“I’ll be right with you,” a young woman with a messy mop of dark curls calls from the counter. Her eyes roam over Winger as he takes the seat next to me, and the quirk of her brow tells me she finds something she sees interesting. I’m staring right at her face, so when she glances over at me, I return the brow lift, but mine is much more challenging. It says,Caught you looking, don’t do it again.Her gaze drops down to her hands, and she busies herself.
“Shouldn’t we find his car first?” I ask after getting comfortable.
“Are you in a hurry?” Winger questions.
“Not really.” I shrug, but being here, where I could get recognized, feels like I’m risking too much. “You don’t think it’s a little dangerous to grab a bite here?”
The waitress approaches our table, making a point not to look at either of us. “Have you had a chance to look over the menu, or do you need a few more minutes?” She spins the napkin holder, making sure to show us the QR code.
I’m torn. I want to sneer at her again for checking out Winger, but she could have access to my food, which means I need to play nice. “Can we have a few more minutes?”
“Absolutely, you can order right through the link if you’d like.”
“We’ll do that,” Winger tells her in a flat tone, dismissing her. Without hesitation, he hands me his phone, already unlocked. It feels a little strange in my hand. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve held my own.
My thumbs hover over the screen, tempted to search through his apps and messages, but I force myself to tap the camera icon and pull up the menu instead.
“I’m not worried about him spotting you. He’ll be dead soon anyway.”
I glance around at the other tables to make sure no one is listening. He’s not being very cautious, but we’re isolated at our little table. “You really know the way to a girl’s heart, huh?” I use humor to make it seem as if I’m teasing, but there’s truth to my words. Who knew how easy it would be to fall for the villain willing to slay all your dragons? I knew I was never the white knight kind of girl.
Winger takes the phone back after I select a sandwich, fries, and fancy-ass iced coffee I’ll probably regret when I have to poop in ten minutes, but I can’t resist the aroma.
“So are you still planning on keeping me locked up or what?”
“I don’t plan on letting you out of my sight, Max. It’s too dangerous for you.”
“I can take care of myself, Winger. How about my computer and phone?” I bargain. I need some sort of assurance here.
“They’ll be at the apartment when we return,” he concedes without argument.
I sit back in my chair as my protests die on my tongue. “It’s taken me years to eliminate the names I have. You can’t expect me to stay cooped up in that apartment for several years. When will you trust me?”
“It’s not about trust. There isn’t a single place where you could hide from me, Max. It’s about your safety. If you want to go someplace, then I will be with you. If I can’t be with you, then you’ll wait until I can. It’s as simple as that.”
A tingle skates down my spine at his promise to find me, but it’s not from fear. It’s too heady to be fear. It feels like power in the absence of it, which makes no sense and is toxic as hell, but some part of me likes the idea of him being obsessed with me, and the fact that he wants to take care of me should be a huge red flag. There really is something wrong with me.
CHAPTER25
WINGER
We take the elevator up to the third floor and exit to the connected garage, where it doesn’t take me long to find the white S-Class with the correct plates. “This isn’t where Edward was parked,” Max informs me, looking around as if she’s getting her bearings.
“Maybe Edward used visitor parking.”
As we pass the car, she leans in close, bumping her shoulder into mine. “Aren’t you going to tag it?”
I told her the make and model of the car we were looking for on the elevator ride up, so she probably spotted it just as fast as I did. “Not here, too many cameras. I just wanted to make sure he was home.”
“Are we going to wait until he leaves and follow him?” she questions, keeping pace with me.
“We’re not wasting time waiting for him to leave. I’m going to make sure he does.”
“Are we going to set the building on fire or pull the alarm?”
I have to glance over at her before I realize she’s joking.
“It would be fun though, right? Even better, I could pose as a maid. You know the fucker doesn’t clean up after himself. I could put bed bugs on all his mattresses, then send out letters to his neighbors to let them know the infestation came from him.” Her eyes twinkle.
