Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
She’s back. And she’s here. Lailani is mine. I’m not letting her go for anything. Her eyes blink open. “Are you watching me sleep?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you are the most-precious thing I’ve ever seen. Also, I needed reassurance you were really here,” I tell her.
“I’m here. For good, remember?” She smiles.
“For good,” I repeat.
“We just need to get through this wedding today. Do you think your mom knows who she’s marrying?” Lailani sighs.
“My mother has done a lot of shitty things, but she’d never do anything that would put me at risk.” I know that. My mother loves me in her own fucked-up way, and I know she has no idea she’s a pawn in someone else’s game.
“Okay, I will make sure she doesn’t get caught in the crossfire,” Lailani says.
“That’s not your job, babe. You don’t have to do anything,” I tell her.
“It might not be my job, but she’s important to you, which means I will do whatever I have to do to protect her.”
“Out of curiosity, what is your going rate? What was E paying you to protect everyone here?”
“Five hundred grand a week.” Lailani grins and I roll my eyes. E has been paying her five hundred grand a week for more than six months. He likes her a lot more than she realizes.
“He must really like you,” I tell her aloud.
“Or I’m just really good at my job,” Lailani counters.
“I don’t doubt it.” I roll out of bed and throw on a pair of sweats.
“Where are you going?” Lailani asks when I open the bedroom door.
“To my office. Be right back,” I say before adding, “Don’t move.”
I then make my way into the office, fish around my desk until I find what I’m looking for, and make out a check for five hundred grand to Lailani Miller. I can’t wait for that name to be changed. When I walk back into the bedroom, Lailani is sitting on the bed. With way too many clothes on.
“Why are you dressed?” I ask her.
“Because we have a wedding to attend. I can’t stay naked all day.” Lailani laughs. It’s a sound I want to hear more often.
“Here, I want to hire you to protect someone for me.” I hold out the check to her.
Lailani takes it and reads it. “I’m not taking your money, Sammie.”
“Why not? My money is just as good as E’s,” I say.
“Because I’m not. Who is it you want me to protect?” she asks.
“You.”
“What?”
“I want you to protect yourself. At any and all costs, Lailani. You are the most important person in my life. I need to know that you will put yourself first,” I tell her.
“I’m not planning on being a martyr, Sammie. I promise you do not need to worry about me,” she says.
I watch as she picks up her pistol from the ground and straps it to her right ankle. “Is that all you have?” It’s not enough. Now that I know what she can do, I want her fully fucking loaded. Especially today.
“Yeah, I mean, I can go back to my apartment and get more. You need something specific?”
I chuckle. “No, but you do need more than the six rounds you have in that thing.” I nod towards her ankle. “Put your boots on. I need to show you something.” I walk into my closet, throw on a sweatshirt, and slide my feet into a pair of sneakers.
Once we’re both dressed, I take hold of Lailani’s hand and guide her out to the foyer. My finger taps the button for the elevator.
“Shit, where are we going? I haven’t even brushed my hair?” Lailani says. She drops my hand and starts running her fingers through her hair.
“You look perfect. No one is going to see us where we’re going, though.
” The doors open. And placing my hand on her lower back, I guide her into the elevator and scan my access card over the reader.
“Six, two, nine, one,” I say the numbers aloud as I press them down. “I need you to remember that code.”
“Six, two, nine, one. Okay, what’s it for?” Lailani asks.
“You’ll see.” I smile. No one other than Louie and Carlo knows about this place. And, well, I guess now Lailani, but It will make me feel better if she has everything she may need at her disposal.
The elevator descends, and minutes later, the doors open and lights flick on as we step out into the basement. Lailani doesn’t say a word as she steps farther into the room to take it all in.
Then she spins around and faces me. “Holy fucking shit, you have a freaking lair and I’m just discovering this now?”
“It’s not a lair.” I laugh. Although…
I look around the space. There are screens that monitor the entire casino covering one wall, computers in the middle of the room, and another wall is fully stocked with a range of guns in all sizes.
There’s a shelving unit that holds a variety of other weapons, including grenades and knives.
Pretty much whatever you can think of, it’s in this room.
I consider myself more of a collector. But she’s right. It does kind of look like a lair.
