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“Hah!” She laughs and points at me. “I knew it. You are so smitten.”
“Mind your business.”
“You hired me to mind yours, Io.”
“All packed?” The housekeeper knocks lightly on the open door, and I nod. “I will take this down to the car for you Mx. Io.”
“Thank you, Janine.”
Both Lucy and I smile at her and remain quiet until she’s left the room. Then, our eyes swivel back to one another. Lucy is a classical beauty. Her hair is long and waves naturally. I don’t think she’s used an ounce of heat on it in her entire life. Today, the brown locks are pulled away from her face, showing off her high cheekbones and jawline I would kill for. Her eyes pierce into you in the most disconcerting way.
That’s what drew me to her, outside of all of her qualifications. Those eyes. They throw you off, make you feel watched and seen in a way that is extremely off-putting. I swear sometimes she can read my fucking mind.
“Remember that she’s a person.” Her eyebrow raises.
“And?”
“You can’t hunt someone you’re interested in.”
“Says who?” I scoff. “Hunting is part of the fun.”
“No one likes to feel like they’re prey, Io.” She tries to fight back a grin and finally looks away. “Well, not most people anyway.
“I can’t promise I’ll behave.” I walk toward the door, hopeful this little lecture has come to an end. She may work for me, but she loves to give unsolicited advice. “It would be empty.”
“I know.” She shrugs and shoos me away with her hands. “Go, go. Just don’t be upset if she isn’t thrilled to have a stalker.”
“If her father tries to get to me through you while I’m gone, make up an excuse for me, yeah?”
“I already have about eight in my back pocket. I think that will get you through the first few weeks. After that, I might need some help.” She follows me down the hallway and out into the driveway. “I wouldn’t put it past this asshole not to randomly show up here one day.”
“No one has this address that I don’t trust implicitly.” Including myself, only four people have this address, and all four of them know that if they share it, they die. And that is not an exaggeration because the last person to do it was my last business manager. When they leaked the address to a client, I made all four of the current trusted employees watch as I lit them on fire.
Not the fastest death, but that was the point. I don’t want them to be afraid of death. A lot of people in this type of business aren’t anyway. But I do want them to be afraid of how slowly they will die. That is the thing that keeps them on their toes.
“Hey,” she says, holding her hands up. “I won’t leak the address. But I don’t like this guy.”
“You don’t like him because you have something against the French.”
“All Brits have something against the French,” she says, rolling her eyes. “It’s in our DNA. We are born with it. But that’s not what I’m talking about. He gives me the creeps.”
Me too. Ever since we had our first meeting, I haven’t liked the guy. Then again, how can you like someone who won’t respect your courtesy title? Every time I meet a new client, I inform them that I am to be referred to as Mx. Never Miss or Ms. And yet, Mr. Dumont continuously disregards that. He’s lucky I am still working with him. I have plenty of money. I don’t need his. But he seemed desperate, and it piqued my interest.
“Watch him, Luce. Take care of yourself.”
She gives me a mock salute, and then I’m slipping into the back seat of my blacked-out Range Rover. My driver, Viktor, shuts my door and walks around to the driver’s side.
“Airport, yes?” he asks, making eye contact with me in the rearview.
“Yes, please, Viktor.” I smile and nod, and then we’re on our way in comfortable silence.
CHAPTER5
Clara
I checkmy phone for the tenth time in the last hour.
Normally, my friend has messaged me by now, wanting to connect. They’ve been like clockwork, sending me a request around eight or nine at night. With all the conversations we’ve had, I’ve been able to pocket that money and start paying off some of my credit cards. And I did not want this little side business to dry up.
