Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
I truly believed if Anurak were to ask Rico to step away from this criminal enterprise for good, Rico would in a heartbeat so long as it would make his boy happy.
“We’ll go shopping,” I told him. Pressing my hand to his shoulder, I gently nudged him in the direction of the stairs. “Go let Rico know you’re going shopping. I’ll go get the car ready.”
He skipped off with a beaming smile. I followed behind him down the stairs. When he turned for Rico’s office, I headed for the garage, grabbing the keys for Anurak’s Jeep Rubicon off the wall. He couldn’t drive, but Rico insisted he still have his own vehicle. Anurak tried fighting him on it, but he’d lost. So, when we went out together, I always took his Jeep instead of the SUV I’d been assigned just so the Jeep got to move.
I was just turning the Jeep on when Niran appeared in front of it. Sighing, I rolled the window down, then angled out of the driver’s seat, and shut the door. Leaning my shoulder against the door, I crossed my arms over my chest and arched a brow at him. “What?” I drawled.
“Is that any way to speak to your superior?” he asked, his voice empty. I fucking hated it.
I scoffed. “Right. The superior who’s been avoiding me like I’m the fucking plague.” Rolling my eyes, I shifted, crossing my feet at the ankles. “What do you want, Niran?”
“Rico brought it to my attention that you’ll be taking Anurak out today. Do you need extra hands?”
“Oh, so now I’m not good at my fucking job?” I demanded, getting angry and feeling defensive as fuck. “What the fuck, Niran? When have I ever needed assistance when protecting Anurak? He’s never been unsafe with me.” I turned and yanked the door back open, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Go fuck yourself.”
He grunted, but instead of apologizing, he just turned and walked into the house, giving a quiet greeting to Anurak as he passed him. I clenched my jaw and flexed my fingers, willing my rage away. Rico would have my head if I frightened his boy just because I was pissed off with Niran.
Did Niran think me getting punched in the face was suddenly a sign I couldn’t take care of Anurak? Was he going to go to Rico and demand Anurak be given another soldier to protect him? Was I about to lose my fucking job?
If Niran stabbed me in the back like that, I was going to fucking ruin him. I didn’t care how obsessed I was with the man. If he took away the one thing that gave me stability, I was going to destroy him.
“Everything okay?” Anurak asked as he slid into the passenger seat.
I rolled my window up and hit the button to lift the garage door. “Everything is fine,” I lied. Everything wasn’t fine, but my number one rule was to never let my foul moods touch the sweet boy I’d been entrusted to protect. “Let’s go blow some of your Papi’s money,” I teased, calling Rico by the name Anurak had given him.
Anurak laughed, but a blush stained his cheeks red anyway.
4
Niran
Iglanced at my watch, frowning when I realized it’d been several hours since Bento and Anurak left the house. With Anurak’s social anxiety, they would have been back way before now—birthday shopping or not. And a glance at my phone told me Bento hadn’t checked in with me since ten A.M., when he’d assured me everything was fine and they would head back home once Anurak was done shopping.
Quickly, I switched over from the paperwork I’d been drowning in and worked on pinging Bento’s phone and the SUV, since I had trackers on both. Both trackers were pinging at a shopping center, and both were showing at the exact same location. It wouldn’t have been all that weird except for the fact that Bento’s phone had been sitting in the same place for a good few minutes now, according to the tracker.
Surely, they hadn’t shopped so much that Bento was still loading bags into the vehicle, had they? That wasn’t usual for Anurak. The boy usually only spent what was necessary and not a penny more. While Rico wouldn’t care if Anurak completely wiped out his bank account, Anurak just wasn’t that kind of boy.
Just as I picked up my phone to call Bento and do a check-in, my door opened. I looked up, ready to reprimand whoever had barged in without knocking, but the words died on my tongue when I saw it was Rico filling the doorway. His jaw was clenched, and he was white knuckling his phone.
Something was fucking wrong.
“Have you heard from Bento?” he demanded.
“No,” I told him. “I just pinged his location and was just about to call him, actually. Have you heard something?”