what’s up?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“I wanted to check and see how things are going with our newest client. I figured you were on the job last night. Everything cool?”
“I guess you could say that. She’s a nightmare just as I expected. I chased off some guy mauling her in the kitchen and did I get an ounce of thanks? No. She’s an ungrateful bitch and frankly, I’m thinking that giant payday wasn’t nearly enough. Maybe I can tack on a handling fee for my pain and suffering.”
“I thought you said that you tried to refuse the job.”
“I did. I’m just cranky from getting two hours of sleep.”
“You always were grouchy if you didn’t get your full eight hours. You’re such a prima donna. Do you have a plan for the next couple of days?”
“Try not to kill the woman myself?”
“Come on now, I’m serious. The Abelli account is a pretty big payday. Just treat it like any other.”
Rian didn’t need his big brother lecturing him. “This isn’t my first rodeo. I know what I’m doing. If I need your help, I’ll ask for it.”
“Well, aren’t you a bowl of cherries this morning? Get yourself together. Act professional. So what if she’s not the kind of person you want to go have lunch with. That’s probably a good thing—I’ve seen pictures of her. She’s not hard on the eyes. The last thing I need is you messing around with a client because she’s pretty.”
Rian scowled. “Now you’re just talking out of your ass. You know I don’t do that. If you don’t have anything worthwhile to add, I’m going to go.”
“Go get some coffee, you mean grouch. It’s just for a few days. You can handle this. Laci says hi,” he added and Rian grumbled but replied in kind.
His brother had married country superstar Laci McCall, but they’d known her before she’d hit it big and he’d always thought Laci was the best of people. How his brother managed to snag that diamond, he’d never know. Aw, hell, he was just being a surly jerk. Kane and Laci were the real deal and he knew it. If he weren’t in such a foul mood, he’d admit that Kane was the luckiest son of a bitch alive.
“Do you need any help with this case?” Kane asked, breaking into Rian’s thoughts.
“No, I’m good. Like you said, it’s just a few days. I think I can handle Miss Sassy Pants for that amount of time. Anything longer and I might need backup.”
“You got it.”
Rian clicked off and sighed. His head throbbed and the sunlight stabbing him in the eyeballs wasn’t helping any. He needed coffee and he needed it fast. After a quick check on CoCo, he found her dead to the world, lightly snoring and drooling on her pillow. Ha! If he were an asshole, he’d snap a pic of that and post it to social media. Instead he returned to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.
Of course, as luck would have it, no simple coffee machine around. Just one of those fancy single-cup coffee things that he couldn’t make heads or tails of, which meant he had to make do with a glass of iced tea that he managed to make on the fly. It was better than nothing but it didn’t compare to the kind of brew he needed to wake up completely.
He was midway through the glass when CoCo stumbled in, bleary-eyed and looking like something the cat dragged in, and he couldn’t stop the smirk that followed.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked sourly, going to that fancy machine and popping in a pod on autopilot, because he was certain she could barely see two steps in front of her. “Why are you still here?”
“I told you why I’m here,” he answered, more amused than he should be to see her hungover. He saw an opportunity to get some coffee and acted on it. “How about a truce?” he suggested and she stopped to stare at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, we got off on the wrong foot. I’m here to protect you for a handful of days and since there’s not much we can do about it, we might as well try to get along. I’ll tell you what...you fix me up one of those fancy cups of coffee from your pod machine and I’ll forget about what an ungrateful jerk you were to me last night after I saved your bacon. Sound like a deal?” He tacked on a smile for good measure. Time to make lemonade out of lemons. He was good at that.
Except CoCo didn’t seem to appreciate his peace offering. She grabbed her coffee and squared her shoulders, the scent of freshly brewed goodness teasing him in the worst way, as she said, “I’m pretty sure they sell coffee at the gas station down the street.” Then, blowing on her no doubt delicious coffee, she left him standing there.
Without any coffee.
Well. Hell.
* * *
WHAT WAS HE still doing here? She sipped at her coffee, waiting for the caffeine jolt so her brain could function. She’d thought for sure he would’ve bailed last night after she’d given him the brush-off. He was like a cursed penny that kept showing up in her purse.
Grabbing her cell, she quickly dialed her father. Time to get to the bottom of this situation. She couldn’t have Captain Buzzkill shadowing her every move.
“Babbo,” she greeted her father warmly in Italian, “how are you this morning?”
“Malissimo, child,” Enzo responded with a heavy sigh that pinched at her earlier pique. “Have you met the man I’ve hired to watch over you?”
“Ah, yes, actually, I have,” she answered, biting her lip, wondering how to break the news that she wanted him to fire Rian. “About that... I don’t think he’s a good fit for me. I think I’ll be fine without a babysitter, Babbo. I’m a big girl now. Besides, I doubt we have anything to truly worry about. Perhaps you’re just being a little too cautious?”
“Contessa, I will not argue the point with you,” Enzo said sternly. Her father only used her given name when he was either fed up or very angry. She may have her father wrapped around her finger but she still shivered when he used that particular tone of voice with her. “Rian Dalton is the best and I trust you in his care. You will do as he says. I have the FBI here with me, working on who is behind this terrorism, but I don’t want to worry about you. Am I clear?”
Damn. That didn’t go as she’d planned. “But, Babbo...he’s such a...” She wrestled with the right word. Jerk came to mind but it wasn’t just that. He was...unaffected by her in any way. And she found that to be a flaw she couldn’t abide. “I’m sure there are plenty of other qualified professionals out there that we can swap him out for. How about I look around and take that load off your shoulders? I would be willing to do that for you.”
“Contessa! You will do no such thing. You will abide by my decision. End of discussion.”
Should she try again? Under most circumstances she could twist her father into a pretzel to get what she wanted but she sensed this was not one of those times. She’d never heard him so gruff with her. Maybe he was really worried. “Okay, Babbo, I’ll stick with Rian,” she said glumly. “But I think this is ridiculous. You’re going to realize you’re overreacting and then I’ll get the satisfaction of saying
