Page 116

I stare at him, my mind warring with itself.

His logic makes sense.

But there is something about leaving this place that feels wrong to me.

Like I’m being robbed.

“Please, baby,” he whispers and I sigh.

Dalton saying ‘please’ is always going to be the thing that wins me over. With a sigh, I nod.

“Okay.”

“Thank you,” he whispers, pulling me into his arms and kissing my forehead. “Go get dressed and pack enough clothes to get you through the next week. We can come back if you forget anything but I want him to wonder where the hell you are.”

I jerk back and meet his eyes. “Why?”

“Because if he gets desperate, he might just fucking slip up,” he says, looking out at the street. “And then, we can end this.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rooster

I’m fucking antsy.

It’s been two days since Lennon saw Owen standing outside of the bakery watching her and we haven’t heard a fucking word from him. I thought, for sure, when he couldn’t find her anymore, he’d flip out.

But there has been nothing.

I’ve been coming to work with her every day, keeping an eye on her and I damn sure would have noticed if Owen was standing outside the bakery again. Plus, the only answer Streak can give me about how Owen slipped past his tracking measures is that he left the phone and the truck at home.

I’m not fucking buying it.

There is no way that this lazy, dumb asshole walked five miles in the Louisiana heat to watch Lennon at her job. And why would he? Why the hell walk unless he knew that we were tracking him and he wanted to be undetected. But he couldn’t fucking know that.

No fucking way.

Feel Again by OneRepublic is playing over the speakers in the bakery and I glance over at the kitchen door. Lennon is back there, prepping things she needs for tomorrow morning. Every once in a while, she passes by the little circular window in the door, dancing and singing along to the song. She goes by again, her head thrown back and her eyes closed as she sings along. I smile, shaking my head.

She and I have had several arguments over the last couple days about Owen’s involvement in all this. She doesn’t think he gives a shit enough to go to all the trouble of drugging her at Voodoo or following her so intently.

How could he not though?

Look at her.

She’s fucking gorgeous, inside and out.

And Owen lost her.

If it was me, I can understand the urge to continue to seek her out. I’d never, in my fucking life, attempt to drug her or whatever else he was planning to do after he got his hands on her at Voodoo. I would never put her in harms way like that but I get the need to see her, to bask in her presence.

That’s the part that she can’t understand.

But it’s perfectly clear to me.

She is the sun.

And now that glorious warmth has been ripped out of Owen’s life. So, he’s desperate to get it back by any means necessary.