Page 16 of Ghosted

Johnny’s gaze cuts toward mine while his hand is still wrapped around hers.

The bastard smiles.

There it is.

The moment I know I’ve made a mistake.

Not by noticing her.

But by letting him see that I did.

Alice pulls her hand free and rests it back on her camera. “Alice.”

She doesn’t flinch. “You always introduce yourself by interrupting conversations?”

Johnny presses a hand to his chest like she just put a knife there. “Fuck. Pretty and rude?”

His smile spreads, slow and entertained.

Alice holds his stare without blinking.

That gets him.

I can see it happen. The shift in his face. The way amusement turns into interest, then into something darker. Johnny likes sharp things. Always has.Give him a girl with a smart mouth and enough fire to throw it back at him, and Johnny won’t walk away.

He’ll get off on pouring gasoline on it just to see how big the fucking inferno gets before it eats him alive.

“Well,” he says, dragging his gaze over her like he’s already imagining trouble, “that’s dangerous.”

Alice lifts a brow. “Me?”

“That pretty little mouth.” Smoke slips from his lips as his smile turns meaner. “Girls with mouths like that usually get themselves into places they shouldn’t be.”

My jaw tightens.

He keeps all that easy, predatory attention on her like I’m not standing right there. Like he hasn’t already found the exact nerve and pressed down until it hurts.

Alice looks between us.

Once.

That’s all it takes.

She pulls the camera strap over her head and for the first time since I found her, the camera leaves her hands as she tucks it into the black bag at her hip and snaps the flap shut.

Something in her expression changes.

Not fear. She’s too stubborn for that.

More like she finally understands she’s standing too close to something with teeth.

“I should go,” she says.

Any smart man would let her.

But I’ve never been good at letting go of things once my attention gets its claws in.

“When’s the next time you’re coming back?” I ask.