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And find it unlocked.
What the fuck?
I race to the front door. It yawns, eerie and wide-open, with Sparky at the threshold, yowling because…
Ruby’s gone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
RUBY
“Turn around,you preppy prick in a bow tie. Come on. Let me get a good shot of you.”
I aim my phone and pinch the screen to zoom in on the crowd gathered at the bus stop on Meeting Street.
From where I sit in the window of a corner bar across the road, I can scan the crowd of familiar faces waiting for the bus. Some of them work at Luca’s hotel. Some I know from years of riding the bus, too.
I can easily spot who doesn’t belong. Who I told to meet me at the bus stop so I could pay his bribe.
While Axel was gone all day, I got the text we were waiting for. It demanded one hundred thousand dollars, or a video clip of me “having an affair with my boss would be sent to my husband.”
Did I bother troubling Axel’s big, sexy brain with this small excursion?
Nah. He’s got enough on his mind.
This is my mission. I’m not stupid enough to meet the man in person. I just need a picture of his faceso that Grant can scan it and determine which of the three owners of the rental chalet is filming and extorting the guests.
It’s obviously this preppy fucker.
Typical.
I don’t trust men in seersucker suits. Okay, I don’t trustmostmen, but any man with whales on his tie can blow my hole.
I hate them.
This is the man bribing Nick, Brayton, and the daughter of the owner of Delta’s. This man, shifting nervously in his loafers, is the one targeting gay pro athletes.
A green city bus lumbers through the intersection, breaking in front of its stop and blocking my view.
I sip my iced tea and wait for it to move. When it does, my target is gone, but my mission is complete.
For now.
I signal my server so I can pay for my she-crab soup while I turn back and watch the bustling evening sidewalk outside.
It’s almost summer, and tourists crowd the city, motivating many locals to go on vacation. I’m looking forward to mine with my sisters. We’ll have fun. We always do, but I’ve never felt this…
I’m going to miss Axel.
Yes, the arrogant, smug boss who I loved to hate. The one whose executive chair I’d lower every night after he’d leave, just to piss him off the next morning. The one who made me so mad once that I changed the notifications on his desktop to sound like Tickle Me Elmo.
Yeah, him. I’m going to miss how he holds me at night.
I meant it; I hope Axel calls me. I hope absence makes the heart grow fonder … and feral.
God, I’m so feral for that man. He’s making us wait. Okay, I’m doing it too, and my pussy is not pleased with the standmy heart is taking, and quite frankly, I’m impatient with it, too. I’m almost?—
“Well, well,” a deep voice mocks over my shoulder, “fancy seeing you again.”