“You still live at the same place?” Arlo asked, keeping his hand wrapped firmly around my upper arm.

  “You know I do.” He had been tracking me for years. Ever since my daddy died. Arlo had promised him before he died, that he would spend the rest of his life taking care of his daughter. If my dad knew then that I had lost my virginity to his best friend, he would have had him killed instead. But that little secret had stayed between Arlo and me ever since. Ever since I seduced him. Ever since he gave in to what I wanted. He couldn’t resist.

  “Tell me where you’re going from here.” Arlo released my arm and linked his fingers with mine instead. Under normal circumstances, I would have pushed him away. But at the moment, I craved his touch. I actually craved more than us just holding hands, but it would take a lot of determination on my part to get Arlo to fuck me.

  “I’m going home, taking a bath, and having a bottle of wine. Not exactly in that order either.”

  “You should come back to my home. Our home, Bunny.”

  My jaw clenched, my teeth grinding down hard against each other. “I’m going back to my father’s place.” Was all I said. While Arlo thought his home was mine and maybe it was, I couldn’t stay there. Not on a continuous basis anyway. I always left when he got too close, and I felt suffocated. It didn’t make sense when I did actually love him, but I couldn’t help the weight resting on my damn chest every time I had been in his bed for a couple of days.

  Arlo grunted, tightening his grip on my hand. Something was on his mind. Something more than just what happened tonight. He was a hard one to read but I found that I liked it that way. It made things more exciting because he liked it when I begged him for information.

  “What is it?” I asked, keeping my gaze straight ahead. If I looked at him, looked deep into his eyes, I would fall and I didn’t want that to happen. Not tonight. I already spent part of my evening having some of my control taken from me.

  “This will get out, Ginny.”

  A sour taste filled my throat whenever he used my real name. It usually meant he was pissed at me or he was trying to get his point across. But this…this moment was unlike him.

  “I know. You don’t have to tell me that, Arlo.” I went to pull my hand from his grip but he was having none of that. He pulled me into another alley and pushed me up against the nearest wall.

  “I know you can handle yourself, Bunny. I do know that. But you don’t have to do this on your own either.”

  I stared up at him, the moon casting eerie shadows over him. Even though he was older, much older than my twenty-five, he was beautiful in a rugged sort of way. Silver was coming through the dark strands of his hair and I found that I couldn’t wait to see what he looked like completely gray. His strong chiseled jaw was covered with a few days’ worth of scruff. He was old enough to be my father. If he had me at fifteen anyway.

  I didn’t have daddy issues. My father and I got along as well as a father and daughter should. Even with the power he had. I was never raised to be the daughter that stayed behind the scenes. He didn’t expect me to play with Barbies or do girly things other girls my age had done. It was one of the many things I had appreciated about him. Even now that he was gone, I thought of it often and how he didn’t make me feel like the lesser sex.

  Arlo had been the same. He taught me everything I knew and kept me safe after my father had been murdered.

  “What are you thinking about in that beautiful brain of yours?” Arlo slid his hand from mine and lightly ran his fingers up my forearm. The gentle touch sent a shiver down my spine.

  “Just thinking about my dad,” I confessed.

  Arlo tilted his head, giving me a curt nod. He pulled away from me and left the alley, stopping at the entrance.

  I joined him and we continued walking. My eyes scanned the vacant street in front of us. It was pushing two in the morning on a Friday night. Even though we weren’t downtown, this place was still usually quite active, especially on a Friday. But not tonight and it didn’t make me feel good.

  “He would have been proud of you,” Arlo muttered, his voice trailing off.

  “Maybe.” I followed his gaze, watching as a large black SUV sped past us.

  Arlo stepped in front of me, shielding me from something that could very well happen. When it didn’t, both of us let out a breath of relief.

  “Paranoid?” I teased, trying to make light of the situation when it was anything but.

  “Nope.” He grabbed my arm, a little too tight this time, and all but dragged me down to the end of the street. When we turned a corner, he led me to a blood red sports car.

  I pulled from his grasp and walked to the car. Arlo followed behind me. He watched me and it made my skin tingle.

  When I stood near the ’67 Shelby Mustang, I ran my hand across the top of the beautiful car. “I missed you.”

  “I forgot how much you loved this car.” Arlo came toward me and unlocked the door for me. Like a gentleman, he opened the door for me and waited.

  He didn’t forget but he didn’t want to make it seem like he was pining after me either. Our relationship was odd. The age difference being the least of our problems. My dad asked for him to take care of me and while he had, he felt that it was too weird to build anything more with me. At first. I didn’t believe him, but I never pressed either. I threw a temper tantrum and ran away. Which was something I had always done whenever I didn’t get my way. I was an only child, so I was used to getting spoiled. Especially when it had only been me and my dad for most of my life, I couldn’t help but crave that attention.

  I missed what we did in the car more than I missed the car itself. But that had been another life. Long before I had gone on my own and Arlo went rogue.

  Instead of letting myself get lost in those memories, I slipped into the passenger seat and waited for him to join me.

