Page 105 of Devious Corruption

“She told you?” I arch a brow at him.

I left him with her to watch over her, not to start getting involved with her.

“Not me, no. I heard her talking to Serafina earlier.”

“She shouldn’t have worried. She’s good at this.” I puff up my chest, watching her talking with the author as the last customer makes her way from the store.

Feeling his eyes on me, I look at him. “What?”

He makes a sound, something between a disbelieving huff and a laugh with a small shake of his head.

“Nothing.”

“If you have something you want to say?—"

“Nah. Nothing that needs saying. At least by me.” He walks around the counter to where he stored his coat. “If you have her, I’m going home.”

“Yeah.” I move my gaze back to Max. She’s laughing at something Dante Woods said while he and his team are packing up the leftover books.

“I have her.”

And I’m never fucking letting her go.

My feet are never going to recover from this shopping excursion.

Elana links her arm through mine. “You should have gotten those boots.”

“For what?” I laugh as we make our way out of the last store.

We’ve spent the last three hours making our way through six gorgeous boutiques. At four of them, a saleswoman was already waiting for us. More specifically, they were waiting for me with a rack of clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories.

“To go with that dress you put back. You should have gotten that,too,” Elana laughs.

“Lev isn’t going to like you going home with only two new outfits.” Megan joins in with a mock stern look.

“He’ll live.” I climb into the back of the SUV waiting for us along with our armed security.

I’d been worried that people would look at us weird having the escort with us, but the women at the boutiques didn’t so much as glance at the men.

“He’s going to drag you back down here tomorrow and make you buy everything you put back,” Megan says, strapping herself in with the seatbelt. “I saw the sales ladies putting things on a rack that they rolled into the back room.”

“He’s not that crazy, is he?” We pull away from the last boutique and into traffic, inching our way through the afternoon mob of cars trying to get through the city’s shopping district.

Megan snorts. “If he’s anything like Alexander, he is.”

“He’s every bit as crazy as Alexander. It’s why they’re so close,” Elana says, scrolling through her messages.

“You’ve been on that phone all afternoon. What’s going on?” Megan leans forward from the back row to read over Elana’s shoulder.

Elana quickly twists to the side to hide screen, but it’s too late.

“Oh, god, Elana.” Megan whispers, sinking back into her seat.

“Don’t.” Elana warns her, twisting in her seat to face her. “Please. Don’t say anything.”

“What are you thinking?” Megan hisses, her eyesswinging to Alexander’s men. One is busy driving, and the other is scrolling through his own phone in the passenger seat.

Dimitri is driving in the car behind us.