I walked out of the guest room and into the main bedroom.
“Okay.”
“In the closet . . .”
“Yeah?”
“There’s a shoebox on the upper shelf—”
“There are a lot of shoeboxes on the upper shelf. I think you have more shoes than I do.”
“Doubt it. Look for one that has ‘Jarvis’ on the bottom right corner.”
I eyed the twelve boxes until I found the pair with the appropriate style name. “Got it.”
“Take that box with you and keep it safe, will ya?”
“Only for you, Malone. Anything else?”
“No. Wait. Didn’t you install one of those doorbell cameras?”
“Sure did.” I bit my lip to keep from adding that I’d done so specifically to get pictures of him.
“Fabulous. Do you have any footage of Blake breaking in?”
“Probably.” Which was thanks to setting up the camera to capture Malone’s door in the first place, but he didn’t need to know that. “But it doesn’tlooklike breaking in.”
“Doesn’t matter. Please save it. I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”
His words sent a shiver down my back. “Anything else?”
“Keep thinking fondly of me,” he said, his voice rough. “Because I could be gone a few hours or a few days. Either way, I know I’ll be back in time for the benefit on June twenty-seventh, so find something pretty to wear, please and thank you.”
“I can do that. Underwear optional, of course.”
He groaned.
“Why don’tyouthink fondly ofme, Malone, just like I thought fondly of you earlier.”
He made a strangled noise on the other end of the line, and I hung up before he could answer.
Chapter 23
Once I’d put Malone’s patio door back to rights, I returned to my apartment with the shoebox.
Should I open it?
He hadn’t said Icouldn’t. That said, curiosity did things to the cat that Brené Brown’s cute little ears were too young to hear.
But of course I was going to open it.
Inside I saw ... shoes. Specifically, a part of faux-leather pull-on loafers that were so cheap, I could see the glue on the soles. I was about to put the lid on the box in disgust when something shiny caught my eye. Inside each shoe were a couple of thumb drives.
I grinned.
Backups for your backups really was sexy. Gotta love a man who was prepared. Even better? A man who knew his opponent well enough to know he wouldn’t look in a box of cheap, unfashionable men’s shoes.
I replaced the USB drives and put the shoebox in a safe place, then returned to my laptop.
