A Second Past Midnight (The Sentinels) (15 page)

Arrigo
gathered Sana into his arms and cradled her there against his body. She nestled up against him and he could feel every curve of her body. The moment was indescribable. His heart felt whole again.

****

Sana woke to
the feeling of Arrigo’s hand rubbing her back. She couldn’t believe that fate had brought them together again. She only hoped that they could stay together this time.

“That feels so good,” she whispered. Sana reached behind her to touch Arrigo only to find him fully clothed.

Turning toward him, she saw he wore black pants and a long sleeve black shirt. Sticking out her lower lip, she pouted.

“That’s not fair. I can’t touch
you
,” she whined.

“Trust me I’d rather be naked and bendi
ng you like a pretzel right now, but I have to go to work.” Arrigo’s brown hair hung loose around his face and slightly covered the scar on his cheek, yet he looked so delectable right then. It was a shame that he had to go, but she knew that he must.

“What time is it?”

“Six. You’ve only been asleep a few hours so you can go back to bed. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it might be a while. I have to escort Hess to a meeting and its downtown.” Arrigo rubbed one of his hands over her exposed breast and Sana arched her back in response.

“You don’t mind if I stay?” Sana pulled the covers over her body and could tell that Arrigo
didn’t really like that by his furrowed brow.

He slid one hand under the covers and pulled her closer. “I would rather you stay. You’ll be safe here and besides I think we have some catching up to do when I get back.”

“Okay. Do you promise to come back?”

“I absolutely will come h
ome later. I sort of live here, most days anyway.” Arrigo let out a sigh, but before Sana could ask what troubled him he rose.

“I have to go, but you have free reign of the house. I will secure the locks and alarm.
There’s plenty of food in the kitchen. You know I can’t live without lots of food so you should be able to find anything that you could want. I’ll let Williams know that you aren’t coming to work today, but I won’t be able to call you until I’ve left Tecktar premises so don’t worry, okay?” Arrigo turned and started toward the door.

“Arrigo!
” Sana blurted with a crackled voice. She stopped there because she feared that a fountain of emotions would bubble over and completely ruin the moment.

He darted back to her side and pulled her into a kiss the likes of which she had never known. Their mouths
were entangled for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, Arrigo pulled away.

Leaning
to her ear, he whispered. “I love you. I always have and always will. I need you.”

Sana swallowed hard at his declaration.
He swiftly left the room, so she couldn’t verbally respond, but her heart on the other hand, raced. What kind of love must that be? She didn’t know how he could still love her but she planned on sticking around to find out what made her so lucky.

Rolling
back over on her pillow, she recalled the first time he had told her he loved her and it made her smile for two reasons. First, he had been furious with her and second, because he had asked her to marry him.

An uncontrollable yawn came upon her and she realized that even with the
recent adrenaline rush she needed to sleep.

Arrigo didn’t want to leave the house today, but he had to. The agency had worked too long to bust Tecktar’s various crimes against humanity. He had played a crucial part in that work too. He had successfully infiltrated the security of the company as a hired gun. There were things that he had seen and done while undercover that made his stomach churn, but he knew it was all for the greater good.

Right now
, though, none of it mattered. Sana mattered to him and he wanted to walk into Tecktar and just kill them all. Admittedly, it would be simpler, yet he wouldn’t be any better than they were.

Arrigo drove on to pick Hess up at his estate and escort him to the meeting in downtown New York.
A day like this had become the norm for Arrigo. Meetings, searches, and constantly looking behind his back were just a few of the things that he had come to know on a daily basis.

Today’s meeting simply consisted of Arrigo being a guard dog. Upon arrival at the
Bank of America Tower in Times Square Arrigo couldn’t manage to focus his thoughts on the task at hand. Instead, his mind wandered, remembering how Sana had felt in his arms last night. It seemed to have erased the pain of loneliness away, but he feared that she would push him away again. Even so, just getting to spend a little time with her would be worth the heartache.

Arrigo escorted
Hess to the seventeenth floor of the Tower and went into a conference room with him. There were half a dozen suits in the room and Arrigo could tell by the attendees that this was would be a boring business meeting. That only meant he would have the entire day to think of Sana which would drive him crazy.

“
Your man can wait outside,” said one of the men that stood by the windows. Arrigo remained statuesque to the right of the door until Hess turned around and tipped his head toward the door.

He nodded toward Hess and left the room. This
didn’t bother him one bit. In fact, as the door closed behind him, Arrigo smiled. He could call Sana and make sure that she was all right. The thought of hearing her voice left him semi-hard so it was a good thing that he had on his mid-length leather coat.

Arrigo took the nearest
elevator, went to the main floor, and exited the building. He didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing his conversation with Sana.

Dialing her cell
phone, he waited. It rang and rang only to be answered by the automated system stating that the user hadn’t set up their voicemail box.

Maybe
she’s still sleeping or maybe she’s in the shower.
Or maybe she left.
Arrigo knew he had no right to feel so impatient, but he wanted to know if she was still there.

Fowler.
He could call the kid and have him stop by to check on Sana. So, he dialed Fowler’s number. No answer.

“Where is that moron?” he mumbled to himself. He had told Fowler numerous times to keep his phone on so that he could reach him at a moment’s notice. Arrigo looked at the time
and guessed that Fowler might still be asleep.

