“Lilo? Where is he? We should go!”
“Wait a minute!” I grabbed her arm to stop her rush for the door. “The first thing you’re going to do, is change. You dressed like that is a crazy distraction.”
Her cheeks flushed.
“Then, you’re going to have a drink with me and in the morning, we drive to Butte and stake out the nanny until she leads us to Lilo.”
“Or we could make her tell us.”
“Puedes atrapar más moscas con miel que con vinagre,” I told her.
“Say what now?”
“You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
“You speaking Spanish…I’m going to change.”
I laughed as she all but ran from the room. “Does it turn you on, Ellie?”
“Shut up!”
All I did was laugh harder.
Strange, something had changed between us. Instead of questioning it, I grabbed my gun and let myself out the backdoor. It was time for my nightly check of the perimeter to make sure we were still safe.
My mind went to Ellie and our sleeping together. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life. Her body was perfect—curves in the right places and I lost every bit of me with her. It was easier sine my mother had forgiven her. Malik was a little on the fence and my body seemed to have taken her for her impressions she had changed. How much longer could I have really carried the hate? And it meant something she was back in my life—right?
I moved the vehicles into the garage then entered the house through the side door and set the alarms. When I entered the house, Ellie was in the kitchen peering pensively into a pot.
“Hungry again?”
“My body is still coming down from almost getting kidnapped. It burns through food like crazy.” She grabbed a plate and shared some rice and chicken.
“People deal with that differently. For Maia, it’s scotch.”
“That’s too rough for my blood.” She glanced at me over a shoulder then went back to the food.
While she did that, I poured her a glass of wine and me a shot of whiskey. We sat together silently, and she stared at me openly.
“What?” I asked.
“I love it when you’re not mad at me.” She whispered. “I really didn’t mean to be such a bitch. And I’m really trying to find some way to make it so that you can look at me like a woman rather than the medusa who almost ruined your life.”
I bowed my head then met her gaze again. “It’s a way to go. I’m not going to lie. But it’s possible.”
She smiled. “I’m glad. How have you really been, Tarek?”
“Been okay.” I replied. “It was tough there for a little bit until—well, my parents won the lottery.”
“Oh!”
“Yeah…Malik and I went to school. We have a little brother…”
“Jesse—I remember. Hopefully he was too young to remember my stupidity.”
I smiled. “I’ve been okay…I joined the military for a while there. Stayed in until I was hurt and realized my body wouldn’t be able to keep going at the rate, I wanted it to.”
“So, you come home and joined the US Marshals? I don’t think you thought that one through.”
