She huffed, keeping her eyes locked on the road in front of her. “I think you must have fried your brain fucking CeCe so hard all weekend. Staying home where I belong is not nonsense. And no, I couldn’t tell you were happy about my early graduation. You seemed pretty pissed off about that, actually. When I tried to tell you over the summer, you were too busy to listen, so excuse me for thinking you wouldn’t have cared one way or the other.” She shot me a quick glare before directing her gaze forward again. “As for plans for our house, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but you might want to see a doctor about that bizarre delusion you have going on in your head.”

I was so lost in sitting there savoring being with her that it took a moment for everything she’d just thrown at me to click. “Who told you I was fucking CeCe?” I bellowed, making her jerk and the car swerve.

Her fingers tightened until they were bloodless around the steering wheel. “I’m not having this conversation.”

“Fuck no, Nova. You are not going to throw something like that at me like a goddamn bomb and then refuse to talk about it.” I was breathing hard, my anger boiling so hot, a red haze grew around my vision. “Who told you that?” As soon as she spoke their name, the person who had dared to tell her such a ridiculous lie was dead.

“Are you denying it?” she shot back.

“Who?”

She pulled into Hannigans’ parking lot and turned off the car, refusing to answer me. “Have a safe flight,” she said with a sugary-sweet smile. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“See me around?” I grabbed the back of her neck, jerking her toward me. “You think you’re just going to ‘see me around’? You are my fucking heart, Nova. You are my life. My soul. The world doesn’t revolve unless you are with me. I won’t be seeing you around—I will see you everywhere. And as soon as you’re eighteen, you will be beside me, day and night.”

I touched my lips to her ear and felt her shiver. Knowing I was making her body react to me, my cock nearly tore through the seam of my pants, I was so hard for her. “Beside me. Beneath me. On top of me. Day. And. Night.”

20

Ryan

The conference room was eerily silent despite every seat at the long table being occupied. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the men who sat nervously before Pop as he stood facing them all, his face set in hard lines.

“Six men are on duty on Sundays. Two of you manning the lobby, two patrolling the floors, and two of you watching the security camera feeds.” His hands slapped down onto the conference table, the sound like a crack of thunder just as lightning struck.

From where I stood in the corner with Zio, I watched every man at the table flinch, as if they had each been physically slapped, sweat beading on their foreheads. Only six of the thirty men had been on duty, but they rotated weekends in six-man intervals since a full crew had never been needed on the weekends.