Chapter 7 Friday 5pm

CHAPTER SEVEN

THALIA POV

"We're here, ma'am."

The driver's voice wakes me. Vaughn waits outside, and despite everything, seeing him still brings comfort.

"Please pay him." I signal no to whatever lecture he's preparing.

Inside his gym-half his, half his friend's partnership-he takes the seat opposite me at the small café area.

"Tell me you're not wearing Voldemort's shirt."

The displeasure in his tone is exactly why I came. Something to remind me it's wrong to crave Carlos's touch.

But my mind stays glued on the never-ending loop of him yanking my hair, his gaze on me, how he feels pressed against my back.

"What the actual fuck!" Vaughn's voice thunders. "What are you daydreaming about?"

I let go of my thoughts.

"Always the loud speaker. I can hear you quite well, Vaughn."

"I doubt that. Been calling your fucking name for ages."

"Sorry."

"Big Marc said you planted cameras in Carlos's room." His stupid grin-the one I used to love,appears.

" You're nailing it, babe."

He orders my usual: latte and a croissant. He knows what I like.

I lose myself to the pride in his face.

"How?"

"I fainted, and he took me to his house."

"What the fuck!" He stands so fast his chair thuds into the floor, eyes blown wide as he rushes toward me.

"I'm fine"

"Don't fucking lie to me."

He glares. Already checking my body for bruises before I can stop him.

I let him search, looking at his profile-the strong jaw, the golden-brown hair, the knife scar on his collarbone. He got that scar protecting me during our first year of training at Shadow, when I mouthed off to one of Marcus's men and nearly got slashed for it.

He exhales hard before pulling me into an awkward hug over the table.

"For fuck's sake, Wild Cat. Be careful."

I ruffle his hair.

"You're suffocating me."

He pulls back to look at me, his light blue eyes deepening as they drop to my lips.

I don't look away. My heart doesn't race the way it used to.

We broke up over a year ago, but sometimes we still fall into bed together. No strings. No expectations.

"Why didn't you call me?" he asks, returning to his seat.

"Sorry, sir. My schedule didn't say I'd pass out."

He throws his napkin at me with a laugh that matches my smile.

Marcus is with me because we have a mutual enemy. But Vaughn stood by me without expectation-since our last year of high school until now. Even when I broke his heart by demanding space, then crawled back to him because I couldn't be alone, which still didn't work out.

He stayed by me.

Now we're just... mutual. He's focused on his FBI job while I focus on my revenge.

"He was raised by a single mom who was a soldier," Vaughn says out of nowhere.

I raise an eyebrow.

"You want anything else, babe?" I shake my head, and he dismisses the waitress, ignoring her obvious flirtation.

"Carlos," he clarifies.

"From the office, there's a record of his mom. Former military, shameful discharge. That's all I could get before the file locked me out. High-level clearance."

My heart rate picks up, desperate for more.

I feel emotional and grateful to Vaughn, so I do something that surprises us both. I go over to his side of the table and hug him.

"Hey, Wild Cat." The abruptness makes him drop his fork as his arms wrap around me instinctively. "Everything okay?"

"Thank you," I say, and he pats my back. His softness is contrary to his hard body.

"You're doing great, Thal."

I can't control the tears as they drop onto his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry for how we ended."

He adjusts his seat and pulls me onto his lap.

"You're always my favorite woman. Best of them all." why did I stop loving him?

"Take your time, Thal. I'm here."

But my body craves the danger Carlos embodies.

"What if we don't come back?" The words clog my throat, dripping more tears onto him.

"You'll always have a home with me, Thalia."

People don't see his softness beneath the tattoos covering his arms and chest, beneath his cussing and anger.

"Your words just make me tear up more, you idiot."

He laughs, his palm soothing my spine

"Are we disturbing something?" Marcus's voice cuts through the moment.

"The fuck you blind? Isn't it obvious?" Vaughn replies with his usual harsh tone.

I try to sit up, but Vaughn holds me firmer against him.

"You're dating again?" Henry-Marcus's brother, who bears same name as Carlos, questions.

"None of your business, dickface," Vaughn shoots back.

I feel Marcus's gaze burning into my back. He clears his throat twice.

I attempt to return to my seat beside Marcus, but Vaughn holds me still on his lap.

"I think she needs to explain how she got into Carlos's home overnight and why she's wearing what I assume are his clothes," Marcus says in his gravelly voice.

