Page 43 of Hidden Ties

The laughingfit that escaped Valerie’s lips had both men staring at her in concern.

What in the hell is so funny?

“So, you don’t have a girlfriend!” she burst out in what seemed like relief.

“Who? Sal?” Amo asked, laughing himself into his own fit. He understood exactly what was so funny. “Hell no! He can barely let himself get laid.”

Suddenly, Valerie’s laughter subsided.

“You done, Amo?” Sal’s voice came out calmer than he’d thought it would. “Or maybe I can tell Lucca how you—”

“What do you need?” Amo quickly asked in fear.

Gaining control of the situation, he was finally able to get to the point. “She needs a job that doesn’t involve using a computer,andshe has to be watched over at all times.” When Amo gave him a confused look, he added, “Flight risk,” for clarity.

That seemed to clear up any of Amo’s confusion as he asked, “Anything in particular?”

“Yeah,” Sal began to make himself very clear, “one where she preferably keeps the clothes she’s currently wearingon.”

“Oh, I can definitely work with that.” Amo gave her another appreciative look and held out his elbow for her to take. “Come on, doll. What’s your name?”

The smile she gave Amo before she wound her hand around the offered arm sent Sal over the edge. Only the first three letters of her name had come out of her mouth before he snatched her ass right back.

“Val—”

“You know what? Never mind,” Sal told Amo before dragging her back out through the Underground.

“What the—Sal!” she snapped and hit at his arm as he pulled her through the Casino Hotel yet again. Out of breath and baseball bat-less, she gave up, letting him take her to another floor.

The room he took her into this time was a darkened space with a million different screens that watched over all the guests in the Casino Hotel, with only one person watching them who hadn’t even bothered to peel his eyes away from the screens. Oddly enough, she found it calming. It was kinda like watching over a video game with multiple avatars. She wasn’t in the room long when she was led yet again through another door and into someone’s office.

Who’s the lucky person I’m going to meet now?

Internally, she rolled her eyes, waiting for the made man to show up that she was going to attempt to shadow next.

Rolling in another chair from the screen room, he placed it right by the door he had just shut them into. “Sit here.”

Valerie sank to the chair he had pushed her down on, the feeling awfully similar to being put in timeout as a child. Withnothing to do, she couldn’t help but notice the computer setup of her fucking dreams. Whoever owned it, she definitely wanted to meet now. Hell, she wanted to have sex with the man on the desk.

So, imagine her surprise when Sal sat down behind it.

“This isyouroffice?”

Sal reached into the front pocket of his suit and put on his glasses before he looked at the multiple screens.

So, he does wear glasses!Blue light glasses.

When he began typing on his keyboard, the sound of it was so satisfying she wanted to run her fingertips across him—er, the keyboard.

“Mmhmm,” he mumbled, already drifting into a different world as he looked at the screens.

“Oh.” Biting her lip, Valerie suddenly stopped slumping and sat up in the computer chair straighter. She couldn’t believe he never struck her as a computer guy before, as he fit in so well behind it. At least she felt a little better now after getting her ass beat in Mario Kart. “I see. Andwhatexactly is your job title?” Her voice had turned sweet as butter, but she was in for yet another surprise.

“Head of security.”

Feeling a bit warm inside, all she could manage to fluster out was, “T-That’s nice.” God, he was just so hot behind a computer screen.

“So …” She managed to pull herself together. “Is that for just the Casino Hotel or the family …?”