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“Yes, sir.”
I ended the call, holding the phone against my chest. What the fuck had I been thinking? I was going to yell at him, chastising my friend? Goddamn it. I would hunt the fucker involved.
“What’s wrong?”
Hearing her voice directly behind me created constriction in my heart. I shoved my phone into my pocket before turning around. In her hand was a small gold bag, but it was the look of horror on her face that drew my attention. “Nothing is wrong, little lamb. Just checking to see if any progress has been made. What do you have there?”
“You’re a terrible liar, Maddox. At least to me.” She studied me for a few seconds before handing me the bag. “I wanted you to have something special to remember me by.”
“You make it sound like you’re going somewhere. In case you haven’t figured it out, you ain’t going anywhere out of my sight, sweetheart.” I adored the way her cheeks flushed, her mouth twisting in both frustration and desire. I accepted the gift. The fact I knew where she’d gotten her money was like some dirty secret. At some point, I’d need to tell her that I’d been in New York. Sadly, I had a feeling she’d feel as incensed as I was in thinking she’d been betrothed to anyone.
At least her mischievous smile returned. “I wouldn’t dream of running. Although it would be fascinating to see you on a hunt.” She laughed, giving me another sly look until I reached into the bag.
When I pulled out the black box, I shifted my gaze toward the store. “What did you do?”
She threw on her sunglasses, looking anywhere but at me. “Nothing special.”
When I opened the box, I was stunned from seeing the gorgeous watch nestled inside. “Zoe. This is too expensive. You can’t do this.”
“That’s silly,” she said, gently pulling the box from my hand, tugging until she managed to release the watch. “I can do anything I want. I am a princess. Besides, you used to buy me gifts all the time.”
“Books. Dolls. Halloween costumes. Not expensive jewelry.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me I loved wearing princess and bride costumes when I was young.”
“You looked so adorable in them.” The girl had a way of making me laugh. She had no idea how special she made me feel. And how much I longed to ravage her constantly. I allowed her to slide the watch into position on my wrist. As soon as she clasped the band, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, instantly tensing.
“What? It looks amazing on you.” She finally followed my gaze but by the point she did, the person I thought was standing and staring at us had disappeared into the crowd. Maybe the sun was playing tricks on my eyes.
Or maybe we’d been compromised. Whatever the case, I was eager to get back to the house. “This is incredible, Zoe, but honestly, it’s too much.” When I started to take it off my wrist, she placed her hand over mine.
“Please don’t take it off. I know you have a lot of money and can buy anything you want, but I need to do this for you just to say thank you.”
“I told you before, keeping you safe is part of my job.”
“I don’t want to just be a part of your job, but if it makes you feel any better, just think of it as an early birthday present.”
“Hmmm… Well, when you put it that way.” I scanned the area, doing my best to keep from allowing Zoe to see what I was doing. Worrying her needlessly was a ridiculous thing to do. “No one has ever given me anything so gorgeous before.”
“Why do I doubt that?”
She tugged at my hand, backing up and requiring me to follow her.
“What are you doing now, bad girl?”
“Well, we didn’t have dessert. I noticed a little ice cream store near where you parked. Game for a little ooey, gooey chocolate delight?”
“No, but how about a little strawberry instead?”
“You’re no fun.”
“What are you talking about? I’m a hell of a lot of fun,” I teased in return, even though my heart wasn’t into it.
“Prove it!”
I laughed and trailed behind her, taking my time while she flitted from one store to the other. I hated that my gut told me we had company on the island, praying I was wrong. Praying. I wasn’t a praying man at all, but I did so for Arman. For all the times thathad almost turned into tragedy, for all the bullets we’d dodged together, even laughing about a few of the instances over a stiff drink or five later, this time I had a sickening feeling pooling in my gut.
I’d even compared him to a cat with nine lives, bullets literally whizzing by him.