“This is so freaking cool, Sammie. Shit. I think your hotness level just went up tenfold,” Lailani says as she walks over to the wall of guns.
“I’m hotter because I have guns?”
“No, you’re hotter because you have a fucking lair,” she says.
“Again, not a lair. I’m not Batman,” I remind her.
“That’s good because I’m more of a Joker fan anyway,” she tells me. “Why do you have a flame thrower and have you ever actually used it?”
“I haven’t, but you never know when you’re going to need one, right?
” I lift a shoulder as I walk over to the wall, pick up two small pistols, and then turn to the shelves and collect two knives.
“Here. I want you to take whatever you want from my inventory. Make sure you’re always strapped, Lailani. ”
“I feel like a kid in a candy shop,” she says, taking the weapons from me. “And just so you know, I don’t actually need any of this. I can kill someone with my bare hands just as easy.”
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out, seeing a message from Louie.
Louie:
In your office. Where are you?
Me:
Basement with Lailani. Be up in a sec.
Louie:
You took her to the basement? You sure you’ll make it back alive? Last I heard, she hated you.
Me:
She’s moved in with me. And she’s marrying me. Pretty sure she’s not going to kill me.
Louie:
Or she’s going to marry you first and then take all your shit after she kills you.
“Louie thinks you’re going to marry me before you kill me just so you can take all my shit.” I laugh as I recite the message to Lailani.
“Louie is an idiot. I wouldn’t need to marry you to steal your shit, Sammie. It’d be easier to hack your accounts,” she replies casually.
It’s scary how nonchalant she is about all this.
I’m still wrapping my head around this version of Lailani, and the fact that I find this version hotter than the sweet, innocent girl I thought I knew.
Don’t get me wrong. I love every version of this woman.
All of her. But it is an adjustment, getting used to her being so… ruthless.
“You’re right. He is an idiot. But right now, that idiot is waiting for me in my office. I have to go up,” I tell her.
“Okay, give me a sec.” Lailani starts tucking the guns and knives into her clothing, hiding them with ease. “I should go and check on my father.”
Once she’s concealed everything, we step back into the elevator and I press the button for her father’s floor. “I’ll catch up with you later.” I lean forward and press my lips to hers. “I love you.”
“I love you. Stay alive,” she says as she steps out into the hallway.
“You too.”
When I finally make it to my office, both Carlo and Louie are there. “You took her to the basement?”
“I wanted to make sure she had enough on her to protect herself today.” I shrug.
“Don’t assassins usually have their own armories?” Carlo asks.
“The good ones do,” Louie adds.
“Shut up,” I grunt. I wonder if she does have one. And where is her actual home base? She’s only got a little apartment in the city… Where was she living before she came to town? Fuck, there is so much I still don’t know about this woman.
“What’s the plan for today?” Louie asks. “Are we stopping this sham of a wedding or going along with it?”
“Going along with it,” I tell him. “I want to see how this is meant to play out. What the fuck does Santiago think he’s going to get?” The Santiago family hasn’t made a move against us for a while now, but I’m not surprised they are popping up out of the blue. It’s kinda their style.
“Okay.” Louie and Carlo nod at the same time.
“What’s this I hear about you having a lair?” Emmanuel walks into my office like he fucking owns the place. I really need to talk to Lailani about keeping some things between us.
“Is there anything my fiancée doesn’t talk to you about?” I ask him.
“Your fiancée? Well, she didn’t mention that. She did tell me how much she loved your dick once, though.” The asshole shrugs. “So I’m guessing not many topics are off limits.”
“You had a conversation about Sammie’s dick?” Carlo laughs.
“No, I listened to a friend compliment it,” Emmanuel corrects him. “But she doesn’t really have a lot to compare it to, so who knows?”
I don’t like that E knows Lailani better than I do. She’s mine. She’s going to marry me. I pull out my phone and text her.
Me:
Can we get married now? Today?
Lailani:
Why?
Me:
Because I want you to be my wife. I want you to be mine.
Lailani:
I am yours. We don’t need a piece of paper to tell us what we already know, Sammie.
Me:
You’re right.
Lailani:
I always am.
“Okay, when you’re ready, I’d like to share what I’ve learned about Santiago’s plan,” Emmanuel announces, capturing my attention.
I pocket my phone and look up at him. “What do you know?”