Page 142 of After 5
Jake dimpled at me.
Angel slid the door open. “Can I come out?”
Jake motioned for her to join us, and his face softened when he looked her way.
She walked toward us. Her dark hair rippled down her back in a mass of glorious waves. A playful smile spread her cute button nose that resembled her mother’s, but the rest of her appearance screamed her Italian father. She was the dark to Marco’s light; however, based on her perky attitude, he got the quick temperament of the Italian side.
Her dark lashes fluttered at Jake. This girl had it bad, and I was a little envious of the secret love affair these two shared.
She wrapped her arms around Jake’s middle, stood on her toes to accept a kiss from him. They made a cute couple. I hoped Marco would accept his sister dating the boss.
“Did you talk Marco out of murdering me in my sleep?” Jake asked Angel.
“He’s agreed for a trial run, as long as I stay away from the WTF.”
Jake chewed on his lip. It was his nervous tell. He didn’t want her there either. Another woman he cared for under the command of the gift.
“Did you agree?” he asked her.
“I told him I’d think about it. I mean, a girl has got to make her own decisions.”
I smiled. Angel was going to keep my best friend and her brother on their toes.
After Jake and Angel left, I cornered Marco in the kitchen.
“This was a crazy moon cycle.” I chose a coveted beer from the fridge and offered him one.
He accepted and twisted off the cap. “Yeah, I thank the stars it’s closed and over.”
“Jake’s a good guy,” I said, opening my beer and glancing at him for his reaction.
“I know.” He took a long pull from his beer.
“Are you going to give Angel her key?”
“Not if I can help it,” he sighed. “I probably won’t be able to keep her from it.”
“You’ve been protecting her for a long time.”
“Maybe it’s time I stopped keeping secrets from her. She deserves to know about her grandfather. The good and the bad.”
I clinked bottles with him. We leaned against the kitchen counters and drank in silence for a few minutes.
“How’s McGregor?” he asked.
“The nurse told me he’s not doing so good. She said his blood pressure keeps dropping, and he hasn’t been awake for more than ten minutes.”
“That was a pretty bad hit he took in Gettysburg.”
I forced the swig of beer down my throat. “I was mad at his desertion, but I understand why he had to stay close to the Mafusos. If they knew Victory had visions of the King’s key, Gian-Carlo never would have let her go.” And there was the kid thing.
“Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.”
“Amen.” I looked up into his crystal blue eyes and wished my heart did the trippy thing for Marco that it did when I was within a hundred feet of Caiyan.
Marco finished the beer and tossed it in the recycle bin.
“Do you want to stay for dinner?” I asked him. “We’re going to introduce Victory to Chipotle.”
