Making the Rent the Hard Way - 36

Luca sat behind me on the stairs, rubbing my shoulders. "You're too tense."

I turned to look at him. "And you know how to relax me. Right? A great idea, if we were anywhere but here." When he grinned, I said, "Nope. We're staying right where we are."

"Aw, come on, Cade."

"Absolutely not. We’re not taking any chances, now that we're so close to finishing this."

He sighed. "I know you're right, but damn."

Chuckling, I asked, "Are all shifters as horny as you?"

"Well…I do have the reputation to uphold that we are. But before you take that the wrong way, it's being with you that turns me on. Anyone else? Not so much so. Okay, not at all, if you want the honest truth. For me, sex was just okay but only that, until I met you. Now"—he bent to kiss me—"I can't seem to get enough of it."

I knew exactly how he felt. I'd had my fair share of men on a casual basis. Very casual. None of them had been keepers until Luca had come along. I told him as much. He positively beamed when I did, then groaned. "Why the hell did we wait until now to reach this conclusion, when we can't do anything about it?"

"We will, when this is over."

"If we survive, and there's no guarantee about that. Farnham's an alpha with all that that means, including having biggest, baddest, bestest as his to command."

"Don't you trust that Rocky knows what he's doing and has his own fair share of shifters who can handle the ones Farnham will bring with him?"

"Yeah, I do." He said it, but I wasn't certain he believed it. That didn't exactly make my night. We sat in silence, Luca gently rubbing my shoulders. I think we were both wondering how the night would end—once I made the call to Farnham. With a lot of luck, we'd come out of it alive and in one piece. Otherwise… I didn't want to contemplate that.

"Everything's set," Rocky said as he and Orchid appeared in front of us. "Make the call."

I took out my phone, said a silent prayer Farnham would answer, given the late hour, turned it on and called. He did answer, sounding somewhat surprised to hear from me. "What do you want, Mr. Warner? And make it brief. I'm busy."

"I've located Luca Montana."

That seemed to perk him up. "Where? Can you give me an address? I need to talk to him, to find out why he disappeared. He's all right, isn't he?"

I knew he was asking the questions to keep me on the line so he could track my phone. I played along, of course. "He's fine. He said he had to get away so he could think. He didn't say what about, only that there was something he needed to figure out." I glanced at Rocky, who gave me a thumbs-up. "I can't give you an address because he's not in the city right now. He's staying with someone he knows, off in the boonies."

"Please, try to convince him to call and talk with me. I'm worried about him."

"I'll do my best. I just thought you'd like to know he's alive and okay."

"Thank you," Farnham replied. "He knows how to get in touch. I'll let you go so I can get back to what I was doing." He hung up.