  “I’m taking you home so you can have your bath,” he told me, attempting to make conversation with me.

  I looked at him then, crossing my arms under my chest. The movement pushed my tits up higher, earning me a soft growl from Arlo.

  He shook himself, his gaze dropping to my chest before quickly meeting my eyes. “Now is not the time for that, Bunny.”

  “Trust me.” I snorted. “I don’t care how good your dick is, I’m not in the mood.” But even though I said those words, I knew that he could make me feel better after the shit that went down tonight. Instead, I would be a good girl. For now. “To answer your question, even though you already know said answer, yes, I still live at my father’s house.”

  Arlo chuckled, shaking his head. “I fucking missed your sass.”

  I couldn’t help but smile, the heaviness of the night, slowly dissipating around us. I had to move on from what happened and what I did.

  “Take me home, Arlo.” I turned my body toward him, leaning the side of my head against the seat. “Please.”

  He nodded, reaching his arm out to rest across my lap. The heavy weight of his arm, eased some of the anxiety over what happened tonight and what was to come.

  “I need you to know something, Ginny.” He glanced my way quickly before looking back at out at the road in front of us. “Whatever happens, I’m not going anywhere. I’m promising you that.”

  I wanted to argue with him. I wanted to throw a fit and tell him that I could take care of myself. I had been doing it since before my dad died.

  “You promised me that before and look what happened.”

  He shot me a look. It was a look that meant for me to shut up or he would make me eat my words. Any other time and I would have laughed but I wasn’t in the mood tonight. I didn’t know how I was going to get past killing Dante. It wasn’t even the fact that I had killed him in the first place that bothered me so much. It was who he was. He had been my dad’s rival for years. It was almost funny in a way, especially when Dante and I had once been friends. It had never amounted to anything more than that no matter how hard he had tried. Arlo wouldn’t have any of it. It had been one of my dad’s wishes that I would end up with Arlo, his best friend, my mentor, the man who had taken care of me now that I had no one. But I didn’t want to be with a man because he felt he had to be with me out of respect for the dead. It had been one of the reasons why I ended things with Arlo in the first place. I also wasn’t stupid though. There would come a time where I would no longer be able to fight these feelings I had for him.

  “You’re thinking too damn loud, Bunny,” Arlo grumbled, pulling me from my thoughts.

  I snorted, linking my fingers between his because it was comfortable and something I had been doing for years. It didn’t matter how many months we went not seeing each other. This time had only resulted in me being gone for a few days but when we reunited, we fell back into an easy routine, and I could never figure out how I actually felt about that.

  “I really need to soak in a bath and fall into a bottle of wine.” I sighed, curling his fingers around my inner thigh.

  He squeezed, reminding me that although I fought this relationship between us, he still owned me. But we had to play it safe.

  “What happened tonight?”

  And there it was. The question I didn’t know how to answer but had to find a way to anyway because Arlo wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “What do you mean?” I asked instead, mulling over my words.

  “Ginny.”

  I swallowed hard, my heart jumping in my chest. “What?”

  “You know what I’m asking.”

  “It wasn’t my fault. None of it was my fault.” I had gone out for a few drinks by myself. I didn’t have a lot of friends since I couldn’t let them into my world. It was for their safety, so really, the closest person I had to a friend anymore, was Arlo.

  “Geezus, Bunny. I would never think it was your fault.” His tone had a bite to it. A bite I wish he would use more often on me.

  “I just want to know what happened,” he continued. “That’s it.”

  “Why?”

  “What the fuck do you mean why?”

  “Because I want to know what your intentions are, Arlo,” I threw at him. “I want to know why after all of this time, you happen to show up when I need you most. You never show up out of the blue. It usually takes you weeks. Maybe months. Not days. Are you tracking me? Were you following me? Did you have someone else follow me? Why? How?” I threw question after question at him, and his only response was a deep chuckle. The sound was sinister at best, and it sent a shiver down my spine.

  His hand tightened around my thigh, reminding me who I belonged to. Who I would always belong to no matter how hard I tried pushing him away. Arlo and I were connected and it was more than just being physical. Our souls had intertwined from the moment I was born.

  I knew then that what happened earlier, wouldn’t even be the worst part of my night.

  -Arlo-

  Ginny didn’t need my help. That much was clear. But she was unraveled, her gaze flicking from side to side. She may not have noticed it but I sure as hell did. She was losing herself. It made complete sense, given the events that took place tonight.

  Dante Toretto was a monster. He had taken after his father but ended up being worse than the man who raised him.

  What Ginny did, was nothing compared to what I had wanted to do for years but never could. She took that chance away from me and while I understood it was her right, it still pissed me off that my eyes weren’t the last thing Dante saw before he died.

  “You’re stewing,” Ginny mumbled, cupping my hand and holding it tight against her inner thigh.

  “I wish it would have been me who killed him,” I blurted, not expecting those words to actually leave my mouth but I couldn’t take them back, so I would live with the consequences.

  Ginny laughed. “You know, it’s funny. Dante never got very far. Not with me anyway. I killed him because I didn’t like the way he looked at me.”

