Vicious Minds (Children of Vice #4)(41)
“If I was in the eye of risk, you were there too. You just drank without even testing to see—”
“Miguel is a coward. He wouldn’t risk killing me in his own damn club. Besides, the wine I picked usually changes color or bubbles if anything is added to it. I smelt the wine to make sure it wasn’t a different type, then I poured, and nothing was off. Neither he nor those around him have the mind to chemically alter it without leaving a trace. I was only in danger because it was you.” He placed his chin on top of my head.
I smirked at that, staring at our foggy reflection in the mirror. “That sounds like compliment.”
“It was.”
“I know. I just wanted to hear you admit it.”
He kissed the top of my head before rifling through his clothes to retrieve his phone.
“What do you want to eat?”
I couldn’t help it. First, the hug, then the concern, followed by a compliment, and a kiss to the head. This was him being tender, sweet even. However, if I pointed that out, he’d get defensive and retreat within himself to reset to his default mood: cold and emotionless.
“A medium well-done barbecue bacon smokehouse burger with extra onions and no cheese…as well as side of fries, one vanilla milkshake, and a bottle of sparkling water…I’m watching my weight.” I replied, and he nodded, dialing.
As he spoke on the phone, I reached up to touch my hair only to remember the wig I was wearing. Bending over, I wiped the steam from the glass to look at myself. For a woman who had just spent the last fifteen minutes puking, I looked surprisingly beautiful.
“I make one hell of a ginger,” I said when he his attention was back on me, twisting the red baby hair by my earlobe. “I’m keeping the look for the night, it took me so much effort to get ready.”
“I didn’t recognize you at all. It wasn’t just because of the red hair or the green eyes.” He reached up tapping his thumb on my face. “Who knew a birthmark could make such a difference?”
“I like them too,” I smirked, reaching up to touch his hand. “However, in my line of work identifying markers are a liability.”
“Did you cover them all?” His eyes looked down to my neck. I pulled down the straps of my dress, letting it fall and pool around my feet. “Very thorough.”
“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.” I winked, walking around him and taking the velvet robe hanging behind the door. “Before you jump me, we have things to talk about.”
“I thought the order was sex then talk?”
“Normally it is, but I’ve had a very stressful night, and need to regain my strength…for the sake of our child,” I said, placing my hand over my flat stomach. His eyes looked to them and then back to me. I just flashed him a smile.
“Why do I have feeling you’re going to use this child against me?” he asked when he held up the robe for me to slip into.
He’s really moved. Interesting.
“Never.” I turned around, letting him help me into the robe, though we both knew I didn’t need it. Reaching over I took the other robe and turned to him. He rolled his eyes, but let me help him. I kissed the back of his neck, “Everything I do, I do for you…for us. I need to check your blood levels.”
I left the bathroom, walking though the master bedroom and straight towards the living room. My work bag was still on the glass dining table, and I pulled out my laptop.
“Who wants the Chinese ambassador’s son killed?” he questioned as he pulled out the chair beside me.
“The ambassador to China.” I faced him, lifting his hand, and he looked very amused by that. It made me like him more.
“Is it not his son?” I flipped his index finger over, swiping the top of his finger clean with an alcohol pad.
“It is,” I said and pricked his finger. I wish he jumped or even flinched a little, it would have been cute. Adding his blood to the reader, I set it aside and faced him. “I’ll share if you share why you randomly came down here and accidently saved his life.”
He nodded, leaning back and waiting for me to continue.
“The ambassador to China, Chao Chong Wei, wants to run for president in two years. His youngest son, Chao Neng Chang, is pretty much unless, the black sheep of the family. He failed out of every private school he was put in, his parents bribed his way into university, which, not shockingly, he failed out of. Following that there were a few run-ins with the police for being an obnoxious, rich little shit, really. Nothing impressive; street racing, fights in clubs, that kind of things. He’s also an avid lover of drugs, and lots of them.”
“Valued customer of ours then. I’m not sure I want him to die.” The reader beeped, letting me know the results were ready.
“Well, it’s not up to you,” I reminded him, reading the machine. “You’re fine. Your iron count is low, though.”
“I’ll work on it, doctor,” he mocked. He seemed to enjoy this.
Rolling my eyes, I deleted his information from my system. “Anyway, the straw that broke his father’s back is the rape allegations against him. At one of his parties, he raped three women. How he managed to do that over and over without any of his guards stopping him is beyond me…it also makes the women’s stories a little hard put into a case around him. Two of the women have taken his parents’ hush money and the third refuses.”