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I shook my head. “I thought it did, but the adrenaline didn’t last long. It certainly didn’t last long enough to want to do it again.” My eyes lifted to his. “I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to be Eloise’s puppet.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. “You won’t. You aren’t going to be anyone’s puppet.”
I inhaled the scent of his faded cologne on his shirt, somehow still crisp after a full day at the office. My hands slid to his back.
“I’ll leave the assignments to you. That works for us, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does. It works.”
I couldn’t help the lack of control I felt. The creeping fear that everything around us was bigger than we were. That we could be swallowed up whole and no one would even notice.
“What do we do? Eloise is going to keep popping up. I was in the flower shop this time. The furniture boutique last time. I never know when I’m going to see her.”
I could hear the hammer
ing of his heart. Feel the heat of his chest. I wanted to stay here in this place of complete protection. The place where Vaughn kept his arms around me and the rest of the world couldn’t break through.
Vaughn peeled me off him. I didn’t like the break in contact. I’d rather be tangled with him the rest of the night.
He took my hand. “Get your coat. We should enjoy the night down by the Seine. It’s been weeks since we’ve taken a walk together.”
“Wh-what?” I stuttered.
We weren’t even half drunk yet, but had he lost his mind? The last thing I wanted to do was distract from this discussion with a change of location. “We’re in the middle of something here.”
He eyed me. “I want to get some fresh air. Get your coat. Let’s go out.”
I grumbled and walked past him. It wasn’t until we were outside the apartment that I realized something was different. Vaughn’s stride was faster than usual. He led me down a set of steps that emptied at the walkway along the river.
“I think we need to change our topics in the flat,” he explained.
I shoved my hands into my leather gloves. It was freezing out here. “What are you talking about?”
“If Eloise needs you, there is a good chance the apartment is bugged. It didn’t occur to me until we were too deep into that conversation.”
“What?” I didn’t know if I could keep moving. Vaughn pushed his fingers through mine and locked our palms together.
“Keep walking,” he whispered.
“I-I don’t want to go back if it’s bugged. They are listening to us? Spying on us?” I wondered what they heard. What kinds of things had we said to each other? Did they hear me sing while I prepared dinner? Did they hear us have sex?
“No,” I whispered. “No.”
“I don’t think it was a problem before today. It’s the type of thing Eloise does when she’s upset—she looks for ways to find leverage.”
My eyes flared. “Leverage to use against me. You mean to make me work for Blackwing?”
“Yes. She’s searching for something.”
“Well, she’s not going to get it. I’m not going back in there.” I wasn’t supposed to be attached to the flat, but I was. It felt violated and tainted now. The idea that someone had broken into the apartment and planted a bug made me want to throw up. How could I ever pretend that was ok?
“We’re going back. But I need to talk to you out here. I want to tell you what I’ve been thinking. Today confirms it. It just came a lot sooner than I was expecting.”
“What?” I almost whined. “What’s happening?”
He pulled me next to him on an empty bench. We watched a riverboat pass, carrying tourists on a dinner cruise.
“It’s time to leave Blackwing.”
