No One to Trust (20 page)

After a minute, I stood, shed my panties and started to step into the shower.

There was a soft knock at the door. “Lexi?”

I snatched a towel and wrapped it around my naked body. “What?”

“You’d better come out here.”

I opened the door a crack. “What’s wrong?”

“I think there’s someone in the house.”

“What?”

He grabbed my hand, pulling me out into the dark bedroom. At some point he must have turned off the lights. Leading me to the bedroom doorway, he stopped, placing a finger on my lips.

We stood quietly listening.

Thump.

I squeezed his hand in fright, leaning over and pressing my mouth against his ear. “What was it?”

Finn shook his head. We waited some more and then we both heard it again.

Thump. Creak. Bump.

“Shit. Stay here. I think I forgot to set the alarm. I’m going to go check it out.”

I gripped his hand harder, whispering back with high intensity. “I don’t think so. I’ve had enough of being stalked by assassins for one day. I’m not staying up here alone. We’ll do this together.”

Finn made a sound of protest in his throat, but didn’t argue when I followed close behind him. I bumped into his back as he stopped at his dresser and pulled out a gun from the top drawer.

“You keep a gun in your underwear drawer?”

“Would you have me keep it in the bathroom?”

“Good point.”

Taking my hand, he led me out of the bedroom and down the hallway. Finn paused at the top, listened and then mouthed against my ear, “Follow exactly in my footsteps.”

Figuring he knew exactly where the creaks were, I did as he said. To my enormous relief, we climbed noiselessly down the stairs. At the bottom, we paused and listened.

Still nothing.

Gripping my hand and holding the gun, Finn tugged me toward the kitchen. We crept past the living room when someone flipped on the lights.

“Surprise! Happy Birthday!”

I jumped backward and lost my towel. Finn cursed beside me. A very pretty woman with blond hair stood with her arm around a young woman. To their side stood a very tall man with brown hair, dressed in black slacks and a white shirt. The young woman held a dozen colorful balloons and there was what looked like a chocolate cake on the coffee table.

“Finn.” The older woman gasped.

“What the
hell
are you doing?” Finn shouted at them. “I could have fucking shot you.”

The younger woman began to laugh. “I told Mum this wasn’t a good idea.”

We all stood staring at each other in complete shock until I yelped in horror and reached down to snatch the towel off the floor and cover myself. Then to my dismay the young woman walked straight up to me and offered me a hand.

“Hello. I’m Maureen, Finn’s sister. I bet you’re Lexi.”

“Oh, God.” I tried not to bawl.

The older man discreetly turned away from us, but not before I saw him stifling a laugh.

Finn laid the gun down on a side table and ran his fingers through his hair. “Shit. Lexi, this is my family. My mum, da and my younger sister Maureen.”

Finn’s mom hadn’t stopped staring at me. At that moment I wanted nothing more than for Scotty to beam me up and get me the freaking hell out of here.

“Okay, awkward.” Maureen laughed again. “Let her get dressed, Finn, then introduce us proper, for God’s sake.”

With those words, I fled up the stairs. I heard Finn talking for a moment more and then he followed me. I had already dressed by the time he entered the bedroom. Without a word he went into the bathroom and turned off the shower.

“Jesus H. Christ. They wanted to do something special for my birthday. So they flew in from Ireland to surprise me.”

“It was definitely a surprise.”

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Will you stay? I can set them up in the guest rooms and we can pick up where we left off.”

I gulped. “I just met your parents for the first time, Finn. The
very
first time. I was completely, utterly and bone-chillingly naked. How does that factor into a first impression? As it is, I suck at social skills and now I’ve been handicapped beyond even the ability of Pussy Galore.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. The point is I need time to regroup and restore my pride. Truthfully, I’m not sure I can ever face them again.”

“I’m certain they’ll love you.”

“Jeez. I’m sure your family is wonderful. I just don’t think I can ever look at them again.”

“Give it a bit of time. Soon we’ll all be joking about it.”

“Maybe in ten years.”

“God, I feel awful.”

“Probably. But you also think it’s funny. Go ahead, laugh. You know you want to.”

He chuckled and then started laughing. After a minute, tears ran down his face. “Jesus, Joseph and Mary. It was a truly brilliant moment, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. I almost shot my family and you were standing there completely starkers.”

“I’m glad you find it all so amusing.”

He swiped at the tears with the back of his hand. “I’m going to find a way to make it up to you, Lexi. I swear on my grandda’s grave, I do.”

“That might be hard since now I
really
have to move to China.”

He pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. “Come down and meet my family proper, won’t you?”

