“Give me the license plate.”
I do, thankful I paid attention.
“Those are my men,” Rafe says.
A spike of worry goes through my head.
“Your men,” I murmur. “Why on earth areyour menfollowing me?”
“I told you what happened last year,” he grunts. “I was forced to run because someone – presumably the Hungarian mob – sent men to your apartment. I’m not going to risk you or Theo getting hurt, not until I’ve got answers to certain questions.”
“So, you just put a tail on me without asking me for permission.” A beat, silence.“Rafe?”
“I’m trying to keep you safe,” he growls.
“I’ve come and gone from this apartment hundreds of times since we last saw each other. Nothing has happened. I’m pretty sure I’m safe.”
“That was before I came back,” he grunts.
I massage my head, thinking of Adrian early, the warning in his shark eyes. “So, you’re saying we’re in danger because of you.”
“No.”
“Then you’re saying we might be, then.” Another pause. “Rafe, if I have to keep reminding you not to lie?—”
“Yes,” he admits huskily. “Dammit, angel, yes. That’s what I’m saying. That’s what it means to be… with a man like me. But I’ve said more than I should already.”
“If I were going to betray you, I would’ve done it by now.”
I sit back, letting my head fall onto the headrest.
“Ava?” he says. “I’ve got plans for the three of us. You, me, and the little guy.”
The little guy. How can a man steeped in shadows and violence sound so parental and loving?
“Don’t tell me you want to cancel,” he snarls, his voice shaking. “I want, need to see you both. I want us to forget, Ava.”
“Forget,” I murmur.
“Just like that night. That beautiful, magical night. Where we forgot about everything and everyone else. When it was just me and you and those secret looks and that feeling like we’d knowneach other for months, and not one night. When you told me how you’d wander the aquarium as a girl, feeling like you were an astronaut and the fish aliens.”
I smile at the memory, even as tension tightens in me.
“I swear, nothing is going to happen to you,” Rafe says fiercely. “I just want…”
“To pretend this isn’t complicated. To focus on just tonight, and pretend this isn’t messed up and complicated.”
“Yeah, exactly. Can you do that, Ava? Just for one night?”
Part of me screams to tell him no. Not that I can’t do it, but I refuse. I’ve got too many responsibilities to willfully bury my head in the sand. But there’s another part, the fierce spark that awoke that magical night, that wants to follow his lead.
This is my last mistake…
“One night,” I tell him.
I can hear his smile on the phone. “Thank you.”
“My parents are dropping Theo off soon. I’ll start getting ready.”