The words still Vaughn, but he holds me tighter, burning his gaze into Marcus.

"Can we just appreciate Thalia's effort and acknowledge she slipped into the lion's den without getting hurt?" Henry, ever the peacemaker.

I turn in Vaughn's lap to face them.

"Um."

Vaughn squeezes my thigh.

Summarizing as briefly as I can. Marcus face remain hard as stone all through

For someone so large with a reputation for violence, he doesn't try to look approachable.

Henry high-fives me. Vaughn pulls me closer until I feel his hardness pressing against me, but it doesn't ignite anything.

It should send currents through me like when Carlos ate my half-finished toast, when his eyes tracked my every movement-

No. Don't go there.

"Pleased with my handiwork, I headed here. And I've decided I'm not working for him."

"Take the job," Marcus declares.

We all turn to stare at him.

"He'll control and monitor her," Henry points out, glaring at his much larger brother.

"It's Friday. We have the weekend to reshape her background, give her monitoring tech Carlos won't detect." Marcus faces me.

"You'll take the job. Change apartments to throw him off. Contact us only through burner phones."

"The first time your PA started doing drugs, you found it out within twenty-four hours," Vaughn points out

"So?" Marcus's brows knit together.

"Carlos isn't stupid. If he catches Thalia snooping or finds out a deal leaked by her, he'll kill her" Henry finishes, looking at his brother, hoping he understands it's suicidal.

"She'll be prepared"

"No otra vez" Henry retorts back to Marcus with a hard glare. I wish I understand spanish.

"Carlos doesn't have PA, there must be something if he suddenly needs one"

Marcus notes, looking away from his brother

"I can't," I break the tension.

"He showed me an apartment covered in cameras. Very close to his penthouse. He's already setting up surveillance."

Vaughn pulls me closer, whispering in my ear, "You didn't tell me that."

"Sorry."

"So you want us to lose this opportunity into his inner circle?" Marcus's voice is demanding, final.

"A chef doesn't get access to his private meetings, his schedule, his vulnerabilities. You take the job. Play smart. Call us when shit hits the fan. Final."

Vaughn shifts me on his lap so he can face Marcus directly.

"It's her fucking life at risk. Don't you dare call 'final' without asking for her opinion!"

His voice echoes through the empty café. Vaughn never backs down, no matter how big or volatile the person is. I confidently retort back at some people because I'm sure he'll fight for me. Like now.

Marcus's jaw clenches. He looks at me.

"I..." My throat tightens.

PA screams danger and loss of freedom. Those cameras might record everything.

"Let's reconvene at Shadow," I suggest. Shadow's headquarters-a two-story building housing operatives and surveillance tech. Where we trained.

"We'll figure out how I can be his PA with a lower suicide rate."

Marcus nods and I know the conversation is over.

"Get her proper clothes."

"And Thalia?" Marcus pauses

"Carlos won't be pleased his PA visited another man, then disobeyed him. Be prepared."

I ignore the warning.

"I'm not another man and what pleases Voldemort isn't her business"

Vaughn retort loudly few of the people at the gym passes strange look at us

"You're one hell of a fearless girl," Henry says, half warning, half admiration.

I just shrug

Marcus's scowl remains fixed on me. I don't know who's taller-him or Carlos.

I bite my lip at the thought. I really just found a way to think about Carlos while surrounded by three men who'd kill him on sight.

"My shirt is in my room upstairs. Go change," Vaughn says, his tone firm with an edge of hostility.

To be honest, I love that I can still smell Carlos on me.

But to prove myself wrong, I head toward the stairs.

It's already evening when I leave Vaughn's room with ruined orgasms because I couldn't stop thinking about Carlos.

I head to my car-they must have retrieved it from the Swallow Now parking garage.

I check the burner and plug in the earbuds connected to Carlos's apartment feed that Marcus dropped.

The first words I hear stop me cold.

"There's a shipment happening tonight. I'm leaving in twenty minutes. Meet me at Swallow Now."

That's all he says. I keep the pod in, listening for more information, but only shuffling.

Twenty minutes.

Time is Past 5pm.

"What do you have for me Carlos?"

I don't know the way to his penthouse, but I know Swallow Now.

My hands grip the steering wheel.

Live to kill Carlos, I remind myself.

But as I start the car and head toward him, the mantra sounds less like a promise and more like a prayer I'm not sure will be answered.