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He leaped out with fervency in his expression, huggedGrammy, gave Addie a fist bump, and then whisked me away with him.
“I hope Adelie will forgive me for stealing you away,” he said once he was behind the driver’s seat once more.
“Oh, she’ll wallow and stab her voodoo doll in your honor, but she’ll get over it.”
He slid me a look and his hand along with it.
“What’s going on? I thought we were keeping distance so it doesn’t look like you’re favoring me.”
“I’m done with distance.” He claimed my hand as he navigated traffic.
“My P.I. found something,” he added.
“On Pris?”
“Do you know why she might accept dirty-handed cash from a masked benefactor?” he asked.
This was unexpected. Not for the first time, it sounded like something from a movie.
“She did? No, but that doesn’t surprise me.”
Releasing my hand, he swiped his phone open and handed it to me. “Open my email and look at the images there. Tell me what you think.”
I did so, thrilling at the personal invitation to invade his privacy. I noted the email from Noah Abernathy and tapped on the images attached there.
One after another showed Pris approaching an arcade. Entering. Sitting at a table in the frozen yogurt section. Talking to someone whose face was blocked by a hood and a mask. Receiving an envelope and heading back out to her car once more. Opening the envelope to excavate a wad of cash.
“You think this is connected to me?” I asked, setting his phone in the center console between us.
He took it and slapped it against the magnet on his dash, so it was positioned for him to easily peruse if he needed to.
“I think her threatening you at the ball was prompted by whoever gave her that money,” he said, turning the corner toward Ever After Corporate.
The tall building was visible in the distance, towering over several other establishments and a few doctors’ offices. Aside from Wonderland, it was the tallest building in town.
“She knew about The Pact,” he said. “That’s ancient history, but the fact that she knew—that she mentioned it to you—tells me someone else is dredging up the past.”
“And you don’t know who that someone could be?”
He kept his gaze on the road, but the side of his jaw tightened. He turned another corner.
“I called some of the guys over because they might know something I don’t. I want you there because this involves you, too, and you deserve to know as much about what’s going on as possible.”
I stared at him, completely touched.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever had anyone be this open or considerate of me,” I told him. “It means more than you know.”
He peered at me for a brief but powerful moment. “Youmean more to me than you know.”
The moment resonated as though it were a single drum in the base of a canyon, and someone had bangedagainst its taut surface. The percussive reverberation tapped straight into my bones.
Hawk slowed and pulled into Ever After’s back parking lot. Where I usually took the right fork, he turned left and stopped before an entrance I’d never paid much attention to before.
“I didn’t know this was here,” I said.
He shifted into park. “Date the boss; get VIP treatment.”
My heart gave a little flutter. I liked hearing that. So much.
