Page 16

CHAPTER 16

Kilo

T he scream woke me up and I came up ready to fight. Then I realized Camila was sleeping beside me and thrashing around. “Shhh, wake up, Cami,” I soothed. I held her arms pinned to her sides so she couldn’t accidentally hurt herself.

Her eyes snapped open and she froze, as though listening for danger.

“It’s okay. You’re okay,” I told her, letting her go and smoothing the hair out of her face.

She was gulping in breaths as though she’d just run a mile. Then she did something that cracked my fucking stone-cold heart in two. She turned into me and pressed her face into my chest, taking comfort in me.

I was a fucking goner.

How was I supposed to resist this woman? She was everything I wanted. She was a mystery at first, but little by little she was letting her guard down. Letting me in. Seeing her turn from the suspicious, solemn, woman I first met into this beautiful creature who smiled and laughed... Damn. I wasn’t a poetic kind of man, but she almost made me want to fucking try to be. She just filled in all the gaps in my life. With seemingly no effort.

I was stroking her hair as she calmed down, waiting until she caught her breath. “Bad dream?”

She nodded, still keeping her face buried in my chest. She could stay there forever as far as I was concerned.

“Want some water?” I asked her.

She sighed. “Yes, please.”

I waited a beat until her arms unwrapped from me, then stood up. I pulled on a pair of boxer briefs and sweats.

“Sorry I woke you,” she whispered.

“Don’t apologize,” I told her. “I’ll be right back.”

She settled back against the pillows. The moonlight was the only thing lighting up the room. I didn't bother to turn on the lights as I went into the kitchen and filled up a glass of water. We’d eaten the lasagna in bed and then I’d fucked her again before we’d both fallen asleep. I knew I wasn’t ever going to get enough of her.

I looked up as movement caught my eye. Someone was walking down Camila’s driveway. It was only eleven at night, but these women didn't have visitors. I set the glass down, grabbed the pistol I had stashed in a holster under one of the cabinets—I had weapons all over this house—and made a beeline for the front door. I knew Camila was keeping something from me. She and her family weren’t very good liars. And either this guy—had to be a guy, judging from his height—had something to do with it, or it was Shawn the douche creeping around. Either way, I was going to take care of it.

It didn’t take long to catch up with the guy. He was strolling along like he wasn’t being a fucking creep outside my girl’s house. I’d stuffed my gun into the back of my sweats. “Who the fuck are you and why are you-” I didn’t even get to finish because the fucker moved too fast for my liking.

He spun around and I took in his face. Blond. Tall. Blue eyes. Pretty boy. “Who the fuck are you?” he growled.

“That’s my fucking question,” I snapped.

“You live around here?” When I didn’t answer he shook his head. “Fuck off.”

“Not until you tell me what you were doing skulking around,” I told him.

“What’s it to you?”

“This is-”

“Kilo?”

I groaned to myself when Camila’s soft voice called out in the darkness. As soon as the man took a step toward her, I was on him. He wasn’t getting anywhere close to my girl until I knew who he was. I shoved him back. “Don’t even fucking think about it.” When he took another step toward Camila, I lost my temper. My fist connected with his jaw.

He seemed all too happy to fight with me as he grabbed my shoulder and landed a body blow into my side. Pretty soon all I could hear was our grunts as we beat on each other. I caught a blow to the face, returning the favor by ramming my fist into his again. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t a pussy like Shawn. This guy was dangerous. He had training and experience.

“Kilo!”

“Stay back,” I told her, looking over my shoulder. I was distracted just long enough for the asshole to pull a gun on me. Mine was in my hand and pointed at him before I knew what was happening.

Fuck. That escalated quick.

“Drop it,” the man told me.

“You drop yours,” I countered.

“Oh my God.” Camila hadn’t listened and her voice came from right behind me. “Wait-”

The guy charged, taking us both to the ground. My elbow hit the sidewalk and the pain nearly blinded me for a minute. It was never funny when it was your own damn funny bone that takes a beating. That was when I realized I’d lost my gun.

“Dustin! Stop!”

We both froze and stared up at Camila. She was standing over us, her hands out in a pacifying gesture. “He’s my boyfriend.”

The man on top of me looked between us. “Boyfriend?”

“Dustin?” I asked. I shoved him off me, making sure to hit him as hard as I could as I did.

