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“In the kitchen,” I yelled back.
She rushed in, holstered her gun, and leveled me with a glare. “Don’t scare me like that.”
“Scare you? You’re the one with the gun.”
“I tell you to stay, you stay. Got it?”
“What’s the big deal?”
“As I said, I won’t give you many instructions, but when I do, follow them. They’re for your own good… Maybe Josh was wrong about you.”
That last bit confused me. “Huh?”
“He said you cared about the people who work for you.”
Pride welled up in me. “I do.”
“Then why do you care less about me? You get so much as a hangnail, and I get in trouble.”
Guilt washed over me. “Sorry. I’ll be better.” At least this would only be for a day—a thought I didn’t verbalize.
She unlocked the back door. “I’m going to check the property. Keep the door locked until I get back.”
I considered a salute, but settled on, “Sure.” I’d gotten us off on the wrong foot and needed to fix it. “Be careful.”
She smiled appreciatively. “Always.”
After locking the door, I took another swallow of water before realizing I hadn’t remembered to turn on my phone after the flight. I dug it out of my purse and powered it up. It woke with a few text messages. The top ones were from Sandy.
SANDY: How was the trip with the hunk?
SANDY: Did any of his brothers show up in need of a date?
SANDY: How about lunch this week?
Then some from Josh.
JOSH: Miss you
JOSH: Waiting for the call
JOSH: Still missing you
JOSH: Have a surprise waiting for you when you land
Now he tells me. Constance was a surprise, all right.
Before bed, I checked my email to see if Lara had been in touch—so far only radio silence from her. Until Josh’s forensic accounting crew got us something, there wasn’t much else we could do to help her.
Chapter 38
Nicole
The Wednesday morninglight streamed in the floor-length windows of Josh’s palace in the sky. From my seat at the table, the city stretched out behind him.
He’d cooked waffles for us this morning—cinnamon mocha, of course.
Nothing beat breakfast across from my man with the city waking up outside our window.
