Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
The others that I had met so far of Lyon’s squad seemed to go out of their way to make me feel comfortable with their presence, this one didn’t seem to care too much whether I was comfortable or not, and I guess I couldn’t blame him, we’d just shown up at his home late at night and who knows what nonsense was going to follow us here.
And the house, if you can call it that, was gorgeous. Massive and immaculately decorated with the kind of art your mom told you not to touch on those museum trips you took when you were a messy little kid. “You must be tired. I’ll show you to your rooms.” He addressed me when he said this, and I nodded, a bit intimidated, even though he said it with a facsimile of a smile.
As we followed along behind him while I tried not to gawk, out of nowhere, a little ball of fire came barreling down the hallway, screaming for her daddy, and skidded to a halt right in front of us. “Oh!” She said with a cheeky smile and his face.
“Gabriella, my daughter.” His what? He looked twenty, if that. The little girl stood in front of both Ryder and me, looking up at us as if studying us the way her dad had. Then she took one of our hands in each of hers and led us down the hallway calling out to her mom with her father trailing behind us. It was the first time I’d seen a genuine smile on his face.
A very young, very beautiful, and very Italian woman no older than our host came skidding out of a room. “You little…. Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you’d arrived. This one got away from me.” She looked beautifully frazzled as she pushed her wild mane of dark locks back off her face and smiled down at her daughter with her hands on her hips.
“Say goodnight to your new friends. You’ll see them again in the morning.” The little one seemed ready to argue until her father appeared and lifted her into his arms. The way she laid her head on his shoulder so trustingly made my heart ache. I wish I could have that, that I could share it with Ryder one day.
He seemed to sense my mood and squeezed my hand, which he’d taken in his without my notice. Our hostess took over and led us the rest of the way, and though she was a bit less reserved than her husband, it was hard to miss the maturity in these two.
The rooms, as she called them, were a whole wing on the other side of the nineteenth-century mansion that made my place in L.A. look like a room overlooking Skid Row. She didn’t stick around any longer than was necessary to show us where everything was and let’s just say we could’ve lived there for a month and never had to leave.
Every amenity known to man was right there at our fingertips, and the view from the back window of the bedroom suite, I’m pretty sure, was of Central Park. If the guest wing had that kind of ambiance, I can only imagine what the rest of the house was like.
As you may have gathered, I’ve been letting my mind drift to these mundane things in order to avoid the elephant in the room. But as soon as she was gone, and get this, her name is Gianna, almost the same as my last name. I like her already. Anyway, I digress again.
As soon as Gianna left us, I turned to Ryder, and all the nervousness I’d been trying to hide came pouring out. “What’s going on? Did something happen? I know we said it would make sense to stay somewhere out of the spotlight while you visit, but what’s this about being safe? And why do we need so many guards for a weekend hideaway?”
I could tell he didn’t want to come clean, but I gave him a look that reminded him of our promise to always be honest with each other. I’d already come to the realization that there was something more going on with him and Lyon’s team, and I got the sense that he wouldn’t tell me no matter what I tried, so to save myself from stress, I’d made up my mind to let it go.
I’d seen and heard enough from Lyon and his camp to know that, unlike Ryder’s former friends and colleagues, they would in no way condone him doing anything that would hurt me. Lyon’s daughter had almost single-handedly gotten us back together; after all, she and her friends. So I felt safe on that score.
But the last hour or so has shown me that there was something else at play here, something that had happened in the last day or so. “I can always go online and see for myself.” If there was anything to know, I’m sure it would be found there.