“So, taking a late lunch?” she asked in a lame attempt to deflect attention away from the elephant in the room. Hell, forget the room, the elephant was charging the plaza, stomping all over the Christmas trees.
Colin pressed his lips together to stifle the grin that was threatening to bust his face wide open. “Things have been slow today with the boss lady home sick.”
Beside her Hudson laughed out loud.
“Touché.” After a resigned sigh she came clean. “I assume I can trust you to keep quiet about this?”
“Pfft.” His hand batted the air. “Please, I’ve known since the gala.”
Allies eyes grew wide. “Well, alrighty then.” She looked at Hudson, who was absolutely no help at all, then back to Colin. “I guess I’ll see you Monday.”
Colin gave a quick nod to them both before beating a hasty retreat toward the cuckoo clock tent. Once he was out of earshot she turned her attention to Hudson. “This is going to be an issue.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“The last thing I need is people gossiping about us, Hudson.”
He pulled her back into his arms. “Allie, take a breath. We were never planning on keeping this a secret. At least I sure as hell wasn’t. As long as I’ve known you there’s been something or someone standing in our way. We’re finally together and it fucking works. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let fear of a little office gossip keep us apart.”
He had a point. But still, she hadn’t planned on her assistant catching them grinding on each other like a couple of teenagers. Jesus, she needed to get a grip. The thought had no sooner entered her mind when Hudson lifted the mistletoe back over her head.
“Now, where were we?”
The phone in her pocket began to ring.
“Don’t answer it,” he said, leaning down to kiss her neck. “You’re home sick in bed, remember?”
She rolled her eyes as she fished the phone out of her pocket. “I need to get this,” she said when she saw their general counsel’s name flash on the screen.
Hudson groaned against her skin.
“What can I say, comes with the territory when you’re dating a powerful executive,” she teased just before pressing the green answer button. “Hello,” she said into the phone.
Hudson resumed his amorous pursuits, letting his lips drift up the column of her throat.
“Alessandra, I’m sorry to bother you, but this really couldn’t keep until Monday. There’s been a break in the case. They found the person who killed your parents.”
Allie stepped back, trying to process what she was hearing. “Are they sure?”
Hudson’s brow knit together. “What is it?” he whispered.
“Yes,” Weiss said. His voice wavered when he added, “he had your mother’s ring.”
Allie rubbed at the stabbing pain in her chest. “Have they arrested him?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
There was a long silence. “He’s dead. Apparent heroin overdose.”
Dead
? Dozens of emotions ran through Allie’s mind, ranging from anger to frustration and then, finally, relief. There would be no trial, no long drawn-out media display. She could mourn her parents in private and get on with the business of living her life. “So it’s over?”
“Not quite.”
“What do you mean?”
“The police were able to identify him.” Weiss paused, and she imagined him taking a sip of water, or maybe wiping his brow with the starched handkerchief he always kept folded in his breast pocket. She heard him take a deep breath. “He’s a professional, Alessandra. A hit man. The police have had their eye on him for a while, with other cases, but haven’t had the proof they needed to bring him in.”
Allie’s throat grew tight.
“I wish you’d reconsider letting Clayton go,” he said after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.
“I appreciate your concern, Ben, but I’m not interested in having a bodyguard.”
“What the hell is going on, Allie?” Hudson asked. He wasn’t even trying to keep his voice down anymore. He ran a hand back through his hair, impatiently waiting while she ended the call. “What happened?” he asked the moment she hung up the phone.
“They found the man who shot my parents.” She felt the words come out of her mouth, but the voice that was speaking them didn’t sound like her own.
“I gathered that much. Why didn’t they arrest him?”
“He’s dead.”
“Thank fuck.”
Allie shook her head. “No.”
“Why, what else did Weiss say?”
“He was a hit man,” she whispered.
Hudson dug his phone out of his pocket without saying another word. The tension in his body was palpable, rolling off of him in waves.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling Max.” He pressed the phone to his ear. “I want him to have a team in place within the hour.”
Allie reached for his phone. “No, you heard what I said to Mr. Weiss. I’m not interested in having a bodyguard. Whatever enemies my dad had, they’re not mine.”
He blew out an exasperated breath. “You don’t know that.”
“I know that I’m happy, Hudson, really happy. And I’m not going to let some businessman with a grudge ruin it.”
Hudson glanced anxiously at the hundreds of people milling around the plaza. “At least let me get you out of here.”
“We still have the two gifts—”
“Allie, stop. I just got you back. It scares the hell out of me that some lunatic might take you away from me.” He swallowed. “Please, let me take you home.”
Yes, home. That was what Hudson was to her, and that was where she needed to be. She nodded and he exhaled a sigh of relief as he pulled her into his arms.
