My cheeks heat. “It’s good to see you too.”
He steps out and glances at the street, then back at me. “I should really get moving. This is too dangerous. I’m sorry, but I saw you and …” His eyes turn glossy with unshed tears.
“I’m glad I saw you.” I pull him in for one last hug. “Take good care of Nico, won’t you?”
“Always, Marshmallow. You take good care of yourself. Remember that right hook I taught you?”
“Sure do.”
He swallows like he wants to say more but can’t. “Bye, kid.”
“Bye.” I watch him walk out of the shadows and back onto the street, taking a piece of my heart with him. But staying apart is the only way we all get to stay alive.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
XANDER
Lily’s in the den putting the finishing touches on her article, and I sneak up behind her, trying to catch a glimpse of what she’s writing. When she’s not with one of us or at work, she has her head bent over her laptop, but she refuses to give us a single clue as to what it’s about.
When I get close enough to see her screen, all I see are pictures of puppies. I jump over the back of the sofa and land next to her with a thud. Shrieking, she slams her laptop shut and hugs it to her chest.
“Xander! Please stop doing that to me,” she gasps, but her eyes are full of amusement.
I laugh and give her a kiss on the cheek. “I thought you were working, not looking at pictures of cute puppies. Or is that what your article is about? Cutest puppies of New York?”
Rolling her eyes, she reopens her laptop and unlocks it with her fingerprint. “Not exactly.” She shows me a picture of Rottweiler puppies snuggled up in a pile.
I tilt my head. “Aw. They are cute.”
She nods, a huge smile on her face. “You like dogs.”
“Who doesn’t?” I wrap my arm around her shoulder as she scrolls through more images.
“Some people don’t,” she says in a sad tone, but before I can pick that apart, she goes on. “I always wanted a Rottweiler puppy.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I’d call him Snowflake.”
I bark out a laugh. “Snowflake? A huge black Rottweiler named Snowflake?”
“Yeah.” She giggles. “I like the irony.”
“I’ve always wanted a dog too, but West and Zeke won’t let me get one.” That isn’t entirely true. If I insisted, they’d jump on board, but their objections always manage to talk me out of it. Apparently puppies are a big responsibility.
“They’re so mean.”
I kiss her sweet-smelling neck. “But if you were to ask for a puppy …” I trail my kisses lower.
“They’d tell me I was crazy,” she says in a breathy tone.
I stop kissing her neck and stare into her bright green eyes. “No. They’d do anything for you, shorty. We all would. Don’t you know that?” She bites down on the soft cushion of her bottom lip, eyes shining as she blinks at me. Holy fuck, she has no idea how much we need her, want her, love her. My chest tightens and I struggle to breathe. Is someone sucking the air from the room?
“You would?” she whispers, her dark eyelashes fluttering against her pink cheeks.
I take her laptop from her hands and place it on the couch, then pull her onto my lap to straddle me. My fingers caress her cheeks, brushing her hair from her face. “I love you, shorty. I can’t believe I never told you that before today, because I think I’ve loved you from the moment you handed me your roach-infested backpack.”
“I love you too, Xander.”
I dust my mouth over hers, and her warm breath mingles with mine. She tastes of coffee and chocolate, and I want to devour her whole. My fucking phone rings before I can. Pulling it from my pocket, I read the text from West. We need you here at the office. It’s important.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I sigh. “I gotta go, shorty.” I give her a quick kiss, barely refraining from sliding my tongue into her mouth and taking what I need from her.
“Wait a fucking minute, you’ve had a PI following Lily and you never told me?” I scowl at Zeke and West. “What the fuck?”
“I told you what Bree told us about her, Xander,” West says, trying to justify this shitshow.
I slam my fist on his desk. “And I told you she’s a crazy fuckbucket who can’t be trusted.”
“We know she is, but I asked Zeke to check out what she said anyway. Just to be sure. I didn’t know about the PI until just now.”