Chapter 13
Michael
I wake up from the deepest post-sex sleep of my life to hear Arya puttering around in my bathroom, and I’m immediately all smiles. She’s still here .
I don’t know why, but I half-expected her to slip out after waking up. Especially if she’s decided last night was a mistake. I don’t expect her to give me shit about it—she enjoyed herself too much—but I really hope she’ll want to come back for seconds. And thirds.
I guess we’ll see.
By the time I get out of the shower, she’s already dressed and in my dining room, looking at my laptop. Her hair looks a little damp, her makeup is lighter, and she’s every bit as hot as last night. I see her, and I feel it all through me, like a soft heat wave.
“Good morning. I’ll get some coffee going. You’re really diving in this early?” I try to keep the disappointment out of my voice, but her glance tells me I’ve failed.
“Sorry,” she says distractedly. “Last night was great, but now, I have to make up for lost time.”
I stare at her, not sure if I should feel disappointed or not. We do have to get all this bullshit done, but it’s like she’s flipped a switch. Is what happened last night so easy for her to pull her mind away from?
I’ll just have to spoil her even more next time.
I find my smile at that thought. “Okay, but we’re definitely going out for dinner tonight.”
She arches an eyebrow. “Are we?”
“You really want to live on takeaway while you’re here? Because I don’t cook outside of some grilling.” I flash her a winning glance. “There’s an Indian buffet two blocks from here. You’ll love it.”
“Huh. Well, I do like tandoori chicken.” She smirks slightly, and I know she’s teasing me.
My smile grows. “Once we’re done with all this, we’ll walk over.”
Once we actually buckle down and have some coffee in us, the search through server records goes fast. Unfortunately, by the end of it, I’ve lost my smile.
“That’s impossible,” I insist, denying the evidence right in front of me on the screen.
“Look, I’m sorry, but you’ve read the same records that I have. Someone logged in at admin level using a computer at your home. I don’t yet know which one, but we can track that as well.” She’s talking fast and looking a little stressed out. It must be the look on my face.
I make a real effort to calm down. “I’m sorry. Look, yes, I know what the evidence says, and I know you’re right. I just... can’t fucking believe it was someone in the family.”
“Look, I’m really sorry, too. I don’t like being the bearer of bad news, but even if it was an outsider who got past your physical security, it’s a problem that needs to be addressed.”
“So, either our physical security needs a complete review, or we’ve got a fucking Judas in the family. I’ll sure as hell look into the first one,” I tell her firmly, “because I can’t believe the second.”
“I hate this,” she sighs. “Look, I understand how you feel. Loyalty’s everything, I get it. I’m expected to be totally loyal to my family, too, no matter how they treat me. But the thing about loyalty is... sometimes, not everyone in your family is loyal back.”
My jaw works. “Not my family. Yeah, we bicker, my little sister’s a spoiled brat; and some of my cousins like spreading stupid rumors like the ones my ex started. They’re not perfect people, but I could never believe any of them would betray me like this.”
“I didn’t think you’d screw me over the way you did,” she points out. “But you did.”
I feel some of my resolve crumble away. “Look, I really like you, and you’re amazing, but you’re not family. I had my orders. I hated carrying them out because it was against you, but I did it because Dad wanted it.”
She licks her lips and looks down. “I get that. But it doesn’t take the sting out.”
“Will getting you the money back do the trick?”
She gives me a skeptical look. “It will be a good start.”
I nod. “Okay. I need to find out if we had any visitors in the house that night. That’s going to force me to ask some awkward questions.”
“You could always just check the security camera logs.” She sees the discomfort on my face and stops short. “Sorry.”
“No, I know it’s a good idea. I’ll just feel really weird doing it. Ninety-five percent of what goes on that night is going to be my family’s private lives.”
“That’s why you should go through them without me,” she urges me gently.
I frown. “I’ll think about it.” But I really don’t want to. If she’s actually right... if someone in my family has betrayed us... it will drop a bomb on the rest of us. The Rossis will be thrown into chaos.
“Michael,” she says softly, laying a hand on the back of mine, “even if it is someone in your family, you need to protect everyone else. Because if this person will do that to you, then they’ll probably do it to others.”