“I swear I’m going to kick that boy’s ass.” Arrigo
practically spat the words out. Fowler wasn’t really a boy, but even at the age of twenty-two, Arrigo considered him a child. Especially since he acted like one. He hadn’t quite figured out that the real world required him to be up before noon let alone be punctual.

Sucking in a deep breath, he tried to remind himself of the job at hand.
As Arrigo exhaled, he couldn’t help but think of Sana though. Every day that he had been away from her had been pure torture. Even though there probably wasn’t anything that could have been changed, Arrigo blamed himself for the pain that Sana had endured when the baby died and felt he deserved her rejection.

His only solace in the entire thing had been that Sana had lived and he hoped that she would find happiness.

Arrigo turned to go back inside the building when his phone rang.

“Fowler, it’s about damn time you got out of bed,” Arrigo stated.

“Arrigo. This guy says he knows you.” Only the voice wasn’t Fowler, it was Sana.

Arrigo
couldn’t help but laugh. He instantly pictured Sana with some sort of a death grip on Fowler or even having him pinned against the wall.

“Sana
? Are you all right?” he asked.

“Of course, but this guy won’t be. He came barging in like he owned the place and about got his neck broke.”

Stifling his laugh, Arrigo explained who Fowler was. Sana had in fact caught Fowler in the kitchen and overpowered him.

“If he hasn’t passed out from
fear I need to talk to him,” Arrigo asked.

“Sure I need to get some clothes on anyway,” Sana replied.

“Okay, I’ll see you later. Wait . . . what?” Arrigo had been just a bit slow to catch what she said, but surely she hadn’t been standing in front of Fowler naked during their entire conversation. Arrigo’s blood boiled. He didn’t particularly like the idea of anyone looking at Sana naked. She belonged to him.

“Boss, I didn’t know you had a woman here.
I—” Arrigo cut him off.

“Marcus Fowler, if you so much as looked at her I will rip out your eyeballs and cook them for dinner!” Arrigo growled into the phone.

“She was only half naked so keep your panties out of a wad,” Fowler snapped.

“What the hell do you mean half naked? I swear boy you better clarify that statement right now.” Arrigo was losing his patience with Marcus. He had never wanted to leave his post so bad in his life even if it was just to beat the tar out of his assistant.

“She was wearing a shirt and underwear so give me an effing break man! Besides,
she
scared me so bad that I’ll probably never be able to get a boner again. Who the hell is she anyway?” Marcus asked.

Arrigo let out a sigh. He
wouldn’t have to dismember Marcus after all.

“She’s
your
top priority! Whatever she wants, you get her and you make damn sure that you keep the doors locked and the alarms on. If you so much as irritate Sana I will beat you senseless.”

“Yeah, yeah.
I know the whole routine. If I piss you off you threaten to kill me. You really should get some new material though because as many times as you’ve threatened me I’m beginning to think that you’re bluffing. Besides I’m more afraid of her than you. You’ve never pointed a gun at my head before.”

Arrigo
smiled at that visual. He realized that Marcus was probably right and that Sana would be fine.

“I’ll be back in about six hours.” Arrigo ended his call and shoved the phone back into his pocket.
The day couldn’t end quickly enough, but at least he knew Sana was safe.

****

“I’m Sana.” She extended her arm to shake her visitors hand after she had dressed and returned to the kitchen.

“Marcus Fowler.”

“So how do you know Arrigo and what do you do for him?” Sana opened the refrigerator as she waited for his response.

“Well, I met Arri a little over a year ago at Tecktar.
He basically saved my life. I had some money problems for my last year of college and those psychos had me convinced that I was doing mankind a service by letting them use me as a test subject. The problem is that once they get their claws into you, you don’t get away. Arri got me out of there by faking my death.” Marcus sounded quite calm for someone telling how he almost died.

San
a immediately felt a chill go through her. She despised that company and everything that they stood for. She had made it a personal mission to do as much as she could to bring them down. They were killing people by using them as guinea pigs for their biological experiments. It made her blood boil at the thought of what went on inside those buildings.

More importantly though,
Arrigo had saved this boy from Tecktar and had obviously given him a job. Her big, tough man had the softest heart. Something that Marcus said though had caught her attention.

“Arri?”
She asked.

“Oh, that’s what I call the big lummox. He hates it too!” Marcus grinned from ear to ear with that statement and Sana
couldn’t refrain from laughing. She’d never called Arrigo anything except his given name, but she sort of liked the sound of Arri.

“
So, what do you do for him?”

“I do whatever he needs me to do. I cook, clean, do his laundry even though I really
don’t like that part. No offense but I feel like I’m a woman. He just comes and goes as he pleases without a thank you or anything.” Marcus definitely sounded like a whiny woman to Sana and she just glared at him. “I’m not sure what happened to him before I met him but it must have been bad, because he won’t talk about it. I’m guessing there
was
a woman involved though.”

Sana swallowed hard. She knew she had been the source of his troubles and doubted there would ever be any way that she could make things right with Arrigo, but she wanted to try. With that
thought, she wanted to get back to her current problem. Hunger.

“What
groceries did you bring? I’m starving.” Sana nodded toward the two paper sacks that Marcus had brought in with him.

“Oh, well I thought I would be eating alone for lunch and was planning on making my famous Ramen Noodle Soup.
I can make something else though.”

Sana watched him empty the grocery bags and put everything away.

“I would love a salad for lunch if you have the makings,” Sana said. Marcus nodded.