Camila wrapped her arms around herself as we picked ourselves up off the ground.

“You have a lot of explaining to do, Camila,” Dustin said.

“Yeah, you do,” I growled, narrowing my eyes on her. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but I needed to before I killed this fucker. Well, strictly speaking I didn't need to know before killing him, it was just courtesy.

“Can we go into your house?” Camila asked me, her eyes pleading with me. “I don’t want to drag Mama and Carmen into this.”

We’d already talked about not seeing other people, so I was really hoping there was an explanation for all this. “Yeah,” I muttered. I put my hand on her lower back, leading her back to my house as if I hadn’t just gotten into a fight with a guy in her driveway. As soon as we were back inside, I turned on the living room light.

The worry on Camila’s face killed me, but I wasn’t ready to let my guard down just yet. Not until I knew what the hell was going on.

“Sit down, please,” she said, looking between me and Dustin. “Both of you, but not next to each other.”

He finally sat, but not before I shoved him once for good measure. Then I sat.

She blew out a breath and motioned toward the other guy. “Dustin is my…” She paused, searching for the right word. “He’s a U.S. Marshal.”

My brows shot up at that.

“You assaulted a federal agent, asshole,” he told me.

“You were sneaking around in the dark outside my girlfriend’s house, asshole. Besides you never fucking identified yourself,” I shot back. This wasn’t the first time I’d assaulted a fed. Though it was the first time I did so unknowingly.

He glared at me, but fell quiet when Camila stepped in between us.

I pulled her back until she was behind me. I didn’t trust this piece of shit and I didn’t want her in the way if he tried something. Then what she said clicked. “What is a U.S. Marshal doing here?”

“He’s in charge of watching over my family,” she told me. I turned and stared down at her. “We’re in witness protection.”

Gritting my teeth, I ran a hand over my head. “Witness protection.”

“Yes,” she said, voice soft and uncertain. “I-”

“Does he need to be here for this?” I asked.

“No, I was just checking in with Lucia,” Dustin said, answering before Camila could. “I’ll come back tomorrow, Camila. Check in again. When it’s nice and bright out.” He said the last part to me before he stood and left.

I watched him until he shut the door, then turned back to Camila. She looked wrecked. I didn’t want her to be upset, but Dustin had been right, she had a lot of explaining to do. “What’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry. I never meant to drag you into this,” she said, choking on a sob.

Tears were my weakness. My sisters had learned that early on and used them often, but I could tell Camila wasn’t used to crying. It was destroying me to see her so fucking upset. I pulled her close and hugged her. “Don't cry.” My anger was fading since I knew Dustin was just some dirtbag fed and not her former boyfriend trying to rekindle shit or something. “Come on, Baby. Mercy. Your tears are killing me.”

She sniffled and nodded, trying to wipe away the tears. I helped her, wiping my thumbs over her cheeks. “I was going to tell you in the morning.”

“Come here.” I sat her down on the couch, then walked back into the kitchen and grabbed the glass of water. Sitting down next to her, I dragged her into my lap with one arm, then handed her the glass. “Drink that.” I waited while she took a few gulps. “Now tell me what’s going on. Why are you in witness protection?”

I’d suspected from the start they were hiding something. This wasn’t what I’d expected though. Witness protection was fucking serious. It meant that whatever was going on was no small matter. They didn’t put you in witness protection unless some bad shit was going down.

Camila let out a shaky breath. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to see me anymore. I can’t promise-”

“How about you tell me what’s going on before you start overanalyzing all the ways you think I’ll leave you.” We hadn’t officially said we were boyfriend and girlfriend. Mostly because I was a grown ass man and not a kid. I didn’t have girlfriends. I had a woman. An old lady. But there was no denying we were in a relationship. Especially after what happened earlier tonight. No way I was leaving her behind now. Whatever this was, we’d face it together. I just needed to know what she was involved in.

“Four years ago, my father was murdered right in front of me.” She started shaking in my arms.

Jesus fucking Christ. That’s a way to start a story.

This was going to be a shit show. I sighed and held her close. “Take your time, Baby.” I stroked a hand down her back. I wanted her to know she was safe, that I had her. I could tell this wasn’t going to be easy, but she needed to get it out as much as I needed to know what was coming for her.