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“Not in my apartment!” I protested.
“Fuck no. Of course not. I said discreet, didn’t I? So, parked on your street, to start with.”
“Following me everywhere.”
“Yes, of course. But it’s better than the alternative, isn’t it?”
I sighed. “I can’t really say no, can I?”
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t. Knowing you’re safe means I can focus on finding this fucker.”
I nodded. “Okay then. I accept it. I hate it. But I accept it.”
With his finger under my chin, he tilted my face up to his, brushing a kiss across my lips. “Thank you. I promise I’ll do everything I can to make it as least intrusive as possible.”
I smiled up at him. “I know you will. But right now, I just want to enjoy being here with you. Can we do that?”
“Absolutely.” He pulled me close and kissed me deeply. For a little while, at least, I could forget about the situation and lose myself in us. Grayson broke the kiss, tucking my head under his chin as he trailed his fingers lazily down my back.
I thought about the photo of us at the gala. The way we were looking at each other. The way my heart fluttered at the expression on Grayson’s face. I was too scared, too unsure, to acknowledge what it meant, even to myself. The fact that Grayson hadn’t said a word about it made me even more unsure.
CHAPTER 39
Grayson
The sound of the engines roared in my ears as my private jet lifted into the sky. Stef gazed out the window, watching the New York City skyline fall away beneath us. It seemed like she was in a quiet, pensive sort of mood, so I left her to her thoughts. Which, of course, left me with mine. And what a fucking mess they were.
I couldn’t get the memory of that manila folder with all of Stef’s information out of my mind. Just imagining the guy trawling through Stef’s life made my skin crawl. My hands curled into fists and I had to drag in a deep breath, force myself to relax.
Without a word, without looking at me, Stef reached over and linked her fingers with mine, running her thumb along the back of my hand in soothing circles.
Somehow, her small action made me feel even worse. She was a target because of me. The fucker wouldn’t even know of her existence if she and I had never crossed paths. Jesus, now that knowledge had acid churning in my gut.
“Stop torturing yourself. You can’t control the whole world and everyone in it. And not everything is your fault. That’s just your god complex talking.”
“I have a god complex?”
“Sure you do.” Stef pulled her hand from mine and lifted Patti to her chest, stroking the tips of her fingers down Patti’s back until she started purring. Then she turned away from me, curling her legs up and resting her head on the backrest. “I’m tired.”
I leaned over, pulling the lever on the seat so it fell back and she could lie down properly. Then I grabbed a blanket and threw it over her.
“Thanks.” She closed her eyes, shifting until she was comfortable and tucking Patti into the blanket. “No, I’m not getting sick again. You can stop looking at me like that.”
I settled back in the seat, trying to ignore the hurricane of thoughts whirling in my mind.
Of course, it didn’t work, so I was bone weary by the time we rode the elevator up to my condo two hours later. So much so that when the doors slid open and my two brothers were sitting at my dining table, I just said, “Fuck.”
“You’ve been MIA for twenty-four hours. What the fuck did you expect?” Rhett was clearly annoyed, which was a pretty rare occurrence for him.
“I have not been missing in action. The relevant people knew of my whereabouts.”
That comment had Wolfe raising a brow at me. “And, uh, since when are we,” he gestured between himself and Rhett, “not relevant people?”
“It’s only because Farris canceled our catch-up last night, because of a last-minute job, that I even knew you were in New York. So how about you explain what the fuck is going on? You can start on that after you’ve made coffee, though, because you look like shit.”
“Hey, Stef.”
“Hi, Wolfe.”