticed me.

I’d wanted to surprise her, sure. But I didn’t take any pleasure in the way the color fell from her face, how her eyes went round, and her lower lip trembled.

I was raised to take care of and protect women.

It felt shitty to put that look on a girl’s face.

Even if she did try to kill me.

Sofia, seemingly oblivious to her sister’s distress, flitted around until, finally, we were alone.

I hadn’t been planning to grab her and force her to sit with me, and I damn sure hadn’t been prepared for the jolt of desire that moved through me as soon as she dropped down half on my lap.

She was clearly worried about her life.

She was also much more worried about her sister becoming collateral damage.

Maybe I should have been a better man and admitted that I wasn’t in the business of hurting, let alone killing, women. Keeping her a little on edge, though, might help me get the answers I needed. So I had to play my part for the time being.

“I wanted to kill you a lot longer than that.”

“Okay. Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Seeing as you had a gun aimed at me over it, I feel like it does.”

“Just kill me if that’s what you’re here to do. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Why doesn’t little sis know what you were up to last night?”

“This doesn’t involve her. Leave her out of this.”