21. Amorette
AMORETTE
I ended up taking the extra seat with the flight attendant for the rest of the ride. She was discreet and minded her own business enough that I wanted to hug her.
When I went into the bathroom, which thankfully was larger than standard commercial airplane bathrooms, I was a hot mess.
My hair was slightly ruffled, and I didn’t even know how that happened.
My cheeks were on fire and my eyes were glassy and bright.
The light blue dominated the gray so much they practically glowed.
Anyone who saw me–like the flight attendant–would know I’d been fucked.
I dropped my head in my hands and groaned. She probably thought they doubled-teamed me in the cockpit. And what actually happened wasn’t much better. We were descending already. Another ten minutes and they’d be opening the door, and I’d have to face my bad decisions.
Parker always made terrible decisions and laughed like it was the highlight of his year. Except, I was sure he didn’t actually view his decisions as bad.
I wasn’t like him.
We stopped all too soon, and the flight attendant went to the back to take care of the men, leaving me sitting in the fold-out chair facing the cockpit door.
Here they came, and I felt like I was about to burst out of my skin in the long seconds it took for the door to open and one of the brothers to appear.
Grey was first, and he didn’t even look at me.
He unlocked the main door while talking to someone on the radio.
Probably to make sure they were hooked up to a tunnel or something.
Nope, he got the door opened as the stairs had been rolled up to the door.
Andre slid his jacket on as he appeared, and it seemed like he couldn’t take his gaze off me. I dropped mine first and swiftly unbuckled. Then I glanced at his crotch against my will, like my brain needed to know if he was still hard.
He wasn’t. Of course, he wasn’t.
I stepped up behind Grey and waited for him to move down the stairs. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I could swear Andre’s breath rustled the hair on the top of my head.
It was dark outside, with the exception of a few lights in the distance. A group of men also greeted us with a handful of golf carts behind them. Wherever we were, we were farther away from the hotel than the last time we were here.
A noise caught my attention, and when I looked to my left, men were filing out of the plane on a second set of steps. They immediately fanned out to surround the men and us. No one skipped a beat, as if this was standard.
Where were all these men going to go? Golf carts carried six people max.
Then the sounds of a bus met my ears before it pulled around the side. That explained it.
Grey spoke to the men as Andre stepped up behind me. I almost jumped when he placed a hand on my hip. It would be weird normally for him to touch me. Although now, after what I’d done, his touch electrified the small amount of skin.
I could swear his thumb moved gently back and forth, but it was so slight I couldn’t be sure. It had to be my imagination. I’d never done something so reckless or without thought. I’d never had to face the consequences of my own actions, and I guess, in some ways, I still wasn’t.
But with Grey’s avid avoidance and Andre’s strange yet calm behavior, I could feel it building like an electrical storm about to lay waste between us.
No one else seemed to notice, which made me even more twitchy.
“Couldn’t keep your hands to yourself, could you?” Grey growled under his breath as he swept past us toward the cart.
With a gentle nudge from Andre, I followed behind him and climbed into the middle. Andre slid in after me, putting me right in the middle.
“I told you I was coming here to watch her. What did you do as soon as we got off the fucking plane? Turned your back to talk to your men,” Andre said in disgust.
Grey’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, but he said nothing.
The tension between them crackled and I tried to pull into myself.
I’d been the cause of it. Maybe not for everything.
This family had so much bad history; I’d be naive and self-centered to think I was the sole cause.
But for most of it—tonight? This was on me.
Shit.
I’d let my intrusive thoughts win and what did I get? A heaping pile of guilt and anxiety as I waited for their reactions to come to a head.
Turning my mind away from my own issues, I cataloged the area. Our cart was leading the way on a narrow path. The hotel was maybe a hundred yards away, and while there weren’t any buildings directly around the path, they weren’t far off. How convenient to have a landing strip so close.
The closer we got, the more men appeared to be patrolling the streets. They weren’t even trying to be subtle about it. The other people, who were probably out for dates or on vacation, didn’t seem to pay them any attention. Was this really how life was here?
