Delgano: A Dark Contemporary Interracial Romance

“Is he here for Adrían? Is Paoli with him? Gamma always travels in pairs.”

“Why would he be here for Adrían?” Sayeda asked, looking from Hannah to her mother.

“And what’ll happen when we have to leave for Omega’s training?” Hannah continued. “I have to take part in that. If I’m there, I’m not here. Trevor, Lee, Adrían…they won’t be here. You’re, what, going to leave Sayeda in the crosshairs?—”

“Leave,” Mora spat. “Both of you. Now.”

Hannah continued to protest, but Sayeda grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the hallway. Her mother’s reaction was all she’d needed to see.

Mora did send Novi.

Now, she needed to find out who those people he’d mentioned were and what their connection was to her, Hannah, Adrían, or even Morocco.

“There’s no way in hell I can leave you here alone if Novi’s in Morocco,” Hannah whispered.

“Who is he?” she asked.

“A crazy son of a bitch.” Suddenly, Hannah pulled her in for a hug. “Once she calms down, I’ll talk to Aunt Mora. There’s no way she’ll leave you without guards. And I meant a shitload of guards. For now, despite what I said to you the other day, stay close to Adrían. Honestly, where he currently is, he’s still no match for Novi, but he’s something.”

“And who’s Paoli?”

“Novi’s partner in crime.”

“Whatever I need to do, tell me,” Sayeda said. “First, I want Qasim and Ahmed safe. Once they are, I’ll worry about me.”

Hannah wrapped an arm around her shoulders and started down the hall. “See? That’s what I was telling Aunt Mora. You’re not the same girl who showed up here. You’re adapting, and for what it’s worth, I’m proud of you.”

She nudged Hannah’s side. “I’ll be proud of you once you take out those contacts. You look like you change color in certain environments.”

“That’s what I was going for. A chameleon.”

CHAPTER

SEVEN

The most ironic part of being confined to the villa was how it was slowly becoming just the opposite of a prison. How true isolation had been the time of his life when endless people had surrounded him, offering empty, transactional relationships. The only thing that had mattered was what he could do for them.

“Gano, I think you hit me in the nipple.”

Sweat plastered Hannah’s hair strands to her forehead. Adrían licked his bottom lip and tasted iron from a right hook he’d narrowly avoided getting the brunt of. She’d kicked his ass during marksmanship training, and she was kicking his ass in hand-to-hand combat, but here, he held his own a little better. As an enforcer, he’d rarely needed to get close enough to someone to take them down by hand; however, after his mother died, the boys at school found out that grief made him cry, so he’d had to learn to fight on the go.

“Dodge next time,” he said.

“Adrían, nipples have a high concentration of nerve endings. Unless it’s a gentle finger or a soft tongue, shit hurts.” She took a seat on the ground. “I need five.”

So did he, but he wasn’t about to be the first one to ask for it.

Breathing so hard his lungs rattled, he walked to the table, which today held water instead of firearms, and grabbed a bottle. As he chugged, he stared out at the landscape.

Fighting and shooting had helped to curb his cabin fever, but he was still curious about what else was out there. They were so isolated, all he saw were brown-orange rock formations with craggy lines delineating each hill of stone. Towns had to be nearby for Sayeda to work at the villa, unless they had her spending hours driving back and forth each day.

Hannah groaned, and he watched as she removed her top and tossed it beside her. Then she lay on her back, her breasts bare to the sun, with her hands tucked underneath her head.

They were on the fuller, rounder side with dark brown, coin-sized areolas and small nipples. Despite him and Hannah seeking comfort from each other almost nightly, his body never responded to her softness. Today, however, as the bare-chested woman changed before his eyes, his body slowly formed a “solid opinion” about those breasts.

Sayeda was in his brain like a parasite.

If someone had told him she was lacing his food with an experimental drug that was fueling his obsession, he would still show up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.