Page 100 of Pitiful Lies

Koukla

(three dots…but no reply)

Angel

Tell me you understand.

Koukla

Yes. I understand you. Sheesh. I guess this means you like me.

Angel

He’s there. Get your ass in the car and lock the door.

Koukla

Yes, Angel.

My heart pounds harder and all my attention is on her. I watch that little dot as the car drives away and my chest feels so fucking tight.

I think about those weeks when we were apart. I think about her taking off now. And suddenly, I can’t fucking breathe.

She can’t do that again. I won’t let her.

No way this woman is ever getting away from me.

Not now. Not ever.

I am keeping her.

For good.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE-GISELLE

“Goodnight,” I tell Luc’s security guard before I get in the back of the black SUV I arrived in earlier.

I always beat the other guys to the door, not liking it when anyone besides Angel holds the door for me.

That’s the first mistake I make.

The second is I am still texting Angel when the car starts to drive away, a smile on my face.

But something is wrong.

I look up and I see I’m not alone.

“Banks?” I say, but the man driving is not the same bodyguard Angel always assigns me.

The man sitting across the bench from me is vaguely familiar. There’s a carrier between us, and I recognize it as the one Angel uses to transport Buffy.

Oh. Fuck.

I try to avoid that animal at the best times, but on checkup days especially. She tends to get cranky when she’s in the car.

“How nice to see you again, Mrs. Fury,” the man says, and that’s when I place him.

It’s John Chen. The man I met in Boston. Only his hair isn’t slicked back, it’s spiky like he’s some punk rock star.

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