If this happened anywhere in the US, people would freak out and act like the mafia had taken over. I almost laughed. The mafia had taken over here.
Grey pulled up to the curb at the hotel. This was still a guest entrance but probably less flashy than the front. Although, I was making a lot of assumptions based on my life in the US. I’d never been to Venezuela before them, so who knew if I was right or entirely off the mark.
“Come on,” Grey said softly as he held out his hand. His gaze finally landed on me, but it was distant rather than the relief I thought I’d feel. Like he was going through the motions because he thought he needed to. That almost made me laugh too.
Grey didn’t do anything because he needed to. So why did it feel like that? Maybe because he wasn’t backing into my space and declaring his possession like he’d done every other time. Before he’d touched me the first time, there had been a sizzling possessiveness between us that was missing now.
I didn’t like it, and I was the cause.
What if I’d been wrong? What if he didn’t want to share me, and he just wasn’t well-adjusted enough to stop Parker from getting close? I briefly closed my eyes as we waited for Andre to join us.
If Grey did see this as something else, and I killed it because I misunderstood him…
“Why are you laughing like that?” Grey whispered in my ear as he slid an arm around my waist. Relief swarmed me as I sank back into his touch. He was training me. That was the only explanation I could find for why it would hurt so much when he stopped but felt like heaven when he gave it back.
“Like what?” I opened my eyes to see Andre standing right in front of me. Close. So, so close.
Grey pressed closer into my back as he whispered, “Like your world is falling apart, and you can’t do anything about it but laugh. It’s very sad, mamí. ”
I tipped my head back and Andre blotted out everything in the night sky.
“Isn’t it?”
“ Senor Morozov!” a man called from the hotel, then followed it up with Spanish. Both Andre and Grey stiffened and slowly turned their heads toward the door.
“No,” Andre spoke, shaking his head. “We’re going back.” He took my arm, but Grey stopped him by shoving his shoulder.
“Over my dead fucking body. You run back to the compound like the scared little boy you are. Take Amorette with you if you want, but I’m not going anywhere. This hotel is mine .” Grey’s chest pressed into my shoulders and the back of my head as he leaned over me.
“Grey, be serious. You can’t believe this is a good idea. This is what he wants, and you’re going to play right into his hands!” Andre tried and failed to keep his voice down.
“Who?” I asked, even though I didn’t need to. I knew. Just with their reaction, I knew Vicente was here.
Andre grabbed his hair as his suit jacket flared out. He whirled around and grunted, almost like wishing he could yell, but didn’t want to draw any more attention to us.
When he turned around, his eyes were wild with emotion as he bared his teeth at Grey.
“No. If you’re staying here, I’m staying here.
I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that you don’t have a whipping post in the hotel.
” He caught my hand, gentler than I would have imagined he could be in the moment, and started toward the door.
Grey rushed to catch up and took my other hand. It was awkward when we reached the door, but Andre took the lead and pulled me behind him.
“Are you really doing this?” Grey nodded to where Andre still clasped me. Andre merely rolled his eyes like he didn’t have time for Grey’s antics.
“The best way to make sure she isn’t stolen again is to hold onto her. Did you put a tracker on her before we left?” Andre raised a brow, but he knew the answer. Grey growled then we all faced forward.
This hall was almost identical to the one we came in before. Except this elevator ride was maybe two floors down instead of many. Several of his men piled in the elevator while the rest ran past us and pushed on the doors to the stairs.
Andre, Grey, and I were shuffled to the back of the elevator. The air was almost stifling. Did all these men know about the war Vicente had called against them? They had to, right? For their sake and the brothers’.
As soon as the doors opened, the all-consuming music roared into the elevator. The two men in front went to the sides of the elevator, and the other three stayed in front of us with their weapons drawn as we exited.
Tonight, the place was packed and the crowd seemed rowdier than the last time.
I wouldn’t have thought that was possible, but the talking and screaming almost competed with the music.
The roving neon lights lit on us a few times, and unlike on the street, the crowd here seemed to be attuned to our every move.
Their gazes tracked us as we moved deeper into the club. We stayed on the outskirts close to the bars, never going toward the ring already set up in the middle.