Page 25 of Runaway Queen

“Are you calling me poor?” I tried to make my tone light. It didn’t quite come off.

“Wealth can smell wealth. You’ve had money before. You’ve lived a different life before.”

I turned away from his intrusive stare and focused on the trees at the end of the property.

A shadow moved.

I blinked at it. It looked like a man dressed in black. He was too far to make out properly.

Frowning, I leaned forward, causing Edward to turn and follow my gaze.

By the time he did, the figure was gone. “What is it?”

“I could swear I saw a man standing there, just on the edge of the woods.”

“What was he doing?”

“Watching us.”

Edward turned back around and chuckled. “If you think you can cut lunch short by imagining a sniper in the trees, it won’t work. You should stop fighting me with all your might, Sophie. I already told you I’m a man who gets what he wants. I wanted to have lunch with you, and we are having lunch. If I want it to be a long lunch, it will be.”

My annoyance at Edward expanded in my chest, and just like that, I was done.

Smiling politely, I wiped my mouth and pushed back my chair.

“In that case, I’m afraid I have to go.”

Edward frowned at me. “Why?”

“Because I want to. Keep the portrait, have someone else finish it, I don’t care.”

“Sophie, now wait a minute.”

Edward trailed after me as I retraced my route back through the house, grabbing my bag on the way. I left the wrapped painting on the hallway floor.

“No, I’ve waited long enough.”

I pulled open the front door just as Edward reached an arm out to stop me. I gripped his wrist and twisted it into a lock before I could stop myself. He gave a bark of pain but couldn’t move from the position.

“Don’t touch me. I never gave you permission to touch me.” I released his wrist and stormed down the steps. Damn it. My hotheaded temper had once again got the better of me, but I just couldn’t stop myself. As soon as I was back on the street, my temper cooled, and I realized how dumb that had been. Hadn’t Edward just reminded me yesterday that Leo was being treated in his wing of the hospital? It had been a veiled threat, clearly, and now I’d gone and pissed him off.

I’d have to make nice, but not today. Today, I needed to calm down.

I slowly walked back toward my car. The feeling of eyes on me returned. Was Edward watching me through his cameras?

As I got in the car, I stiffened, registering something that hadn’t been there before.

A bouquet of white lilies lay on the dashboard. A black ribbon was tied around the stems.

Inside the car.

10

SOFIA

After a dinner of canned soup and crackers, I sat on the phone with Leo for a good half an hour. He had his own phone, so I could call him at the hospital after visiting hours. I had offered to sleep with him in the chair by the bed, but he’d been insistent that I sleep at home. He worried more about me than he should.

The bouquet of lilies played on my mind. First, who the hell would give me them? Second, and most worryingly, how had they gotten inside the car? My rational mind reassured me that there had to be an obvious explanation. Maybe I’d forgotten to lock the door, and Edward had had a member of staff run out there and put them by my car as a surprise, for when I left, since he was clearly bent on impressing me. That was the logical answer. Still, the thought of them stuck on the edges of my mind, like a burr.

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