“I’m crazy about you, Finn, but there is no way in hell I’m ready to face your family just yet.”

He kissed me and then exhaled a breath against my cheek. “I’m sorry. Really.”

I sighed. “I know, but I’m going to look on the bright side. It will give me time to find you a proper present.”

He grinned. “You were doing just fine.”

We both laughed and I felt a lot better. We climbed back down the stairs, hand-in-hand and my heart began to race. To my enormous relief, the group had moved into the kitchen. Finn walked back alone and told them he was taking me home. I could hear his family arguing, urging him to permit me to stay, but he told them we would all be more comfortable this way. I really appreciated him for respecting my wishes.

Finn drove me home, walked me to the door and gave me a very, very nice good-night kiss.

“Now I feel like it’s
my
birthday.”

“Hold that thought, lass,” he murmured.

We kissed once more and I went inside my apartment. Leaning back against the door, I sighed. It had been a hell of a day in a lot more ways than one. I felt ready to drop dead from the roller coaster of emotions.

Walking back to the bathroom, I stripped again and took a hot, hot shower. After combing out my hair and pulling on an oversized T-shirt and a pair of sweats, I rummaged around for the blow dryer. That’s when I heard the knock. I went to the door and looked through the peephole.

Slash.

I disarmed my alarm and opened the door.

“Hey. I think this is the first time you’ve ever knocked. You come for your jacket?”

Slash slipped inside. He’d changed from that amazing three-piece suit and was now dressed in black jeans, boots and a dark sweater. Sexy, mysterious and smelling really, really good.

“No.” He closed the door behind him. “Set the alarm.”

“Oh, God. No more hit men. I seriously can’t take any more today.”

“There are no more hit men,
cara.
”

I breathed a sigh of relief and dutifully set the alarm. “Thank goodness. Is Darren okay?”

“He’s fine and resting. We’ll start processing him tomorrow.”

“Well, that’s great, I guess.” My brow scrunched into a frown. “Then everything is okay.”

“
Si,
everything is fine.”

We stood there for a minute in silence. I shifted uneasily on my feet. “So if there are no hit men out to get me and you don’t want your jacket, why are you here?”

He smiled.

“Jeez. Another matter of national security?”

He shook his head, reaching out to twirl a strand of my wet hair around his finger.

“Slash?” I studied his face, but it was impassive.

Then, reaching into his jeans pocket, he pulled something out. I leaned in closer to get a better look.

“Tickets?”

“To the opera. Tomorrow night.”

I knew exactly nothing about the opera. My childhood had not involved the opera or ballet despite my mother’s best attempts to educate me. On the other hand, I was intrigued that an überhacker like Slash had the time or an interest in something so…nontechnical.

“I’m not much of an opera connoisseur,” I admitted.

“Ah, but are you game?”

The old Lexi was afraid of change. The new Lexi had a sparkling fresh mantra welcoming change. If I laid it out in mathematical terms, the opera equaled change. A harmless nonthreatening way to expand my horizons. Of course, I wasn’t sure if he was asking me for a date or just suggesting an evening between friends. But Slash didn’t seem the dating type, more like the one-night-of-passion type. Besides, he knew I was sort of seeing Finn and he wouldn’t just cut in.

Would he?

I decided to err on the side of caution. “Um, we’re friends, right?”

“Absolutely.”

Well, that settled that. We were friends. It wouldn’t matter to Finn one way or the other if I went out with friends. He would be busy for the next couple of days with his family and I still wasn’t even sure we had a relationship. Besides, it wasn’t as if Slash had invited me to an intimate and secluded dinner somewhere. He asked a friend to the opera. The opera was a popular and public place. Everything would be fine.

“Okay, I’m game.”

“
Eccellente
.
I think you’re going to like it.”

“Statistically, that’s probably true. Opera has been around for hundreds of years and appeals to a wide audience of people. Maybe I’ll be one of them. I don’t see the harm in checking it out…as long as I don’t have to sing.”

He laughed. “
Cara,
I can promise you one thing. That’s absolutely not going to happen.”

I smiled back. “That’s good to know, Slash. I’ll hold you to it.”

“I’m sure you will. See you at seven o’clock, then.”

“Yep. See you then.”

After he left, I leaned back against the door. In a matter of months, my entire existence had been turned upside down. I had more people coming and going in my life than I had ever had for all my twenty-five years combined. I still wasn’t sure I liked it, but it had changed me. Change meant growth. For now I’d decided to embrace it…if only to see what tomorrow would bring.

Don’t miss the first Lexi Carmichael mystery,
No One Lives Twice
, available now from Carina Press.