Figuring he had been busy the last couple of hours with his men, Lucca told the enemy what cleared his name for good. “He went for Katarina.”
Dominic went silent again on the other end for several moments before he threatened the scariest man in all of Kansas City. “I don’t give a fuck who you are, Lucca Caruso. If something happens to my sister in your possession, I promise you, you’ll be the first one I’ll kill. Never forget it was you who promised me her protection, and you will have to answer for your sins.”
If he hadn’t promised exactly that to him, he would make the Luciano pay for that threat, but since he did, and it was his sister, he would let it slide. For now. “Katarina is safer here than with you.”
“And how is that?” he asked in frustration.
“Because she has one thing here that you don’t…” Lucca paused only for a second. “Drago.”
* * *
Quietly, he entered the apartment after getting his bullet wound stitched up to see the pink-haired girl sleeping peacefully on his bed. By the time he took a shower and dressed, and the early morning light was shining through, she was still fast asleep.
Wishing they had discussed their sleeping arrangements earlier, he found his eyes wandering between the empty space beside her and the cold leather couch. Taking a seat on the empty side of the edge of the bed, he decided there was no way in hell he was sleeping on his couch in his apartment.
It must have been guilt to make Drago glance back at her one last time before he got up, taking a pillow with him to the couch.
There were many things he didn’t know about Katarina yet, and many things she didn’t know about him. With her father being the devil and seeing perhaps a glimpse of the abuse she might have suffered at his hand, he didn’t feel comfortable with her waking up next to man she didn’t even know. Regardless if she was his wife, there needed to at least be a discussion before he would lie in the same bed with her, even to just sleep.
He adjusted the pillow under his head and tried to get his well over six-foot body frame comfortable on the couch. It made you think maybe chivalry wasn’t dead after all.
That little witch will be sleeping on the couch from now on.
Never mind.
* * *
Waking up the next day groggy in a different bed than she was used to was definitely strange, to say the least. Letting her eyes adjust to the light from the huge window, she had to rub them to see if she really was seeing the giant man sleeping on the couch in what looked like a horrible position. His head was craned onto one of the arms, and his feet were dangling off the other end. She felt bad for the poor soul when he would wake up, and she wondered if she should try and wake him up to move him to the bed… Nah, he’ll be fine.
To her surprise, he hadn’t woken up once, probably due to exhaustion from the night. However, that was about to quickly end as she opened the door to Angel.
Coming into the apartment, Angel set down the most important last things she owned. “How are you doing?”
“Good,” she assured him knowing he and her brothers were probably worried, but she did so in a whisper, not wanting to wake the big sleeping baby.
His eyes searched the room then to see why she whispered. When he found Drago had slept on the couch, her brother’s happiness was evident by the smug smile he held before he left the apartment as quietly as he’d entered.
Excited, Katarina went for what she’d been waiting for…
“What the fuck is that?”
Running her fingers along the black fur, she didn’t pay attention to Drago’s half-asleep voice.
Jumping up from the couch, he looked like he saw a demon in the house. “I said, what the fuck is that?!”
“Shadow,” she answered, still petting the slick black fur as it rubbed up against her. “My cat.”
Almost exactly on cue, Shadow meowed.
“You have got to be shitting me.” He stared at them both now like they were possessed creatures of the night. “I knew you were a fucking witch.”
“Excuse me?” Kat looked at him now like he was crazy.
“You heard me, witch. Your name is Kat, who has a cat that’s fucking black, for Christ’s sake, and you gave it a fucking creepy-ass name like Shadow. Why didn’t you just call it Satan?” he said not so sarcastically and almost irate as he went to the fridge to grab a protein shake and downed the contents. “That thing ain’t staying here.”
“It’s not a thing; it’s a he, and his name is Shadow, and he’s not going anywhere.”