Page 71 of Ruthless Lord

“Just some problem at the depot.”

“Now? This late? Come back to bed.”

“I wish I could.” I pause, looking back at her. I’m tempted to go over and kiss her gently. Do I still have a pass on the rule? Butno, if I start pushing against the edges of our agreement, I’ll end up throwing the whole thing away.

“Aren’t you the boss?” she whines, stretching with a sigh.

“That just means I have more responsibility.”

“Want me to come with you?”

“No. Go back to sleep.”

“Good. I wasn’t really going to.” She rolls over with a groan. “Don’t wake me up when you get back.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

I’m smiling as I get into my truck. I don’t know what it is about that girl, but she makes me feel something. Protective, obsessed, light and young, better than I have in a long time. Even when she’s sleepy and only partially awake, I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anyone before. It’s a little terrifying, but that makes it better.

I have to remind myself that this is a good thing. I’m supposed to want my wife. It’s not bad if she’s wriggling herself deeper into my brain every day we’re together. Anyone else would be happy about it.

But I know better.

I’ve been around this game for too long. I’ve seen relationships crash and burn a thousand different times. I’m too old for Charlie and I’m way outside of her league. She’s from one of the oldest, richest families in the area, and I’m just some kid with a violent past and a vendetta against the world. I hurt all the fucking time, and all I ever want to do is fight.

She’s good. I’m rotten. There’s no getting past the truth.

No matter how much she makes me feel, our relationship is doomed to failure.

I’m in a bleak mood when I arrive at the depot. Davide’s waiting for me out front, which is a rarity. He’s a big guy, dark hair, dark eyes, and in good shape. Whenever I mention my tech guy, people always picture some skinny string-bean dork, but that’s not Davide. He approaches his physical fitness with the same level of obsessive devotion as he does everything else in his life.

He just doesn’t really like people.

I asked him about that once. He only shrugged and said,computers make more sense.

Couldn’t argue with that.

“What’s the story?” I ask him, skipping the handshake. He’ll do it, but I know he doesn’t like it.

“We’re not totally sure what happened yet,” he admits, scrubbing the back of his head as we walk out into the trucking yard. “The cameras all went out at the same time right at one-thirty in the morning. The motion sensors caught someone walking through the yard, which triggered the new alarms I set up. That scared them off, from what I can tell. The cameras came back a few minutes later.”

I stare grimly around us. “You’re telling me someone hacked your security?”

“It doesn’t feel good to admit, but that’s how it looks.”

“Well, shit. Never thought I’d see the day.”

“There’s more.” He leads me to one of the back fence gates. It’s an enormous thing, two-layered, and wrapped in more barbedwire than a prison. This portion of the fence is essentially impenetrable. “They came in through here.”

I raise my eyebrows and look at him. “Seriously?”

“They had a keycard.” He motions to the side employee entrance. It’s just a smaller door in the fence made from reinforced steel with a scanner entry. “Giorgio’s name shows up in the logs.”

I let that sink in. Giorgio’s one of my most loyal and dependable employees. I can’t imagine he showed up in the middle of the night unless he had work to do. And even then, he wouldn’t run off if the security triggered. He’d stick around and fix shit.

“I want to talk to him.”

“He’s on the way in now, but he already swore up and down he’s been at home all night. I hacked his phone and his GPS data suggests he’s not lying.”