I threw on a casual black jacket and shoved a hat on, my irritation rising.Across the room, Theo chuckled and didn’t try to hide the condoms he slipped into his pocket.
I don’t care,I told myself.He can eat with whoever he wants, be with whoever he wants. I don’t fuckingcare.
“Oh, I forgot to mention Yuki’s picking me up, so you’ll need to find your own ride.”
My head jerked up, and when I saw Theo’s smirk, I considered causing him bodily harm so his ass wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Instead I sucked in a breath through my nose and tried to brush off his attempts to rile me up. “It wouldn’t be smart to ride together anyway,” I said, and pulled out my phone to call for a car.
Theo gave himself a final once-over in the mirror, plucked lint off his shoulder, and caught my eyes in the reflection. “Then I guess we’re on the same page.”
“Guess so.”
His phone vibrated on the table, and he picked it up and checked the message. “I’m out.”
Thank fucking God.Another second alone with him in this room and I might’ve resorted to something ridiculous, like tying him to the bed to keep him from leaving.
Not because I was jealous, but because I knew Theo was going to take every opportunity to make my life hell tonight.
Resigned to my fate, I allowed enough time for him to exit the hotel before I followed after his date’s sleek black Lexus.
Blue Bird’s Rooftop Terrace was a restaurant located on the top of Miraiza Osaka-Jo, right in front of the Osaka Castle. The historic building had been renovated and turned into a multipurpose facility, including restaurants, souvenir shopping, and even a samurai and ninja experience if one wanted it.
But right now it was the seating in the surrounding park that interested me, since I’d instructed Theo to reserve a table at the edge of the restaurant so I could keep an eye on him. I moved out of the lamplight and into position, then pulled my binoculars out of my jacket pocket and aimed them at the rooftop terrace.
I studied the other guests taking their seats for the evening, checking to see if anyone pinged my radar as familiar. Maybe someone who knew Theo, knew any of us Kings, but nothing registered or set off any alarm bells.
That was good, but considering we were still no closer to knowing who’d sent the videos of Theo, and the threat, it didn’t make me feel any better about his being so far away from me.
At least, that was what I was telling myself. It had nothing to do with the fact he was with someone else, because Theo was capable of taking care of himself in hand-to-hand combat. In fact, he was a deadly fucking weapon. But I was there on the off chance he didn’t see it coming.
So that meant watching and waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
It was around the time my stomach growled that I realized I probably should’ve grabbed myself something to eat before my stakeout, especially when I was sitting here watching Theo chow down on a delicious-looking seafood dish.
I’d decided to focus on that rather than the way Yuki was smiling and laughing at nearly every single word he said. But of course, focusing on Theo’s food also meant staring at his mouth, and that was a distraction all on its own.
I lowered my binoculars, irritated all over again that I was stuck sitting out here, watching over Theo when I’d rather be?—
What? What, Shep? What would you rather be doing?
Definitely not sitting across from Theo and watching him smile and laugh at somethingIsaid. Because it would be fucking crazy to actually think about going on a date with him.
Completely and utterly insane.
A fat drop of rain hitting the back of my neck pulled me from that alarming thought, and I reached up to check I hadn’t imagined it. Sure enough, my fingers came away wet. As if it wasn’t already bad enough that I was stuck here monitoring Theo’s date, now it was going to rain on me? Great. That was just fuckinggreat.
I tugged the jacket’s hood up over my ball cap, then zipped it up under my chin. Just as I was about to see what the happy couple up at the restaurant planned to do with this unexpected turn of events, my phone began to vibrate.
If this is Theo, I am going to?—
Not Theo. King. And seeing his name there only made my annoyance triple. This was his fault. All of it. My sitting here in the rain. My watching Theo be wined and dined. And let’s not forget the fact that I even cared about those two things now.Thatwas King’s fault too.
If he hadn’t sent me to the wedding to “watch” Theo, then I wouldn’t be in this mess.
