Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
“Can we go back to the part where you’ve almost been kidnapped eleven times?”
He takes my hand and walks us over to the bench. “All failed attempts, but it’s not unusual. CEOs are big money in the kidnapping game, so it can be really expensive to insure us for K&R. One of the conditions of my policy is that I use some type of GPS tracking. It increases the likelihood of recovery if an attempt ever proves successful.”
He taps the face of the watch Vivienne admired so much last night. “Mine is in here. I’m sure soon we’ll advance to implants, but we aren’t there yet.”
“So I get why you need one, but why do I?”
“Many significant others wear tracking devices because family members are sometimes easier to get to than the executives themselves and the people they care about end up being taken.”
I glance down at the gift on my wrist, which meant so much to me.
“I know I probably wouldn’t be sitting here with you now were it not for this bracelet, Doc. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but my independence is important to me. I don’t need looking after.”
He caresses the inside of my wrist where the bracelet brushes up against my skin.
“But I need to look after you. I need to know that you’re safe and that I can find you. I can get to you. When Grim couldn’t pick up the signal and the clock was ticking, I felt absolutely helpless. That lunatic could have shot you in the head, or…” The muscle along his jaw tightens. “I couldn’t get to you. Your father couldn’t get to you. Can you imagine how he felt knowing you could die at any moment and there was nothing he could do about it?”
“Oh, that’s low.” I link my hands behind my neck. He knows how sensitive I am to my father’s anxiety.
“I don’t mind playing dirty when I care this much about something.” He leans over to take my top lip between his and then my bottom. “About someone. What do you say?”
“It’s one or the other,” I tell him, balling my fist in my lap to keep my hands off him long enough to negotiate with a clear head. “Either this pet tracker or the security. Not both.”
I know which I prefer, so I barrel forward when he frowns, like I haven’t given him any choice at all. “The security is less important until everyone knows we’re together anyway. And it’s impractical. I’ll be on the road constantly once the campaign is fully underway. I’ll be with Owen most of the time, who has security of his own. I’ll be safe with him.”
“Are you sure now that we’re together,” he says, leaning over to kiss behind my ear, inciting goose bumps that have nothing to do with the morning chill, “you don’t want to swap with Kimba? Come on the road with me instead?”
Visions of us fucking in the back of a campaign bus fill my head. I pull away, glancing around the empty park to make sure no one is around. “Um, I don’t think going on the trail with you is a great idea. Now, I won’t do this bracelet and security, so which will it be?”
He pulls back, and our eyes meet for long seconds. Those green eyes could persuade me to do just about anything he asked.
“Wear the bracelet.”
CHAPTER 14
MAXIM
“I have news.”
Grim’s words make me pause, my stylus poised over my iPad.
“What’s up?” I stand and walk to the window of the hotel suite. The Champs-Élysées spreads itself like a sultry woman beneath me, flashing alluring glimpses of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. The most beautiful avenue in the world and I feel nothing but indifference for the glittering lights and elegant lines of the buildings. Not just because I’ve seen this view a hundred times or more, but because what Grim has to say is the most important thing in the world to me right now.
“Jackson Keene is the one who died,” Grim says.
My remorse for killing the man doesn’t deepen knowing his name.
“It took us a while,” Grim goes on, “because he’d managed to scrub himself from the records we’d typically check. These guys have been off the radar for a while. They may have been running a pretty rudimentary operation, but that seems to have been intentional. They’ve kept their digital footprint almost non-existent the last few years.”
“Jackson,” I murmur, tugging my bottom lip and frowning. “Abe called him Jack.”
“Abe is actually Gregory. Jack’s brother, Gregory Keene. Stanford grad, computer science. Master’s degree from Harvard. Lots of scholarships, but there was also a lot of loan debt. Not one payment’s been made since his mother died.”
“What the hell?” I turn my back on the shimmering city and scowl. “That cretin’s better educated than I am.”