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He should have known that, when I’d phoned him the first time to tell him not to lay a hand on her, I wasn’t kidding.
And then the bastard had the nerve to test my patience.
“You know exactly who this is,” I roared. “And I’m not going to tell you again. Back the fuck up.”
There was laughter on the other end. “You have a lot of balls to call me, demanding something like this from me, especially when I paid you three million dollars.”
It was my turn to laugh. “You hired me for a job, and I completed it. This conversation isn’t about that or the money. You got what you wanted. Now, stay the fuck away. If you don’t, if you lay a finger on her”—I chuckled harder—“then I’m going to start cutting off those fingers until you have nothing but stubs left. And when I finish with your hands, I’ll go to work on your feet. It’s your choice.”
“Do you think I’m scared of you, Bale?”
“I don’t know what you are … but you should be. I’m a fearless motherfucker, and you can’t hide from me. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, I’ll know, and I’ll find you. Take that for what you will.”
“Money can buy me whatever I want, and I have an endless supply. Consider thisyourwarning.”
Before I could say another word, the phone went dead.
NINE
Pepper
Anotification came across my phone that woke me from the deepest sleep. The sound pulled me from a dream that I hadn’t wanted to awaken from, a dream that had repeated in my head ever since he had left.
A dream of a scene that starred Bale.
It wasn’t a replay of what had happened in my private room the evening we were together or the surfaces where he’d fucked me at Jacob’s house.
Instead, it showed the moment I’d fallen into his arms and he’d carried me to bed.
When he held me.
When he kissed my forehead and breathed me in.
Three weeks and three days, and the dream never changed. It played on repeat, sometimes more than once a night.
And tonight, he had been leaning down to kiss my forehead when the notification came through. A ringtone that was a blaring, high-pitched fire alarm, which I’d chosen on purpose to make sure it got my attention, no matter what state or situation I was in.
A sound I’d specifically set to alert me if Bale ever stepped foot in one of my clubs.
As it startled me out of sleep, I quickly sat up from my bed, grabbed my phone from the nightstand, and logged in to the club’s camera system. The live feed showed Bale had just walked past security, where he’d provided his handprint.
Dressed in a black suit, he gazed into each of the cameras he passed in the entranceway, like he knew he was making eye contact with me.
What the hell are you doing here?
How did you know my staff would even let you in?
A quick peek at the clock next to me showed it was two in the morning, a few hours into Tuesday, and the look in his eyes told me he had an agenda.
Damn it.
I crawled out from under the covers, grabbing a robe from my bathroom, and crossed the silky material over my naked body as I rushed into my home office. When I was seated behind my desk, I shook the mouse, waiting for the monitor to turn on, and once I was prompted, I entered a series of codes that granted me access to the club’s security system.
Now that I was in, I was able to follow Bale as he moved through the main chamber.
He didn’t stop at the bar to get a drink.
But what he did was shift his gaze to each of the cameras as he moved deeper into the club, like he was locking his eyes with mine, penetrating me, looking right through me with every step he took.
