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And so I don’t avoid the apartment until I’m sure Isla is asleep, I just come home hoping she’ll ignore me like I’m planning to ignore her. At least until she’s asleep and I can settle her in my arms.
Current tiredness aside, I’ve slept better in the last week than I have since before I enlisted, and as much as I try not to read too much into that, it’s the little spitfire in my bed that I can thank.
Not that we’re talking. No, we haven’t spoken a single word to one another since our kiss, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.
It’s a little before midnight, and I’m ready for a stiff drink and bed as I make my way up the steps. For the first time this week, I don’t hesitate before pushing the front door open, but I’m not met with the usual sound of the television.
Maybe she’s finally realized I’m not going to let her sleep on the damn couch and has saved me from having to carry her in there.
I dump my wallet and keys on the kitchen bench and move toward the bedroom, knowing I’ll feel more settled once I’ve seen she’s where she’s meant to be.
But when I push the slightly ajar door open, the bed is perfectly made, as it is every day when I get home.
Where the hell is she?
A sliver of panic tugs at my chest. What if something happened to her? I’ve had time most days this week to check in on her with the cameras, but not today.
I suck in a deep breath and dig my phone from my pocket, quickly bringing up the feed for tonight.
I find her sitting on the couch, eating a slice of pizza with a textbook open in her lap at five. And then she’s smiling at her phone at six. Who the fuck is she texting?
Focus, you can check on that once you’ve found her.
Because I would be checking. I blocked Bryant’s number the first day she was here, meaning any messages he sends never find their way to her. Was it a dick move? Yep. Would I do the same for any man who shows an interest in my wife? Absolutely.
She gets up off the couch and moves into the bedroom. I switch feeds and find her rummaging through the wardrobe before she appears with clothes.
“Where are you going, spitfire?” I ask no one in particular.
She has to know she’s going to be in a world of fucking trouble for leaving this apartment without so much as a note, especially because I forbid it on the first day.
All the ways I can punish her flit through my mind. Filthy images I have no business thinking, but that won’t stop me. It’s not like I haven’t been imagining every single way I could fuck Isla since we kissed. My cock is perpetually hard, and that’s something I’m learning to live with.
I don’t bother watching the rest of the feed before pulling up the tracker I have on her phone. Surely she doesn’t think a man like me won’t keep track of what belongs to him.
“Fuck,” I growl when I see the address.
She’s at a nightclub, with God knows who, doing God knows what.
My little spitfire is about to learn what happens when she disobeys me, and she sure as hell isn’t going to like it.
The drive to Ignite is short, but it feels like a goddamn eternity when I have no idea if Isla is okay.
The possessive need to keep her safe has been raining down on me since the moment I set eyes on her, but this is the first time since I shielded her from Spade that it’s turned me feral.
I park across the street and stride toward the front doors where the bouncer’s eyes widen at the sight of me. The faint sound of music bleeds through the closed door. I was never much for clubbing, and I try my best to avoid them where I can. Just another reason to punish Isla.
“Can I help you?” the taller of the two bouncers asks.
“I need to get my wife,” is all I can manage through gritted teeth.
“You’ll have to go to the back of the line like everyone else,” the other one tells me. His beady eyes and oil-slicked hair make me want to plant my fist right in his face. But I refrain.
“I work for Storm Saint James.”
They eye one another, silently deciding whether that’s enough to get me through the door, but I’m already reaching for my phone, ready to dial in a favor. I’m pretty sure this is one of the Frost-owned clubs, and I could have these assholes out on their ass with just a word.
But then they nod me through and I shove into the club without missing a beat. I want to get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible so I can end the never-ending day.
