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“At least now my shorts match my shirt,” I joke.
Sadie grins. “It’s a good look on you. I should take a picture. It would go nicely on your Instagram feed.” She takes the plate and dries it before adding it to the stack. “Speaking of, do you have any idea what happened to my phone? I haven’t seen it since I went to bed after the party. I thought I left it next to my bed, but I couldn’t find it when I showered earlier.”
I wince and look away, but not so fast that Sadie misses my expression.
“What’s that look?” she demands, a fierce look in her eyes. “Where is my phone?”
“Maybe you should ask German?—”
“I’m asking you, Ben. What happened to my phone?”
I sigh as I hand Sadie the last plate. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
“Depends on the message. I make no promises.”
“Your government pal German threw it in the harbor before we left.”
She freezes. “He—what? He just … threw it into the freaking ocean? Rather than, oh, I don’t know—something sane and reasonable like turning off my location?”
“He said something about an IMEI?” I’m still not sure what that is, but at the time, I was more concerned that Sadie was in enough trouble to need her phone destroyed in the first place. “He still has your sim card,” I say, as if this lessens the damage somehow.
“Oh great.” She rolls her eyes. “Does my SIM card hold all my photos? Or all of my contacts or my calendar or, I don’t know—all of my entire life?”
“You don’t have your phone backed up?” I ask. As someone who works in tech, it seems like a stretch that she wouldn’t.
She huffs and folds her arms across her chest. “I mean, yes. Of course, it’s backed up. Buthedidn’t know that. And it doesn’t make it any less of a violation.”
She reaches to the stove and grabs the pans Tao used to cook whatever it is he cooked, thrusting them toward me with much more force than necessary.
Not that I blame her. I’d be livid if someone threw my phone into the ocean.
“Speaking of violations—you do realize this is technically kidnapping.” She’s on a roll now. Like the phone issue unlocked all her frustration and it’s spilling out all at once. “I went tosleep with Oakley Island in sight and with promises of being left alone by a certain billionaire, and I woke up in the middle of the Atlantic. Not alone. I don’t have the first clue where we are right now. Do you know how weird that feels? I barely talked to my sisters the other night, and now I can’t even text them and tell them I’m okay. I can’t explain. I’m just …”
She presses her lips together. But I can tell she’s not done, so I stay quiet, scrubbing the pan a bit harder than necessary.
“I feel like an actual prisoner.”
She grabs the towel she used to dry dishes and starts rubbing it across the already clean counter, like she just needs something to do with her hands. I want to reassure her, but it’s hard when I can’t argue with anything she’s said. When I suggested this plan to German, all I could think about was Sadie’s safety and wanting to be with her. I know German and Daniels have training and are probably very good at their jobs, but they aren’t me.
And there’s no way they care about Sadie’s well-being the way I do.
Was it selfish? Absolutely.
Do I regret it? Nope.
But I do wish I could have made this choice in a way that didn’t leave Sadie like a prisoner. I also wish I’d hidden her phone away or something. By the time I realized what German was going to do, it was too late. Still—I shouldn’t have even let him go in her room. Just because he’s some kind of agent doesn’t mean he can overstep human decency.
Says the guy who lied about being Sadie’s boyfriend and … I guesstechnicallykidnapped her.
“Don’t even get me started about the whole dating thing,” Sadie continues. “What was that about? Why did you tell German I was your girlfriend?”
Because I want you to be.The words pop into my head so quickly, I know they must be true. Not that I’ll ever say them out loud. Especially not now.
I finish washing the last pot and set it on the counter, then turn off the water and slowly turn to face her, crossing my arms over my chest. “I didn’t think they would let me come if I didn’t claim some personal connection to you.”
She shakes her head, like my answer doesn’t make any sense. “Let you come where? Onto your boat that we’re all living on atyourexpense?”
“I didn’t think they would want to take the yacht at all,” I explain. “As soon as German realized that Frank and Lo both had already posted videos of you on social media, he talked about needing to move you, and I just … I don’t know. I panicked at the thought of you leaving. At the idea of you being out there somewhere with only German and Daniels to protect you. It was a knee-jerk reaction.”
