Page 94 of The Fake Out

Her tone was full of disgust, which meant it couldn’t be her brother or her dad. And there was no way she’d talk to her friends that way either. Linc and Mila were meeting us at the auction house, so they were in town, but she didn’t know that, and they wouldn’t ruin the surprise by coming over beforehand.

“I hate surprises.”

I winced. That didn’t bode well for my night. Maybe I’d be better off telling her before we left. Holding my breath, I moved down the hall to get a look at the unhappy surprise that had shown up.

At the sound of a man clearing his throat, my back went ramrod straight. Who the fuck was here?

“My attorney said I should get you your money back. So I brought a check.”

I gritted my teeth and pushed away the bolt of rage that hit me when his voice registered. Jake.

“You drove three hours to hand deliver it? Why didn’t you just stick it in the mail?”

I padded down the hall quietly and hovered just out of sight. The gentlemanly thing to do would be to give her privacy, but every instinct told me to storm out there, lick her, and yell mine. So standing out of sight wasn’t that bad in the scheme of things. I wasn’t charging out and peeing a circle around her.

“I wanted to see you.”

My entire body went from tense to full-on alert.

“You look amazing, Gigi.”

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do first: cut out his tongue for talking to her or remove his eyes from their sockets. I could envision the exact expression on the dude’s face. It was the same one he’d worn when he saw her at the zoo. The one that made me want to break his nose.

“I missed you. My life has gone to shit since we broke up. I know I made a mistake…”

Hands balled into tight fists, I warred with myself. She was fierce and independent. She’d want to handle this on her own. My head knew that. My heart was really struggling, though.

I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart, but it did no good.

“Mistake?” That small whisper made my heart skip.

There was no way she’d fall for his bullshit. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. The two seconds of silence that followed that one word felt like an eternity. My heart hammered so hard I was worried it’d beat its way out of my chest.

“Well, isn’t that…disgusting?” she snapped.

Instantly, my shoulders sagged in relief, and I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

I could picture the look on her face. Chin up, eyes heated. I couldn’t help but smile.

“You have a pregnant fiancée at home. Who, for some unknown reason, likes you. And you’re here telling me, the woman you cheated on for seven months with said fiancée, that you miss me?”

“Don’t you miss me?”

“No!” She scoffed, clearly thinking the question was as absurd as I thought it was. That one word gave me all the happy tingles. “Not at all. You should go.”

“Gigi.” His voice dropped low.

“Don’t touch me.”

Those three words were all it took for my vision to go red. That was my line. She’d made it clear to him, and not only wasn’t he leaving, but now he’d put a hand on her.

I turned the corner and strode right up behind her.

“She said you should go,” I growled, reining in the urge to knock him out.

Gi turned, her eyes snapping to mine.

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