Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell #1)(122)

He took the hint and I didn’t have to know him very well to see his relief at being dismissed from this particular duty, he jerked his chin up and replied, not brightly, “Right. Thanks. Hope you don’t get dead. You gettin’ dead means I f**ked up and won’t get paid.”

Yikes!

“Well, I’m glad Sam had the foresight to put that clause in your contract,” I muttered and felt Sam’s body start shaking against mine.

“Standard,” Deaver grunted, jerked up his chin again, frowned down at Memphis again, turned on his boot and disappeared.

Sam’s silent laughter became an audible chuckle when I turned into him and looked up.

“I’m not sure I want to meet Aziz,” I shared and Sam’s chuckle became a roar of laughter as both his arms closed around me.

When he quit laughing but he was still grinning huge, he replied, “Aziz wasn’t raised by Argentine Dogos. He’s a little more sociable.”

“A little?” I asked and Sam’s huge grin turned into a blinding smile.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “A little. A guy checks the box marked ‘friendly’ on a job application for bodyguard, he’s not gonna get much work.”

This made sense.

“Right,” I muttered.

Sam kept smiling at me then he looked to the counter at my list and back at me. “You ready to hit the grocery store?”

“I will be when I ascertain if there’s anything in my cooking arsenal you won’t feel forced to eat.”

“I don’t have a cast iron skillet, baby, and shortening is not an acceptable addition to my pantry. That help?”

“Yes, but barely.”

“We’ll figure it out,” he murmured.

Yes, we damn well would and I knew this because I was on a mission to make it so.

“Um… if Deaver comes with, he’s not going to attack any grocery store patrons for looking at us funny, seeing as you’re famous and all, and leave bite marks, is he?” I asked.

He pulled me closer and told me, “Good part of bein’ home, in Kingston, people are used to me. Unless it’s new folk or tourists, they leave me be.”

This was good.

“Excellent,” I replied.

Sam smiled again. Then he bent his head and touched his mouth to mine, let me go and muttered, “Shower then store.”

“Gotcha,” I muttered back.

He moved to the stairs. I turned to my list.

I was scratching out the word “shortening” when I heard, “Kia?”

I turned and looked over my shoulder to see Sam at the wall by the base of the stairs.

“Yeah, honey?”

His head cocked slightly to the side and his eyes moved over me. I held my breath because they’d gone that super intense and I suspected he was seeing something, feeling something, something I didn’t understand, while looking at me in his kitchen.

But he didn’t share.

Instead he said, “Won’t be long.”

“Okay,” I replied softly.

He tipped up his chin and disappeared.

I took in a breath and went back to my list.

* * * * *

It was night, the moon lit the ocean, the sound of waves crashing on the beach shifted lazily toward the deck – those, a nice dinner and a good day spent with Sam lulling me into a relaxation I hadn’t felt in years.

Years.

It felt good.

The grocery store mission was successful. I got what I wanted and Sam got what he wanted. I paid close attention to what Sam got which gave me ideas for dinner and, after we left the grocery, we hit the liquor store then we went home.

And Deaver, who I noted trailing us twice, didn’t attack anyone.

A plus.

I put chicken br**sts in to marinade and Sam and I took Memphis for a long walk on the beach. Then Sam and I came back and he took me upstairs for a long, energetic session in his bed.

We emerged from Sam’s bed late afternoon and I met Aziz. Sam was right, he was friendlier if not less scary. He was Arabic, had less bulk than Deaver but not less muscle, though his was lean. He had more height and when he departed he did not share his wish I didn’t get dead. He gave me a look that promised I wouldn’t (thus him being not less scary).

The only thing that semi-marred our day was that twice Sam got calls where he looked at the display on his phone then took them elsewhere. This was not exactly unusual, he had a lot of calls at home where he did that and I suspected they were discussions with Ozzie or his crew of badasses. So I didn’t think anything of it, in Indiana or in North Carolina.

That was until, during the second call, I headed upstairs on bare feet to see to unpacking and I did this while he was in his office on the phone.

The door was open and I heard him say, “Like I said before, tell them I’m considering it but I haven’t made a decision.” He paused, I debated the merits of eavesdropping and before I made a decision, he went on, “They’re impatient for an answer then the answer is no. They can keep their shit then they can wait for me to f**kin’ consider it.”

It was then, considering his tone sounded frustrated and the conversation was clearly not about my safety, not to mention, I had some anxiety about what it was about, harking way back to the conversation I overheard Sam have with Luci, I moved swiftly to the bedroom. For the first five minutes of unpacking, I made way more noise than I needed to. Firstly, I did this to drown out hearing anything Sam was saying. Secondly, I did this because I wanted Sam to know my whereabouts.