The early morning sun was bright against my face. It was the first thing I noted as I slowly began to wake up. The second thing I noticed when I woke up besides the bright light was the staring I was receiving from Roman.

"You’re staring, you creep." I mumbled to Roman as I turned around and away from him.

"I’m admiring." His raspy voice told me in return as he snaked his arm over my waist to pull me back around and closer to him.

I only mumbled as he placed butterfly kisses on my face and down my neck.

"What do you want for breakfast?" Roman asked me as he trailed kisses all over my body and began positioning himself so he was hovering on top of me.

I blinked a few times as I looked up at him and wondered how someone could look so gorgeous as soon as they had woken up.

I must have been admiring him for too long because he only smiled down at me with a mischievous smile and brought his lips onto my own.

I mumbled something incoherent before he did, but a moan escaped my lips instead when he began sucking on a particular spot on my neck.

The ringing in his voice interrupted the soft moment we shared. He turned around and reached for the phone on his nightstand. I grumbled when he took the warmth with him and heard him let out a deep chuckle as I followed him to the other side of the bed and snaked my arms around his waist.

He cleared his throat before answering.

"Hello?" I giggled at the slightly out-of-breath greeting he gave to the person on the other line and pushed him deeper into the bed as I stretched myself on top of him.

Being somewhat irritated from having our peaceful morning disrupted, I began to place kisses of my own over his neck and down his chest. I planted one on each of his pecs and then trailed my tongue down his defined stomach.

A groan left him when he realized I was beginning to travel further down. When I looked up, his hooded eyes only stared down at me.

My eyebrows furrowed together in confusion when he sat up straight and pulled me with him.

He pulled his phone away from his ear and put it on speaker.

"I’m afraid I have some good news and some bad news for you, Sir." It was the voice of one of the FBI agents.

"The good news is a plea deal was struck. In exchange for a lighter sentencing, many of the criminals arrested during the raid agreed to exchange important names and information to the agency."

I let out a shaky breath as I listened to the man speak. Roman, bless his soul, noticed the concern that began to grow within me and reached out to rub my arm in a comforting way. I brought my hand to his and squeezed it, trying to give him strength in turn.

We both continued to listen as the man carried on to the bad news. "Unfortunately, the only one refusing to cooperate at this current time is Bernard. He is still maintaining his so-called innocence and states he had no idea what was happening. Bernard told us that he believed the entire operation was for charity; however, we believe he will come around soon."

"Son of a b*tch," I seethed in a low voice, making sure my comment wasn’t heard by the speaker of the phone.

Roman only continued to rub my arm as he responded to the man on the phone. "Charity? Please. The judge and jury will laugh him out of court."

His voice and words were directed to the man on the other line; however, his eyes and attention never left me. I nodded my head to tell him I was alright and moved to place my back against his naked chest.

I wrapped his large arms over me for comfort as we continued to listen to what the FBI agent said to us through the phone.

"Our main issue does not reside with Bernard," the agent said. "We have recently come across some new disturbing information."

"What is it?" Roman asked to prompt the man.

"Despite our previous raid and capture of many of its members, the Auction House is still running."

I felt my breath hitch in my throat.

I knew Roman. Despite how composed he sounded as he spoke to the agent on the phone, he must have been seething with anger behind me with the way his chest rose and fell against my back.

His arm across my stomach tightened. He pulled me closer in a protective manner. In a way, I was glad for him and the way he held me, but I couldn’t help but feel troubled and trapped with the entire situation.

I gripped his arm closer to me for comfort and waited for him to finish up with his call. My mind was reeling with questions and more questions about the entire situation.

Had some people escaped during the raid? Had the people who were responsible for any of this not been there that day? Did my father know anything about this?

Some part of me wondered. It wondered whether he knew or whether he would say anything up against it. A bigger part of me, the more logical one, knew he would do anything he could do to save his own skin.

No help would come from my father.

"More than that," the dreaded voice, which I was quickly beginning to dislike for ruining my perfect morning, kept droning on, "due to this, we can deduce that the actual boss and mastermind behind who started this entire illegal operation has not yet been caught."

The FBI agent continued, "We have had a team of experts working on field analysis to determine the best way to lure this man out. As of recently, we have come up with a solution."

I wasn’t sure why, but something in me stirred then. It was like something deep in my gut, whether it was intuition or just the anxiety that began to re-bubble within me, began to move haphazardly.

The danger toward us wasn’t over. It was growing.

"Bernard is an idiot," Roman groused. "What does he think he’s playing at by pleading innocent with the evidence they have on him? His family is rich, but they’re not that rich. If he had a traffic accident, or shoplifting, something like that, I’m sure they could get him out of legal trouble. But this... Well... This is..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "I don’t think they can help him. I’m not sure they’ll want to."

Roman chuckled darkly. "But Bernard has always been that kinda guy—talking a big game he can’t actually play. He’s an idiot, and now it’s all going to catch up to him."

I was silent. The gears in my mind had been turning. Suddenly, they clicked.

"He’s not an idiot," I said.

Roman turned to look at me with a confused expression on his face.

I looked up at him, my jaw set with the sudden certainty. "It’s not that he’s stupid. It’s that he’s confident." I swallowed. "He has a plan that we don’t know about."

Roman’s eyes widened at the implications. "I don’t know what that could possibly be at this point."

I shook my head. "Roman, you didn’t even know he was going to this place. Then, we never guessed how involved he was. I think..." I shifted into a gentler tone. "I think you’ve always thought better of him than he deserved, so I’m still not sure either of us knows what he’s capable of."

At that, Roman blinked rapidly and turned away from me. He slumped forward with a quiet groan, running a hand over his face.

On its own volition, my arm gripped Roman’s as I turned to him with wide-open eyes and pulled him around to look back at me.

I was searching for something. I didn’t know what. I just needed anything that would tell me—that could promise me—things would end up alright.

Selfishly, I wanted him to swear to me that this entire situation would blow over within the week. Selfishly, I wanted Roman to tell me he would do everything in his power to keep us both safe and protect all the girls who had gotten involved in the lives of horrible men. I wanted him to promise all sorts of impossible happily-ever-afters and that none of us would ever be hurt, would ever have to feel afraid, ever again.

Those requests must have been written in my eyes because Roman looked at me in a way I could never describe.

"What’s the plan?" he asked the FBI agent, knowing it would change both of our lives in a way we might not have been prepared for.