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Callum appears, giving me the once-over, his jaw tight and twitching. ‘Are you okay?’ he asks, dividing his attention between me and the man he’s just floored.
I can only nod, my mouth dry and useless as Jess comes out of the cubicle, pulling her dress down, obviously keen to find out what’s going on. I catch the man in the mirror pulling himself up, and it takes me a few slow seconds to register him reaching into his trouser pocket. He pulls out a flick knife, and the glimmer of the blade under the lights snaps me out of my inertness. ‘Callum!’ I shout, watching as the blade glides through the air towards Theo’s friend’s chest. He dodges it and catches the man’s arm, ramming it up his back, and the knife hits the floor with a loud clatter. And then there is a gun aimed at the man’s temple. A fucking gun. Of course he has a fucking gun.
‘Really?’ Callum seethes, tossing the man back to the floor, keeping his gun trained on him. ‘You have five seconds to get the fuck out of here before I decorate this restroom with your brain.’ He sounds as calm as he looks.
‘Oh my God,’ Jess breathes.
‘One,’ Callum says calmly, prompting the man to scurry up from the floor, panic-stricken. ‘Two.’ He trips a few times on his way out of the restroom, constantly looking back. ‘Three,’ Callum says menacingly, lowering his gun to his side and watching as the man staggers and stumbles on his way. ‘Four.’ I can’t be sure, but I’m pretty sure Callum’s eyes are laughing. The man rounds the corner and disappears from sight before Callum gets to five.
The humour I detected in his warm brown eyes is gone the second they land on me and Jess. I shrivel on the spot under his disapproval, but quickly let my spine pull me up again when the shock of his appearance from nowhere finally sinks in.
I step forward, steady and strong. ‘You’ve been here the whole time, haven’t you?’ I ask, regarding him carefully. ‘Theo told you to keep an eye on me.’
His face is deadpan. ‘You’re welcome,’ he says flatly, indicating the exit.
I’m struck dumb, part awed, but mostly mad. ‘Welcome?’ I blurt on a laugh. He has a nerve. ‘I can take care of myself.’
‘Looked like it.’
My teeth clench as I collect Jess’s arm and start leading her out of the restroom, pulling her back every time she looks behind. ‘He just saved our lives,’ she murmurs dreamily. ‘He’s my Theo.’
My shoulders drop. ‘One flash of a gun and you’re anybody’s,’ I grumble, dragging her on as Callum tails us through the casino. He even gets in the elevator with us, seeing us up to our room. How very kind of him.
Once I’ve let us in and Jess has had her fill of his ominous being for a few moments, I nod a polite thanks and shut the door, locking us safely inside our room.
Jess flops to the bed with a huge sigh, not nearly as shocked as she should be after seeing Callum pull out a gun. I drop my bag to the floor, undoing my dress and chucking it on my case.
‘So romantic,’ she muses, looking over at me pulling on a T-shirt. ‘Theo actually had him watch over you. I can’t believe it.’
My friend seems to have misplaced the fact that it’s also bordering on irrational. I crawl into bed and set my alarm for eight a.m., backing up the wake-up call we have scheduled from Reception. ‘Not stalkerish at all,’ I mumble under my breath, turning on to my side and falling deep into thought. He had one of his men stay in Vegas to watch me. What’s with that? I’ve only just come to terms with the fact he showed up here, and by come to terms, I mean been too utterly distracted by his attention to really think about how crazy it is. And now he’s having me tailed?
I’m about to mentally start breaking it all down in an attempt to rationalize it when my phone starts ringing. I unplug it from the charger and have a mild panic attack when I see Theo’s name flashing at me, threatening. Damn, I should have known Callum would be reporting back to him. Wait. Why am I panicking? He’s the one behaving like some kind of deranged, obsessed stalker. It’s him who needs putting in his place, not me. I sink into my pillow and answer. ‘Theo.’
‘Izzy,’ he breathes, evidently relieved, which just makes me sigh rather than launch into my intended rant.
I look across to Jess, finding her smiling excitedly, perched on the edge of her bed, intrigued by what’s going to be said. I wave a dismissive hand at her, which she totally ignores, waving one right back. ‘Before you give me a lecture—’