Considering the hardball convincing he’d attempted to get Allie to hang at his place that night, Hudson couldn’t believe he was letting her out of his sight. There was an unknown variable out there targeting the Sinclair family and probably gunning for Allie next. He needed some modicum of control over this sitch, along with a shit-ton of security cocooning her from harm. A man in his position had the corporate version of Blackwater at his disposal: ex MI6, FBI, Special Forces, even Israeli Intelligence. He’d utilize the fuck out of them if it meant keeping Allie safe. But at the moment all he had to offer her was Max, and while he trusted the man with his own life on a daily basis, having Allie beyond the penthouse walls put him on edge.
The elevator let out a discreet
bing
. Nick stepped off, not bothering to look up from texting on his cell phone as he strolled into the foyer. “Yo, bro, gotta do something about that new door dude. The dipshit wanted to play a game of twenty questions and who-the-fuck-its.” Nick’s thumbs rapid-fired over the phone screen. “Asshole,” he muttered under his breath.
“He’s doing his job, Nick.” Hudson slid Allie’s coat over her shoulders at the same time she tugged her hair free from the collar. “And quit putting so much effort into looking like shit,” he added after getting a better look at his kid brother. Forget about the long overdue haircut, the clothes he favored needed to bypass a thrift shop and head straight to an incinerator.
“Like your sorry ass looks any . . .” Nick looked up and halted midsentence as Allie breezed past him toward the elevator.
“Hi Nick, bye Nick.” She glanced over her shoulder at Hudson. “Don’t decorate that tree without me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Hudson said with a dry exhale. “Let me walk you out.” He strode past a stymied Nick. “Not a word from you, feel me?”
“Ah, shit, bro, you make it too easy.” Nick shoved his phone into the pocket of way overwashed jeans with holes splitting the knees.
Hudson stopped in front of Allie as she wrapped the cashmere scarf around her neck. He could feel his brother’s eyes on them. “Don’t you have a fridge to raid or something?” he asked him.
The smart-ass grin on Nick’s face as he strolled out of the room would have pissed Hudson off if he weren’t so fucking glad to see him smile. udson poff of her werenmt so fucking lgald to see him smil
Still, he waited until Nick was in the kitchen making himself at home before launching a last-ditch effort.
“I can’t strengthen my case on why you should stay here?” He popped a button on her coat, and just as she finished doing it up, he’d freed another.
Allie laughed. “Quit.” She batted his hand away and made quick work refastening the button. “I told you, I’m not intruding on ‘boy’s night.’”
“You won’t be. This place has three floors, for Christ’s sake. Watch a movie in the theater or . . .” Hudson’s lips curved into a sinful grin. “Lounge in my bed naked, waiting for me. Whatever you want. Though I prefer the latter.”
“I’ll be fine. Besides, it will give you a chance to miss me.”
“I’ve spent a lifetime missing you.” He dropped a kiss on her lips.
She smiled. “Then you’ll survive one more night.”
“Max is driving you and will wait at your brownstone until morning.”
“Hudson, that’s not necessary.”
“It’s non-negotiable, Alessandra. If you’re leaving my place, he’s going with you. Here.” Hudson handed her a key card with carte blanche access.
Allie raised a brow.
“This way you won’t have to call up tomorrow. Of course, if you wanted to come by later, I certainly wouldn’t object.”
“Ah, settin’ up a booty call,” Nick said as he cut through the foyer. He had a bag of Doritos in one hand and a box of Swedish fish in the other.
“Shut up, Nick.” Hudson glared in his direction, but Nick was already bounding up the stairs two at a time.
“Oh, I can tell tonight is going to be one for the books,” Allie said. As she backed into the elevator a slow smile curved her lips. “But who knows, maybe I’ll surprise you with a wake-up call.”
Hudson groaned and pushed a hand through his hair. The look she gave him made his cock twitch, but when the doors hushed closed the ache he felt whenever she left set up shop in his chest. His brother better fucking appreciate this, he thought as he turned on his heel and stalked up the stairs.
“Well, well, well, how the mighty have fallen,” Nick said the moment Hudson walked into the game room. He’d already stripped his jacket off and flung it on the leather chesterfield. “That’s a new development. Finally relocated your balls and called her, huh?”
Hudson cut his brother a sharp look. “Don’t start, Nick.” God help him, tonight was going to be an eternity without her, not to mention painful if his brother kept up this shit.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Nick shook his head, a shit-eating grin on his face and a not-letting-this-go gleam in his eye. “You’re even more pussywhipped than you were back in the day.”
“Zip it, Nick.”
“Come on, bro, lighten up.” He laughed. “You’re like the pussy whisperer. You usually got them lined up.”
