27
Vernis Ko Mne
Alex
Iwatched Jade sleep naked beside me. She pulled all the blankets off me and slumped onto them, hogging all the warmth. But I didn’t need any blankets because she was the warmth.
And I was about to lose her.
She dozed off at some point in the early morning hours, but I hadn’t slept a wink. I pulled the blanket, and Jade rolled into me, throwing her arm over my chest, still asleep.
Like that. I wanted her like that.
All of it. Itallwent to shit because of damn Gianna. But the real question was—how the fuck did I not see this coming?
How did Inotpredict that she would come back and cause chaos? How did I not have the foresight to know that while Jade may have been safe at the beach house from Xavier,Iwasn’t safe from Gianna?
I thought back to all my encounters with her. How did she magically show up everywhere I went? The club where we took Jade—what was Gianna doing there that night? Did sheknowI’d be there?
“What are you thinking about, baby?” Jade’s voice startled me. I turned to her, her tired eyes so beautiful in the morning light.
I didn’t want to let her go. Ivehementlydidn’t want to let her go.
“Just…everything. I’m wondering when Gianna discovered that I was at the beach house.”
We both fell silent again, just lying together. My fingers traced Jade’s soft and warm skin and I breathed her in, as if for the last time.
“She said something.” Jade broke the silence, slowly sitting up. She looked like a mermaid—her long hair fell over her chest, the rest of her naked. “She said she knew you were hiding out there. Did she know about the house? Could anyone have told her?”
I shook my head to say no, taking all of Jade in. She was so smart. She was so sharp, detail-oriented, and intelligent. She was hilarious. She could be so silly, and bubbly, and at the same time such a fucking brat. And Icouldn’tget enough of her.
“Hmm. She also said that you left and then came back. How did she have such details about your whereabouts?”
Jade bit her bottom lip, thinking it over, but then her gaze jumped to mine, as if a thought hit her. “She was tracking you. She has a tracker somewhere. Your car? Your clothes? Your shoes?” Jade spoke quickly but then added, “But no. You weren’t always wearing the same clothes. And you also had the bike…”
Jade trailed off, but her eyes were on fire.
“What?”
“Your wallet.” She suddenly straightened her back. “It’s in your wallet.”
A minute later, I was dumping out the contents of my wallet onto the dining table, both of us still naked, frazzled, and heartbroken.
And there it was. With my office access key card, another one fell out—a black card, the same size as a credit card. Flat, thin,and unnoticeable, the little tracking device was perfectly hidden, never raising my suspicions.
“Fuck.”
I picked it up, boiling inside at the knowledge that Gianna had been tracking meall this time.But how long? When did she place this in my wallet? Last week? Last month? Lastyear?
“I’m sorry,” Jade spoke beside me. “Those things can last months without a charge.”
I turned to her then, wondering how she knew so much about tracking devices. She took one look at me and answered quietly, “He did that to me. He tracked me. For a while.”
What a fucking monster.
I snapped the card in half and threw it on the table with my other cards, choosing to focus on the one person that mattered: Jade.
Heathen. Brat. Angel.
