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I snatched a discarded water hose from the grass and pointed it at his employees, spraying them down and knocking them over like dominos.
Breathless laughter hiked up my throat.
What are you doing, Fae?
Having fun.
Something I’d almost forgotten how to do.
I tossed the hose aside and picked up pace. By now, I’d lost the employees. Only Zach could keep up.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Somehow, he sounded composed. Neither out of breath nor dumbfounded by my sudden bravery. “You can run, but you cannot hide. What I want, I get. And right now, I want answers.”
My sneakers sank into the soft ground, ruining his carefully trimmed grass. The sprinklers turned on, no doubt on purpose.
Water sprayed me from every angle, weighing down the nightgown until the satin plastered to my body.
But I refused to slow.
A dark chuckle curled around my wet skin like ivy. “You’re top entertainment, Octi.”
“Why are you calling me Octi?” I screamed into the air.
I didn’t want to show how much he riled me up, but I couldn’t help it.
Of all the nicknames in the world, I couldn’t conjure a single one less flattering. Not even if I workshopped it for a decade.
“Because you’re an octopus.” He said it conversationally. Like I wasn’t running, and he wasn’t chasing me. “Exceptionally smart. Hands everywhere. And venomous. Plus, female octopuses hurl shells at males that harass them.”
“If you know you’re harassing me,stop.”
“How’s Friday for you?” He managed to scroll through his phone while picking up speed. What a weird, weird man. “I can fit in a game between eleven p.m. and one in the morning.”
One in the morning?
For Go?
There was only one thing I wanted more than turning around and flipping him off—surviving this bizarre encounter.
I swallowed my pride, legs pumping so fast, I was seconds from igniting a friction fire out of Reggie’s nightgown.
“Octi.”
I wasn’t going to answer this stupid nickname.
I wasn’t.
“Octi, you need to stop. I’d hate to put a hole in your skull—yours actually contains something inside it—but we both know I will.”
“It’s the only hole you’re interested in tonight,” I hissed, hiking up the gown’s slit when I almost tripped. “Too bad the female population of Potomac hasn’t caught on yet.”
He ignored me. “Friday, eleven p.m.?”
“The next time I’ll voluntarily be in the same room with you is to attend your funeral to make sure you’re dead.”
A sudden whoosh pierced the air. The scent of metal burned my nostrils. A fancy gold knife landed in the grass mere inches away.
Shit.
