Page 26 of Steal My Heart

Not as fucking angry as I am.

Chapter Eight

Remi

“You will sink like a stone if you keep tensing your body.” My swim instruction began way too early, especially considering my late-night activities with a certain intense man. Who gave me the mostintenseorgasm of my life.

I’ve yet to run into Angelo this morning. Just as well, because his sister has taken up the mantle of trying to kill me.

“Chin up.” Standing behind me in the four foot area of the pool, Alessandra tilts my head.

Despite the correction, my lower half sinks, and I awkwardly find my feet before my upper half goes under too. “How am I supposed to keep my body from tensing? I’m tense because I’ve nearly swallowed all the water from this pool. And it’s a big freaking pool!”

“We’re not giving up until you’re water safe,” she says with determination.

“How about I just keep being water safe by stayingawayfrom water?” I move my goggles to the top of my head, thesteam rising around us from the heated water meeting the cool morning air.

“Except you can’t, because you live in a city surrounded by water, currently staying at a property on the water,” she points out. “I’m not giving up, and I don’t want you giving up, either.”

I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Okay, but I need a bathroom break.”

“You’re stalling.”

“Am not,” I say childishly.

“Five minute break,” she tells me.

“You’re almost as intense a swim instructor as your brother is about, well, everything,” I inform her.

“I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment,” she retorts.

“Me neither.”

Wading to the shallow end, I climb out and do a little shiver dance as I wrap a towel around myself. With a mixture of awe and envy, I watch as Alessandra floats like a cork stopper.

And yes, I’m stalling.

Angelo

After a quick three mile run, my hair’s still damp from the shower as I enter the kitchen. “Keep your seat,” I tell Al’s bodyguard.

“Nice to see you in a good humor,” Maks says, standing guard over the gagged man bound to a chair.

Last night’s private concert has helped improve my mood considerably. I haven’t seen the little pickpocket this morning, but my wallet was left on the piano. Remi thinks she can win in this game between us, but what she doesn’t know is I’m the king of NOLA, and I make the rules.

Smiling as I pull up the security feed, I find Al in the pool. “It’s time for a swim,” I announce.

Maks and I drag Al’s bodyguard outside and to the edge of the deep end.

My sister’s underwater practicing her 5th Stroke, and I squat down, waiting patiently until she surfaces. Al flings her hair back from her eyes; they go wide as I shove her bodyguard’s head under.

His muffled pleas fall on deaf ears as I mentally count the seconds. His body stills after forty-two.

I rise, toeing his lifeless body into the water.

“Called it. The most dangerous job in the family,” Maks quietly says.

Al’s arms slice through the water as she reaches the ladder and climbs out. “Assholes, the both of you!” she hisses, wrapping a towel around herself. “Remi’s in the pool house and could’ve seen the whole thing!”