A Second Past Midnight (The Sentinels) (13 page)

BOOK: A Second Past Midnight (The Sentinels)
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“The bathroom is through that door and there are some clothes in the top drawer of the dresser that should fit you. I’ll leave you to cl
ean up.”

J
ust before he closed the door, he turned back to her.


Do you need anything to eat?” Arrigo’s voice echoed through her body and she couldn’t think of food right then. She wanted to feel his arms wrapped around her and him buried to the hilt inside of her. Swallowing hard, she steadied her voice and spoke.

“I’ll just go to bed
.” Sana didn’t fear anything in life, except Arrigo, so she had to sound stoic.

Without
another word, he closed the door.

Sana stood there frozen.
The truth was that she didn’t really fear him, but feared his rejection. She wanted to run to him and tell him that she still loved him, but she knew that he couldn’t possibly feel the same. Sana had pushed him so far away that he had turned to the enemy for solace. While he worked for Tecktar she didn’t get the feeling that he necessarily believed in what they did and that gave her some hope.

Tugging off her boots, she then pushed off her pants. The thought of Arrigo alive still had her confused, but her heart muddled her
rational thoughts. She pulled off her body armor and shirt until she stood naked in front of the bathroom mirror staring at herself. The only thing left on her body was the chain around her neck that she hadn’t removed in two years. On that chain hung Arrigo’s dog tag. Williams had given it to her when he told her that Arrigo was dead and she hadn’t taken it off since. Grasping it in her hand, she squeezed it. She would always love him. Even in death. But did he still love her? She now doubted it since he had feigned his own death.

Sana let the hot water of the shower relax her body and she
didn’t leave the confines of the stall until the water started to turn cold. As she dried off and went back to the bedroom she remembered that Arrigo had told her there were clothes in the top drawer of the dresser. She hated the idea of wearing another woman’s clothes, especially if that woman had been to bed with Arrigo, but she didn’t want to put her sweaty body armor back on.

Opening the drawer, her mouth
fell open at the sight of what lay before her. The clothes inside were hers. The soft green chenille sweater that she had long ago forgotten about, as well as her jeans, had her heart racing. She rummaged through the drawer and found her hairbrush, a few hair elastics and a bottle of her perfume.

The past
rushed back with a vengeance. These were all things that she had left at their apartment. She had just assumed that he would have thrown them out.

Maybe he still did have feelings for her. If he had kept everything this long then surely he did. Sana had to know if he wanted her.

Dressed in her old clothes, but barefoot, she walked down the hall to find Arrigo. The first door she came to was locked so she moved to the next one. She opened it to find a room with a pile of boxes in one corner, a sheet tacked to the wall covering the window and a mattress lying on the floor. An empty whiskey bottle lay next to the mattress and the sheets on it made it clear that Arrigo must have slept there on a regular basis. That discovery made no sense to her. Why would he have a fully furnished master bedroom but not use it?

Sana backed out of the doorway and
quietly pulled it to. Nothing added up. Her clothes, him sleeping alone in another room, his faked death. She didn’t understand. Heading down the stairs, she pondered what had prompted him to buy this house when he obviously lived alone. As she approached the final steps, she heard his voice.


Yes, she’s here. I’ll find out what she knows and then I’ll bring her to the office in the morning.” Arrigo sounded casual on the phone, but she didn’t like what she heard. He planned to interrogate her and then take her in to Tecktar in the morning.

So
, he had joined
them
.

Her heart sank.

She thought that maybe he might still be the same Arrigo that she knew years ago, but it didn’t seem that way. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her heart began to pound like the beat of a drum. She blinked away the tears and ignored her disappointment. Her defenses kicked in. Survival was her top priority.

Looking down she remembered she
didn’t have on any shoes. She had made it out of worse situations than this.

There was only one way out of here now and that meant she mig
ht have to kill the man that had once loved her. Sana stopped and took a deep breath. She needed a weapon. She would have to make do with whatever she could find in the kitchen and she would have to be fast. Even at six-foot five, Arrigo could move quickly and of course was strong.

Sana made her way down the rest of the stairs only to find the kitchen countertops bare.
With no knives or other objects of choice there, she would have to find an alternate weapon. Most likely, he had a gun on him and she could take it from him if she moved fast enough.

With her heart racing
, she tiptoed through the doorway and stopped when she saw that he stood in the middle of the living room facing the opposite wall with the phone still to his ear. A quick glance found his gun lying on the small table a few feet away from him. She would have to attack to have any chance at all.

Sana ran at him
as fast as she could, charging him. When her body collided with his she felt as if she had run straight into a brick wall. The impact knocked her back causing her to stumble, but she kept upright. Arrigo had been jarred and stumbled as well, but caught himself on one knee. Quickly, he spun around and while his widened gaze captured her attention for a moment, she focused on her next move.

It was on.

Sana didn’t hesitate as she started for him again and took a swing at him landing a punch to his jaw.

He grabbed Sana
but she stomped his foot and twirled into a scissor kick, nailing him right in the gut. Arrigo doubled over in pain. She always did have a nasty kick and even when they were sparring she had laid him out on more than one occasion.

As he looked up at her
, he saw that she had retrieved his gun and aimed it at him.

“Get away from me
! You’re not taking me to Tecktar and let them use me as a guinea pig,” she hissed at him.

Arrigo had no idea what she was talking
about. He didn’t understand why she thought he would harm her. He could
never
hurt her.