Hudson came to a halt. “Don’t push me on this. She’s just . . .” He thought about Allie and all her quirks. That it took her ten minutes to order a damn coffee, the way she had fifty questions lined up after he said a single sentence, and how the only way to shut her up was to kiss her senseless.
“She’s just what, got you by the balls?”
“The heart, man. The fucking heart.” He exhaled and cocked a slight grin. “I love her.”
“Hey, sorry for poppin’ shit. But that’s what little brothers do, ya know?”
“Yeah, I know. Now can I school your punk ass in a game of pool?”
“As if.” Nick flopped over the back of the couch and stretched out on the tufted leather. “I think I missed this room most of all.”
Hudson chuckled. “
This
is what you missed the most?” The game room was a dark, luxurious space that kept in time with the era of the building, but with a modern spin. The place had it all: poker and pool tables, flat screens and surround sound, couches to comfortably seat ten, a fireplace to take the chill off or to set the mood, a bar with every conceivable liquor, beer, or beverage of choice, and of course, the infamous dart board. Nick always said the only thing missing was a peanut warmer and permission to toss his shells on the floor. But after thirty days locked up with nothing but basic cable and institutional food, Hudson wouldn’t have thought the game room topped Nick’s list.
“Shit, yeah. Your house is Disneyland for adults. And not Anaheim Disney, but frickin’ Orlando Disney.”
Hudson smirked. He and Allie had certainly turned the room into their own Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, rattling a few chains, so to speak.
“Then there’s your ‘Black Book,’ which is Magic Mountain. You know they have an app for that? A stripper pole would make it heaven, icing on the cake.”
“Not a chance in hell.” Hudson hit the switch to the Art Deco Tiffany chandelier spotlighting the table’s red baize.
Nick sat up and dragged a hand through his hair. Damn, the two of them were more alike than he’d ever admit. “Ah, come on. Don’t go soft on me. You’re like, shit, I don’t know, the god of
Penthouse
.”
“
Playboy.
” Hudson corrected. “The place was the headquarters of
Playboy
. And I excel at never being soft.”
“TMI.” Nick collected the balls from the pockets and racked them up. He gave them a quick one-two rollup and back and they clacked together. “My bad.” He hung the triangle back on its designated hook. “Dudes in rehab were like, when can I come over and kiss the wood Hefner walked on? You could charge admission.”
Hudson grabbed a couple of cues off the wall. “Admission and stripper poles, huh? Any other plans you have for my apartment?”
“Nah, that about covers it. And apartments are rinky-dink in the size department. This is a penthouse. An apartment is what I live in.”
“Wouldn’t know it with how much time you’re parking your ass over here.” Hudson tossed a cue to Nick, who caught the stick in midair.
“I like being here.”
“Go ahead and break.” Hudson walked over to the fridge behind the bar and gripped the cool steel handle. “Something to drink?” Fuck, the question was as ritualistic as brushing your teeth in the morning. He looked through the glass into the fully stocked stainless box. He was an asshole, he thought, for not cleaning the thing out. “Shit.” His hand dropped, and he did a one-eighty to face his brother. “I’m sorry, Nick.”
“Look, I’m cool.” Nick chalked up his cue. “Old habits die hard, huh?”
Hudson let out a short chuckle. “Case in point.”
“Have a beer, whatever you want. I’m good.”
“I don’t want to make it harder on you than it already is.”
“Part of the deal is learning how to cope with people drinking around me. So for fuck’s sake, bro, have what you want.” Nick took his shot and the balls cracked together and scattered. “Besides, I’ll still kick your ass,” he said as three balls sank with that one stroke. “Solids.”
“Jesus, Nick.” Hudson yanked open the fridge and grabbed two sparkling waters. Usually pool and the cold and frothy were synonymous, but tonight he was more interested in being with his brother than having a beer. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d simply played a game of pool or just hung out with Nick, listening to him spout off wisecracks. Although, he wasn’t completely at ease. Allie was outside of these walls, and his past kept showing up in his head like a goddamn slideshow. But he was no more ready to Dr. Phil those memories than he was to have a root canal. And he sure as hell wasn’t ready to lose this game.
Nick missed his next shot. “Ah, fuck. You’re up.”
“Luck only gets you so far,” Hudson said, walking around to the opposite side of the table before leaning over the felt. “Skill always prevails.” He took his shot and sank two stripes.
Nick cranked the surround with Volbeat’s “Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza.” Strong guitar riffs and the deep baritone of the lead singer’s Denmark accent pounded off the walls. Nick cocked a smart-ass grin. Leave it to his brother to find the humor and lighten the mood.
Hudson shook his head and smiled. “Nice choice.” As he sank another ball, all the shit he was stuffing down sank with it. But he was a bomb ready to explode.