Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 138334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Evangeline looked pleased, a warm rose color creeping under her skin. “I’m the decorator. When I first bought this place it was very small, and I didn’t have a ton of money. I did all the painting and decorating myself. I had a lot of time to think about exactly the way I wanted it to look.”
Meiling did a slow turn right there at the counter, looking around the bakery. “You did a fantastic job. You have a good eye for detail. I especially like the way you detailed the darker blue lines on the ceiling. They’re so faint, but they add dimension. I moved into a new apartment recently and I was told I could paint if I wanted to. I sometimes just stare at the ceiling wondering what I want to do differently, and your ceiling opens up all kinds of possibilities I hadn’t thought of.”
Gedeon took the plates with the pastries. “Do you have a time limit on your tables, Evangeline? We’re working. We’ll be happy to pay for the time.”
Evangeline waved him away. “Get to it. Meiling, later I might be able to find some of the books that inspired me.”
“I’d love that. Thank you.”
Gedeon went straight for a table where he had a good view of the door and anyone coming through it. He put the coffee mugs and pastry dishes down and indicated for Meiling to sit to his right. She slid onto the comfortable chair and placed the stack of books on top of the table along with the tablet and photographs Atwater had given them. The photographs were placed picture-side down.
“Do you have notebooks and pens?” he asked.
“Yes, although I should be asking you that question.” She flicked him a quick glance. The bakery was beginning to fill up with customers. The bodyguards weren’t watching them so closely. She placed one hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide as if astonished at how good the pastry she’d barely taken a bite of was.
“Three cameras. Four o’clock. Six o’clock and twelve o’clock. Glass is thick, looks bulletproof to me. The two men sitting just to the right of the window are leopard and are clearly guarding Evangeline. They mean business too. They’re armed to the teeth.” She reached inside her coat and pulled out two notebooks and a package of pens, placing them on the table between them.
“Anyone coming in look suspicious to you? As if they might have followed us?” Gedeon leaned in to her on the pretense of picking up one of the pens and a notebook. It would be impossible for the cameras to pick up his lips moving.
Meiling shook her head. “We weren’t followed. I really like the atmosphere here, Gedeon, although why they let you in, I have no idea.” Deliberately, she allowed the bodyguards to read her lips. “I would think you might be considered trouble.”
One coughed behind his hand. The other snickered and turned it into a cough. Gedeon flicked his ice-cold gaze in their direction.
“Do you know them?” Meiling asked. Her coffee cup was up to her lips, hiding anything she said.
He nodded, not liking that she was curious. Was that interest in her eyes? He realized he was becoming more possessive of her the longer he spent time with her. That wasn’t a good sign. She seemed able to detach her emotions from him. The physical attraction that had been there when they first were together had slipped away, at least on her side. Now she didn’t flirt with him. She might tease him, but she wasn’t flirtatious. He didn’t want her flirting with the guards. He didn’t want her flirting with anyone but him. He also couldn’t afford to fuck up their professional relationship or their friendship with irrational jealousy.
He had come to Evangeline’s bakery on purpose. Fyodor Amurov was not a man you fucked with. The other men holding territories all had close ties to him. The moment the plane had touched down and Gedeon Volkov had walked off it, Fyodor would have been informed. Gedeon was bad news. He had a reputation for leaving behind dead bodies. Fyodor, like all the other heads of the families, would want to know why he was in town. It was smart to be proactive and pay his respects to Amurov first.
“Yes, the man on the right is named Kyanite Boston. The other is Rodion Galerkin. Leopards out of Russia. They work for Fyodor and are watching out for his wife.” He might not like it, but he gave them their due. “They wouldn’t be given that assignment if they weren’t considered extremely fast, the best he has.”
“That’s nice,” Meiling said, taking another drink of coffee. “That he would care enough to put his best men on his wife.”
Gedeon knew she was thinking about the fact that Fredrick Atwater hadn’t put bodyguards on his daughter and she’d been kidnapped.