Page 124 of Avenging Azalea

“It’s not you that I don’t trust,” I said, giving Fawn the full weight of my stare.

Fawn sighed, and I could tell she thought I was being ridiculous. But she couldn’t convince me that Matt wasn’t playing on her good nature.

“No, that’s not what we were talking about. I told Matt that I couldn’t go out with him. I let him know it wouldn’t be right because I was with someone else. He was upset, but told me I deserved to be happy. Yes, he hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, but it was a have-a-great-life type of thing, not anything romantic,” Fawn said.

I believed that she believed what he said. I didn’t. Not a fucking word. In fact, it was exactly what I thought.

“Did he make you feel guilty?”

“I feel bad that I hurt him, but not guilty about us,” Fawn said, reaching out, she grabbed my hand on the center console. “Never about us, you don’t need to worry.”

Bringing her fingers to my mouth, I kissed each one. I would drop the topic for now. Fawn wasn’t the issue here. Matthew Taylor and I were going to have a conversation…tonight.

Chapter

Forty

TITUS

Wearing Fawn out had very quickly become my favorite pastime. There was something extremely satisfying about seeing the blissful expression on her face while she rested. I’d waited until she was sound asleep before slipping from the bed. The dogs were all too happy to take my spot and cuddle up to Fawn as I dressed and left the house.

Naji waited for me by the SUV. He crushed out his cigarette and got in the driver’s seat while I rode shotgun.

“You sure you want to do this?” I just looked at him. “You’re the boss. Here’s the master for the building.”

Naji held out a silver key for me to take. Grabbing it I stared at the simple piece of metal that granted the user access to thousands of people’s private spaces. This was why I would never live in a condo, no matter how nice they were.

We didn’t chat as he drove me across town, and he didn’t bother trying to talk me out of doing this. Driving up to the back of the building, Naji pulled out his phone and texted our contact.

“Cameras are off. You have forty minutes, and then he has to turn them back on.”

“I’ll be half that,” I said, getting out.

Before my door even closed, my mind was inside the condo on the twenty-first floor. I’d taken the liberty of looking into Dr. Taylor, and annoyingly, I couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He’d never been married and had no kids. He made solid investments with no shady deals. He didn’t have substance or gambling addictions, and he went home to visit his large family every two weeks. If anything, he was too perfect. At this point, there was no telling what pissed me off more. The fact that the man was a good person with a thriving business, or that on paper, he was more suited for Fawn than I would ever be.

It didn’t matter now. Fawn was mine. I’d crossed the line of no return, and I wasn’t going to let anyone screw with that. Not my father, Dr. Taylor, or anyone else who thought they could come between me and the woman I loved.

The only sound when I stepped off the elevator was that of my creaking leather gloves when my hands flexed. Reaching Matthew Taylor’s home, I slipped in the key as quietly as I could and unlocked the door. Moving slowly, I pushed it open and closed it again behind me quiet as a mouse.

The condo was exactly as I suspected. Perfect. The décor was sleek and modern with personal touches, including family photos on the walls. A fluffy cat was sound asleep on one of the living room chairs. The giant ball of white fur, never the wiser that there was an intruder. The condo was large, but it only took a few moments to search all the rooms and to find it empty.

“Hmm…where are you, Matt?”

Pulling out my phone, I wandered around with the app that detected recording devices and didn’t find anything. This man was annoyingly clean. If it weren’t for the fact that I’d been able to trace him all the way back to the day he was born, I would’ve said he was in witness protection or an undercover agent. If he was, then they had done an immaculate job on his backstory.

Taking the opportunity to snoop while I waited, I opened every cupboard, drawer, and closet that I could find. There was not a single condemning item. Not that I expected him to have a badge in a shoebox in the closet, but any kind of smoking gun to say Taylor was a prick would’ve been nice.

I’d just finished looking for a hidden safe when I heard the key in the door. It hadn’t been very long, twenty minutes at most. I looked at the time. It was two in the morning, which confirmed my suspicion. Putting my phone away, I pulled my gun, walked over to his bedroom door, and slipped behind it out of sight.

A light turned on, the glow casting shadows into the bedroom. A little bell sounded, and a meow followed.

“Hi, Sasha, have you been a good girl?” The cat purred like a steam engine. He must have been carrying it because the rumbling sound was getting closer. My body tensed, ready to make my move.

“Sorry, I’m so late,” he said to the cat as he walked into the bedroom.

As soon as he cleared the door, I pushed it closed with a bang. Taylor jumped, and his cat leaped onto the bed as he spun around and stared at me. His eyes were wide and genuinely filled with fear.

“Titus? How? Why?”