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KLAUS

S he’s a complication.

She's been a part of my life for less than twenty-four hours, and she's already getting under my skin. Her curvy little body has been taunting and teasing me all day. Her big, curious eyes are permanently tattooed in the back of my mind.

I don't know how it happened, but she's become the only thing I can think about.

I call Alaric because sometimes he knows me better than I know myself.

He picks up right away.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"Why do you always assume something is wrong?" I reply.

"Because you only call me when you're having a crisis," he says.

He's got me there.

"There is a crisis," I say, thinking about the girl with the pretty eyes and full breasts. "I shouldn't have taken your advice."

"It's about the girl, isn't it?" he asks. "You haven't stopped talking about her since you met her."

"She's too damn nosy," I complain. "I thought she would just do what's expected of her and mind her own business, but?—"

I pause when I hear a loud splashing noise on his end.

"Where are you?" I ask.

"Oh, I'm at the watering hole," he says.

Watering hole?

"What watering hole?"

"I'm in Botswana," he says. "Didn't I tell you?"

"No, I think I would have remembered if you told me you were going to Africa."

"I told you about the elephant poaching," he says.

"Yes, but I didn't think you'd go all the way there to investigate it in person," I reply.

My phone starts beeping. He's video-calling me.

I hit accept and his face fills my screen.

It's early morning in Botswana. There's warm sunlight on his face and majestic elephants behind him, along with other smaller animals.

"You're really in Africa," I say.

"We suspect that someone has been tampering with the watering hole here. Some of the elephants fell ill a few weeks ago. They got medical help in time, but things could have gone south very quickly."

Alaric is a much better person than I will ever be. If his mother could see him right now, she'd be so proud of the man he's become.

"Anyway, what's going on with you?" he asks.

"Forget it," I say. "My problems sound silly now."

"No, tell me," he insists. "I find your new predicament very entertaining."

I sigh, knowing he's not going to let it go.

So I vent to him about everything that happened today. I tell him about how Emma blatantly ignores the rules of the house. I tell him about how Helena even caught the girl spying on me while I was in the kids’ room.

"It sounds like she's really gotten under your skin," he points out. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you'd offer some of your sage advice."

"Why, so you'd have someone to blame when things don't go your way?" he asks.

"Bingo."

He shakes his head. "You've always been a very private person. If you need more space, why don't you give her the guest building?"

If I did that, I'd see less of her. Even that bothers me for some reason.

"And your other option is to fire her," he says.

"You were the one who convinced me to hire her in the first place."

He shrugs. "If it's not working, then it's not working."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Is this you trying to use reverse psychology on me?"

"Is it working?" he asks.

"No."

"Then no," he says. "Besides, if I was trying to manipulate you, you wouldn't even know it."

"There's something else," I say, clearing my throat. "I think she's hiding something."

"What makes you think that?" he asks.

The eyes. They never lie.

"Just a gut feeling," I say.

"You're going to go full-on stalker mode now, aren't you?" He gives me a knowing smile. "I've never seen you like this before, Klaus."

"I'm just doing my due diligence," I say. "Since she'll be spending so much time with the kids."

"Sure. Tell yourself that."

"I don't even know why I share things with you," I say.

"Have you hired a private investigator yet?" he asks.

"Yeah."

He smirks. "Tell me what you find. She sounds like an interesting person."

"You're insufferable."

"I love you, too."

We say goodbye and hang up.

I click my pen against the desk. The private investigator I hired is from Singapore. He'll have a report to me in a few hours.I should get some sleep, but instead, I keep refreshing my email folder every five minutes.

It doesn't help that her room is just a few feet away. It would be so easy to slip inside and watch her sleep.

At around five in the morning, there's a new email in my inbox.

It's from the PI.

As I read through the password-encrypted document, I learn that Emma Turner is far more complex than I could have ever imagined.