  “Somehow that doesn’t actually surprise me.” I moved my hand from her thigh to her cheek. She sighed, leaning into it. “I still wish you would let me take care of you.”

  “You taught me to not need being cared for.” Her gaze hardened. “Both you and my father did.”

  She was right but it still didn’t mean I liked the sound of it.

  Ginny grew up in a man’s world. As sexist as it sounded, it was the truth. She was born and bred around men most didn’t even know existed. She was a mafia princess and now that her dad was gone, it was my job to take care of her no matter how hard she fought me on it.

  “Take me home, Arlo.” She sighed, turning back around and looking out at the road ahead of us. “We can worry about the rest later.”

  A moment later, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I didn’t have to check to know it was the cleaning service letting me know they took care of things. They had been within the organization long before I was born. No one knew exactly when they started or who even ran it. But they were used by the mafia, bikers, anyone really. It was no secret that they got the job done without asking questions. They also knew that if they told anyone what they actually did for a living, every single person they knew, would be murdered. It was a threat that hung over their heads for centuries.

  “It’s done,” I told Ginny.

  “Good.” She crossed her arms under her chest and stared out the window.

  “Is it?” I didn’t look her way but I could feel her gaze burning into the side of my head. She let her emotions get the best of her and a man lost his life at a result of it. It didn’t matter that he was a monster and deserved what she gave him. Now her life was also on the line.

  “What are you actually asking me, Arlo?”

  The bite in her tone sent a shiver down the length of my cock. No matter how many months, weeks, days, had gone by where we didn’t see each other, there was something about her that I would always need. Besides her submission, I needed her sass, her strength. Her damn determination to piss me off on a daily basis.

  “I wish you would call me like you used to,” I confessed. She didn’t say anything. I wondered for a second if maybe she hadn’t heard me. But when I looked over and saw her eyes shining with unshed tears, I knew that I had struck a nerve.

  “I don’t want to bother you,” she mumbled.

  “Yes, you do. There’s something else. Another reason you never call me anymore.”

  “I don’t call you to keep you safe.” Her head whipped around, her eyes glaring into mine. “And before you say that you’re a man and you can handle shit yourself, I already know that. But you…this…” She huffed. “It doesn’t matter. None of this matters. Dante is dead. Nothing else matters.”

  I didn’t say anything more as I pulled into the long driveway that led to the large house she lived in by herself. Ginny didn’t even have any maids or cooks and took care of the estate all by herself.

  Her dad asked me to take care of her. He probably didn’t mean to take care of her by fucking her. Either way, I had a job and it was a job that I took rather seriously. Whether she liked it or not, Ginny and I would always be together.

  It was always us.

  Until the end.

  -Ginny-

  Much to my dismay, Arlo followed me into my home. Even though I had lived here my whole entire life, I still felt like an outsider at times. Especially when all of the people in the paintings that hung on the walls, stared at me. I could feel their eyes burning into me every time I walked by them. It was like they judged me.

  I remembered back to when I was a small girl and how I had told my father that I didn’t like the paintings because they came alive, especially when I walked by them. He would only chuckle, kiss the top of my head, and tell me that I would put my imagination to good use one day.

  Now as I walked through the hall in the main entryway of the house, I glared up at the paintings. Arlo was right behind me, his cologne present and sending a tingle racing down my spine. But it was not the time to think of that. Although, using him could definitely make me feel better.

  “I’m going to grab a bottle of wine and take a bath.” I stopped at the entrance to the kitchen. “You can join me or not, I don’t give a shit, but that’s what I’m doing.”

  Arlo’s dark eyes moved over my face. “I’m not leaving you alone tonight.”

  “Okay. Then it’s settled.” I headed to the pantry located beside the fridge and pulled out a bottle of red wine. I usually had a favorite that I went for but tonight, I didn’t overly care what I drank. I was waiting for Arlo to tell me that getting drunk was not the best way to handle things but he didn’t speak those words at all. It made me wonder why but instead of dwelling on it, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and made my way upstairs to the large bathroom across the hall from my bedroom. “Looks like you’re joining me.”

  Arlo sighed, coming up beside me. “Why do you have to make things difficult?”

  “Me?” I gasped. “Why, whatever do you mean?”

  He rolled his eyes, a small smile forming at the corners of his lips. “You should let me take care of you.”

  “Right.” I snorted. “And we both know how that’ll end up.”

  “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.” He reached out for my hand, slipping his fingers between mine and stopping me from taking a step further. “You deserve to be happy.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to argue with him. To tell him that because of me, my father died. If I had never been born or if I had at least born a boy, he would still be alive. Or if he would have given me up like the men he worked with told him to, he would still be here.

  I blamed myself for my father’s death. Even though I had never actually pulled the trigger, he died protecting me and for that, I would never forgive myself.

  “Your father didn’t die because of you.”

  As soon as those words left Arlo’s mouth, I pulled away from him and stomped down the hall toward the bathroom that would be my home for the next few hours.

 

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