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“What would you know about what I’m doing?”
“You’ve stalked the woman you’re screwing—and also tried to kill, I might add—to a shopping centre. Slipped into her fitting room to do things I really don’t want to think about that resulted in you walking out looking like your trousers shrank while you were in there.” I shift on the bench we’ve found, hiding behind some weird plant to keep us out of sight, trying to cover the fact I’m still rocking a semi while eating ice cream and sitting next to my kid cousin. “And now we’re sitting out here pretending to be 007 or some shit waiting behind a bush for her to appear. And something tells me that when we do, you’re going to want to follow.”
My mouth opens and closes, but I quickly discover that I don’t have a response, because everything she just said is correct. Painfully so.
“Oh, look out, here we go,” Rhea teases as both Jodie and Brianna emerge. Brianna is without a shopping bag.
My teeth grind, my ice cream cone shattering under my grip.
“All right, caveman. Calm down,” Rhea quips as I just about stop my ice cream from landing in my lap when the top half falls off.
Movement catches my eye from either end of the row of shops, and I relax a little as their security details trail behind them at a safe distance.
They both know they’re there now, and I’m so fucking glad they haven’t made a big thing about it. None of us would get anything done if we knew the girls were out in the open, a waiting target for the Italians.
“You’re such a fucking sap,” Rhea starts when we also begin to tail them, watching as they move around shop after shop. Brianna never buys anything, but I get close enough to clock the things that do catch her attention and send Rhea in to buy them after they’ve left.
“Hey look, they’re headed to a jewellery store. Should I just pick up an engagement ring while I’m in there?” she asks almost an hour later.
Her suggestion makes my heart rate increase, but I don’t offer a response or allow her to see any kind of reaction when she looks back at me.
“Should have locked you in the car,” I mutter.
“Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have all this Brianna bait,” she teases, holding up the bags with a wide grin on her face.
I’m not stupid. I know that I’m more than likely to get a knee to the balls for doing this. But the pain of that isn’t enough to stop me.
She deserves to be treated like a queen, and I’m going to do it in any way I can.
“Fuck,” I hiss when my phone starts buzzing in my pocket as our targets head into a bar.
Brianna had been drinking before I found her, that much was obvious when I looked into her gorgeous blue eyes. But as much as I like the idea of her loosening up, I also hate the idea of her being near any other guys in that bar.
My need to follow and sit myself at their table to warn anyone off her is almost enough for me to ignore Theo’s call.
But the reality of what he could be ringing me for is too much to deny, and I swipe the screen and lift my phone to my ear.
“What?” I bark.
“Empire. Now,” he demands, his voice cold and chilling.
A shot of adrenaline rushes through my veins. My hand trembles against my ear as my stomach turns over.
“Tonight?” I ask cryptically.
“Yes.”
He hangs up the second he’s confirmed my suspicions.
“Fuck. We need to go,” I say, grabbing Rhea’s upper arm and dragging her away from the bar that was my biggest concern only seconds ago.
“Go?” Rhea blurts, her eyes widening in shock. “Go where?”
“Back to school, where you should be,” I growl, grabbing her upper arm and dragging her along with me as I regretfully turn my back on Brianna and storm through the shopping centre like my arse is on fire.
“Oh no. I’m not going back to school now. Hendrix will throttle me.”
“Then maybe you never should have left.”