“What the hell are you talking about? I would
never take you there.” Arrigo stood up and faced her.

“I heard you on the phone you liar! You said you were
taking me there in the morning and don’t deny it!” Sana stood a safe distance away from him with the gun still aimed at him.

She had heard him on the phone with
Williams. Arrigo burst into laughter.

“What the hell is so funny?” Sana asked.
But Arrigo couldn’t stop laughing.

“Damn it Sana! I was talking to Williams.” He stood there holding his gut while she absorbed the information.

“Williams?” Sana repeated. Her stance relaxed slightly.

“Yes and if you don’t believe me c
all him yourself.” Arrigo tossed her his phone.

Sana
swiped the screen and hit the call button to see Williams’ phone number from the previous call. He watched as her fierce glare softened.

“I don’t understand.” Sana lowered the gun and cocked her head to the side
, which only had Arrigo wanting to hold her. While he knew she could kill a man without much effort, he also knew that she had a soft, vulnerable side and he missed seeing the two sides of her personality conflict with each other.

Arrigo
let out a deep sigh. It was time for the truth and he feared it would completely alienate her from him once and for all. Two years without her had been torture, but somewhere deep inside he had hoped that they might one day be reunited.

“Can I have my gun back first?” Arrigo extended his hand and hoped she would return it before she decided to use it on him.
Hesitantly, she handed him the gun.

“Now, do you mind telling me what is going on?” Sana asked snidely. Crossing her arms
, she cocked her stance and waited.

“I’m undercover Sana. I have been for the better
part of two years. You should be the one explaining what the hell you were doing at Tecktar, because I know for a fact that Williams would never have sent you in there.” Arrigo braced himself as he watched the stern expression on Sana’s face transform to that of anger. He’d seen it a hundred times before and knew that her wrath would soon follow. The emotional range that this woman could span never ceased to amaze him.

“What? What did you say?”
She scowled at him.

B
efore he could say anything, she did exactly as he had guessed. Sana stormed toward him in a fit of rage and took a swing at him. Luckily, he was prepared for this one and ducked. Grabbing her around the waist, Arrigo spun her so that her arms were pinned against her body.

“Let go of me!” she screamed. He struggled to hold her, but he managed even with her kicking and writhing in his arms. He had wanted to hold her again but this
wasn’t exactly what he had had in mind. Still, his cock hardened and he wanted her more than ever.

“I left because you told me to go to hell, Sana. I waited it out a few
days, then a few weeks passed and I realized that you were never going to speak to me again. So I left.” Arrigo loosened his grip on her so that she wouldn’t hurt herself and she in turn quit fighting.

Ar
rigo took a step back and watched pain blanket her face. He’d seen it before, but it tore through him like a knife.

“I left on what
I thought to be a typical surveillance mission only to find myself buried alive in the middle of the desert. It was kind of ironic really. I had spent so much time trying not to die that once it happened—” He stopped mid-sentence because he didn’t want to tell her that it had torn his heart apart to know that he had left her even though she had instigated it.

Sana’s eyes widened
and he immediately saw them turn glossy. Her gaze dropped and she sank to the floor.


This is all my fault,” she sobbed. Sana buried her face in her hands and finally let the tears flow. The only other time she had cried like this was the first time he had talked to her. The realization that he had brought such strong emotions from her made his heart ache.

Kneeling next to her, Arrigo gently ran his hand over her hair and down her back.

“Shh. It’s not your fault,” he whispered.

Sana looked up at him and in one fluid
motion she knelt in front of him and threw her arms around his neck. Her sobs echoed through the room and while he wanted to comfort her, he remembered that she had pushed him as far away as possible. She had rejected him, but he couldn’t stop himself as he lifted her into his arms. She clung to his neck and with her face pressed against his chest, he carried her back up the stairs.

“I’m so sorry,” she
sobbed.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about Sana. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Arrigo laid her down on
the bed and pulled the covers up over her. “You’re just tired. Everything will be back to normal in the morning.”

Arrigo hated to see her this way, but right
now, he would rather have her crying than apologizing to him. All of the emotions he had buried had resurfaced and he needed time to process them.

Fortunately, Sana had
covered her face in her hands as he stroked her hair. He didn’t know if he could refrain from holding her if she had looked him in the eyes.

A
s a few more minutes passed Sana’s crying stopped.

With her hands still on her face, he wondered if she
would lash out at him again, but he watched as her breathing became deeper and more even. She was asleep.

Arrigo slipped out of the room and down the hall to his own room. A cold shiver ran through him
as he stepped inside. In the time that he had spent in this room, he had never felt more alone than he did right then. His heart needed Sana, but she didn’t want him, no matter how much guilt plagued her.

He
plopped down on the mattress and threw his arm over his eyes. His cock ached and he wanted relief. He hadn’t been with another woman since he had left her and he began to think that it was making him crazy. He thought for a moment about taking a shower to relieve the pressure himself, but that wouldn’t really solve the problem.

“I’m such an idiot,” he said to himself. Arrigo let out a sigh and moved to look for the whiske
y bottle that he typically used to drown out his mind, only it was empty.

“Fuck.” He mumbled to himself a few other unintelligible things and without bothering to undress
, he rolled over to go to sleep.

 

Chapter 7.
BOOK: A Second Past Midnight (The Sentinels)
2.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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