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But someone watched me. I felt it. Twice.
Eva and I have lunch together at a corner table that the security guards choose for us. They don’t like for me to sit by the window.
“See?” I whisper to her as we sit down. “This is way over the top. Is something happening I don’t know about?”
“If something’s happening, I don’t know about it either,” she reassures me.
“You would tell me?”
“Yes.” My suspicion must show in my eyes. “I’m serious, Daph. I would tell you if I’d heard anything. Are you okay?”
I feel it again—that unmistakable sensation of being watched. If I turn to look, to search, Eva’s going to know.
She narrows her eyes. Clearly I haven’t been as stealthy as I thought. “Would you tell me if something was happening?”
“Of course I would.”
“You know…” Eva drums her fingers on the white linen tablecloth, her expression thoughtful. She looks just like Leo, except more beautiful. More regal. “You don’t have to tell me anything, Daph. It’s up to you what you share, or don’t share. I’m only asking because I care about you and I want you to be happy.”
“Leo says the same thing. Did you guys coordinate your message?”
“Nope, no message coordination going on.” Eva laughs. “Surprisingly, we didn’t spend a lot of time chatting while he and Haley were on their honeymoon.”
“I wonder if bodyguards followed them around the entire time,” I grumble, softening it with a smile.
“They did.”
“Oh, stop.”
Eva widens her eyes. “I’m serious. He even had people on a ship circling the private island.”
I laugh out loud. “A ship? Those people are never going to let him take a vacation there again.”
“They don’t own the island anymore. He bought it.”
“Wow.” I lean back in my seat. “So what you’re saying is, stop complaining about the two bodyguards.”
“I know it’s not much consolation, but Leo’s not doing this because he’s paranoid. That’s when you think people are out to get you and you don’t have any proof. Peopleareout to get him.”
It’s annoyingly reasonable. “Yeah, but I’m nobody.”
“You are Daphne Morelli,” Eva says, lifting her wine glass in my direction. “You might want to be no one, but you’re not. You won the genetic lottery. You’re one of us.”
“And that means bodyguards.”
“It means paying attention.” Eva sips her wine. “It means knowing who’s paying attention to you.”
Well, I already know that. It’s Emerson. We’re inside, well away from the door, but I feel another whisper of cold on the nape of my neck. If he’s in here right now, watching me eat lunch with Eva…
“Who’s paying attention to you?” I ask Eva.
“Nobody at all, which is how I like it.”
“Sure they’re not. You want me to believe that nobody saw you at the Christmas gala or at Leo’s wedding? Nobody tried to ask you on a date?”
“No one tried to ask me on a date.” I know, I just know, that she’s being specific in this way because someone talked to her but they didn’t ask her to dinner. Eva flushes slightly.
“Who was it?”
