“‘Cause I know you’re going back too.”
Ares didn’t hesitate.
“Your lady and my nephew are safe with me.”
His tone was easy, but there was something underneath it. He looked at Zay and added, “But you know I’ll be back. I can’t leave you out here alone now.”
That made sense.
Men like them never really stayed in one place long. Not when too much money, blood, and unfinished business lived across oceans.
I cut in before the moment could turn too serious.
“You can stay here too.”
Both of them looked at me.
I lifted my glass.
“E and I are about to run France. We leave in two days.”
Emily laughed.
Zay shook his head like he already knew he couldn’t debate my orders.
Ares just looked at me in that quiet way of his, like he was trying not to smile too hard in public.
The dinner settled after that.
The women had made a decision.
The men had accepted it.
And beneath all of that, under the candlelight and the expensive food and the glasses sweating on the table, I could feel my phone sitting inside my bag like a secret with a heartbeat.
Vivi’s little gift.
Ares’s little leash.
I brushed my fingers against the leather of the purse once and looked down at my plate.
I didn’t care if he watched the phone.
Didn’t care if he saw what I was thinking through the way I moved next.
Before I left California, I had one thing to handle.
One loose end.
And I planned on finishing it quietly.
I smiled at something Emily said, nodded at something Zay added, and let Ares refill my glass with another fake sparkling drink.
But my mind wasn’t in France yet.
It was somewhere else.
Getting ready.
