Close Protection by Riley Morgan Read Free Book Online

daughter?”
    Zeus was standing about two feet away. His face was bright red, he spat each word with precise articulation. He did not raise his voice. He could not have been more terrifying.
    “No sir.”
    Ramon had been on the wrong end of ambushes like this enough times to know the drill. Roll with the punches. Don’t get defensive. Don’t play dumb, but don’t cop to anything you don’t have to.
    “Then would you like to tell me why you’re trying to fuck my daughter?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”
    It was a risky move. If Zeus had somehow gotten wind of what had happened last night, Ramon might have just dug his own grave. But if he hadn’t and Ramon confessed unnecessarily, well he could imagine how much worse things would be if Zeus actually had something to be angry about.
    “Galena tells me that you made an inappropriate pass at her the other day.”
    Zeus’s voice was matter of fact. He spoke the way that you’d ask a child about their day at school. It was not accusatory. It was not angry. Ramon began to sweat.
    “I’m very sorry sir. If I said something to your daughter’s offense, I did not mean to. I’ll apologize to her first thing. It won’t happen again.”
    Ramon did not sigh in relief just yet, although he was reasonably certain that he’d managed to avoid catastrophe. He wasn’t sure what Zeus was talking about, but it wasn’t what had happened in her room the night before. It probably wasn’t her skinnydipping stunt at the pool, or that torturous run that he’d had to go on, ten feet behind her spandex clad body as it glistened and moved under the evening sun.
    “See to it that it won’t, Mr. Sanchez.” Anger was rising up in his voice now, and the hairs on the back of Ramon’s neck stood up and he felt his stomach drop away into emptiness. “Because if I find out that you’ve so much as looked at her sideways…”
    He turned and walked back to his desk, sitting in the huge leather chair. He made a show of rolling up his cuffs and setting his thick arms down on the desk. Ramon could see the entire octopus tattoo on his right wrist now. It was an awful and gory thing, pierced by spears, bleeding from slash and puncture wounds, and surrounded by the flotsam of defeated foes. It seemed entirely unlikely that the corpses were without direct significance to Mr. Buldova’s life work.
    “I’ll just let you imagine what I’ll do to you.”
     

Lena
                  On the other side of the door to her stepfather's office, Lena was attempting to eavesdrop on their conversation. She’d taken a glass from the evening meal and had it pressed to the smooth wood panel. The conversation between Zeus and Ramon was intense, he spoke softly and deliberately, the way that he did when he was most angry. But they were too quiet for her to make out anything distinctly.
                  She heard her name, but an instant later was interrupted by a knock on the door. She waited, hoping somebody else would answer it, but when the knock came again, she left her post and opened the front door.
                  “Why haven’t you been answering my calls.”
                  Lena’s heart dropped into her empty stomach. She tried to close the door, but Damien stopped it with his foot and pushed it open, stepping over the threshold of her house.
                  “It’s good to see you too, Damien.”
                  “Shut the fuck up. Why have you been ignoring me?”
                  His words were loud and slurred. He looked to be on the edge of tears and his hands shook with rage or regret. Lena lowered the glass in her hand to her side and hid it behind her back. Damien made no notice of it.
                  “Answer me you fucking bitch? Are you fucking someone else? You think you’re better than me?”
                  Lena backed away but Damien followed her