I have to stop and think about it, no matter how uncomfortable it is. I hate that she’s right. But she is right. “I’ll take a look at the security footage,” I say reluctantly.
A second round with Arya ends up having to wait. Facing the possibility of either a security or loyalty problem in my household ends up killing the mood more than I want to admit. I can’t really explain it. It’s like finding a crack in my life’s foundation.
I don’t blame her for pointing it out. I’m still as hot for her as ever. Just... not for a while after that.
When I get home, Billy is where he usually is when he’s home, poking through the fridge in search of snacks. I have no idea how he stays as lean as he does. “Hey,” I say as I come in.
“You spend the weekend at your condo?” He looks at me curiously as I sigh and lean against the counter.
“Yeah. Had to get through a whole lot of security records in a short time.” I reach out, and he hands me a longneck without being asked. I pop the top off and have a swallow.
“Damn. I was hoping you were there with a woman,” he says with a smirk.
“I was. For a while, anyway. All work and no play, and all of that.” I return the smirk, but I can tell it’s a pale imitation. I’m tired—and not just for spending a lot of the night fucking instead of sleeping.
He looks delighted. “Goddamn, it’s about time. Who’s the new girl?”
I freeze up immediately. I can hardly tell him it’s Arya. “Nothing serious, just a friend with benefits.”
He lifts an eyebrow slightly, the corner of his mouth tucking up skeptically. “Okay, man, you don’t have to tell me. But if you get serious with this chick, expect me to get curious again.”
I nod gratefully, glad for the reprieve. I’m suddenly preoccupied with a whole new worry: What will I do if things actually work with Arya?
I suddenly feel like an idiot. I’ve wanted to get with her for years, but even in my wildest fantasies, I’ve never thought beyond our first night together. I’ve never thought about what would happen if we wanted each other for keeps.
And now, I do. I’ve never been that sexually compatible with anyone on a first try, I like her, I’m drawn to her, and she can even keep up with me on the tech front. This is no longer just a matter of finally scratching a years-long itch. I want her.
I want to make her want me just as badly.
But say I win. Say I persuade her, and it works. What the hell is our families’ response going to be? I can’t expect them to lay their feud aside just because the two of us have fallen in love. Her family especially would never go for it. I swear at times that her dad’s angling for actual war between us.
And then, they find out that we’re not only fucking, but getting serious. What happens then?
“You all right, bro?”
I realize I’ve been leaning there silently and saying nothing. “Sorry, didn’t get much sleep last night,” I admit. “Maybe I should be having coffee instead of beer.”
“Just two-fist them both and be a wide-awake drunk,” he suggests cheerily.
That helps me find a smile again. Good old Billy. “I wonder how well that would work?”
“Well, it works like shit for sobering people up. Found that out in college.” His smile fades a little. “No, seriously, man, I can tell that something’s wrong. What’s up?”
I struggle for a minute to find the right words. I don’t want to spill everything about my worries, especially since Billy’s a bit of a gossip. “It’s the investigation,” I say finally. “It’s starting to look like whoever took the money logged in from our home network.”
His eyes widen. “Wait, what?”
“Either someone broke in, social-engineered their way in, or just used their home login. None of those are good things. I’ll need to look at all our security records to try and figure this one out.”
“Well, I know it wasn’t one of us. But those other two ideas don’t sound too good either. Let me know what you find out, okay?” Billy takes a big swallow of his beer, looking a little worried.
“Yeah, sorry to bring home bad news. I double-checked that shit twice.” I give him an apologetic little half-smile.
He shrugs. “Not your doing; you’re just reporting on it. I really do want to know what the security guys on duty that night have to say for themselves, though.”
I nod a little grimly. “Me too.”
When I get to my room, I set my bag down and lie back on my bed, staring at the ceiling. The memory of Arya—the softness and strength of her body, the taste of her mouth, the sound of her moans—drifts back to me for a while, and I think about calling her. But I have no real excuse to do so until I’ve gone over those security videos. And I’m not quite up to that yet.
I’m worried about what I’ll find on those tapes—or worse, what I won’t find. If nobody out of the ordinary shows up on the tapes that night, that confirms it was all an inside job. And whether it’s staff, one of Dad’s men, or a family member, one of my family’s big berserk buttons is betrayal from within.