Page 82 of Ruined By a Devil

“Bullets are messy, Jade,” I say, walking around the island and stopping right behind her back. I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her back flush against me. “Taking a man’s money is clean. Nolan is a dead man walking, he just hasn’t realized it yet.”

“Finish him,” she says.

“I will.”

CHAPTER FORTY

Jade

“Riley picked this restaurant in town,” I say as I step into the black BMW. “She said it’s a place that just opened and they have amazing security so we should be more than fine.”

“I still don’t think that going out in public is a good idea,” Malachi reaches the other side of the car, opening the door and stepping inside.

“It’ll be fine,” I say, grabbing my lipstick from my purse and pulling the sun visor down but the smooth metal tube slips right through my fingers, hits the rubber floor mat, and bounces out the open door, dropping onto the gravel driveway, and rolling straight under the car.

“Fuck,” I look down at my black heels.

“What’s wrong?” Malachi asks, turning to face me.

“I dropped my lipstick,” I tell him. “And it went under the car. Could you get it for me?”

“You couldn’t think of closing the door before retouching your lipstick?” he raises an eyebrow and I shake my head.

“I thought we were in a rush.”

“Fine.” He gets out of the car, walks around the front bumper and then crouches beside the heavy front tire as he reaches his long arm under the car.

I wait for him to stand up but a wave of panic washes over me when he doesn’t.

I watch as the line of his shoulders drops and his back goes completely rigid. The casual, relaxed posture he’s carried for the last three days vanishes in an instant, replaced by absolute stillness.

“Malachi?”

He stays quiet but he starts pulling his arm out slowly. Judging by the look on his face, I’m not even mad when I see that he isn't holding the silver tube of my lipstick. When I take a better look at his hand, I realize he’s holding a small, flat black square with a heavy magnetic backing. It has a blinking red dot in the center.

We both stare at it, his jaw tightening so hard the muscle ticks beneath his skin.

“Clear the vehicles,” he stands up, shouting.

The perimeter guards move instantly at his orders. Four men drop to the dirt, sliding mirrored poles under our car, under the escort vehicles, and under the supply trucks.

“Clear!” One guard shouts.

“Clear,” Another guard echoes.

“So the other cars are clear,” I say to Malachi. “The only one being tracked is ours?”

His face is dark with rage as he nods. “That son of a bitch!” Malachi grabs my arm, and marches me straight back inside the cabin, locking the front door behind us.

“You think Nolan is behind this?” I ask, trying to keep up with Malachi as he paces through the living room.

“I know he is,” he answers. “He never disappeared.”

“But we don’t know if it’s one of his men who placed the tracking device…”

“No, Jade,” Malachi stops, his eyes dead serious as he adds. “Nolan has been studying your schedule, he’s waiting for a chance to attack and I’ll be damned if I let him get anywhere near you.”

For the next hour, the living room becomes a war room. Malachi paces the floor with a burner phone pressed to his ear, talking to Elijah, who is scrubbing the security feeds, pulling the mechanic logs, and running the names of every single person who walked past this car in the last week.