Page 58 of The Spy Who Ghosted Me

“But—” Sabrina said.

I didn’t get to hear the rest, as Izan opened his door and my phone started buzzing repeatedly and furiously in my pocket. I knew it was Ivy and that something wasn’t right.

Izan stepped out into the hall and glared at me, his eyes filled with both fear and an insidious desire to cause harm.

I moved my hand to give myself quick access to my sidearm if I needed it. I would hate to kill him in the Belles’ home and in front of Sabrina, but I would if I had to. However, my first thought was to get Sabrina out of there as fast as I could. I needed to talk to Ivy and see what had happened. No doubt she had some answers.

“Sabrina, we need to leave or we’re going to be late for our reservations,” I said calmly and naturally, hoping not to give Izan any reason to act on his twisted desire. He still seemed to fear me more than anything else, and I would use that to my advantage.

Thankfully, Sabrina was intuitive and turned to give me a meaningful look.

I smiled, hoping she would understand.

“Oh, yes, our reservations.”

Once I was sure Sabrina understood what was going on, I turned my attention back to Izan while Sabrina said goodbye to her sister.

“I love you, Lexi.” Sabrina’s voice filled with emotion as she said, “I’ll see you later. I hope you love the locket. It would mean the world to me if you wore it.”

Not surprisingly, Lexi said nothing.

Izan continued his staring contest with me. Knowing that part of him was afraid of me, I shot him a menacing smile, not flinching. Even though I was in the dark about what had just happened, the worst thing I could do was let him know that. My confidence had him shifting his feet.

As soon as Sabrina walked out of Lexi’s room, I grabbed her hand and led her to the opposite side of Izan, all while keeping my free hand ready to pull my weapon.

Sabrina gripped my hand when she realized we had company.

I brushed her skin with my thumb to let her know everything would be okay. The urge to just shoot Izan welled inside me as we approached him.

The coward slunk back into his room and slammed the door before we passed him.

That was my cue to get out of there as quickly as possible. Ivy was relentlessly calling me, and I needed to know what was going on.

Sabrina clung to me as we hurried to the door.

Callie came out of the kitchen. “You aren’t leaving already, are you?”

“Sorry, Mama, we have reservations.”

“Right. That’s what your daddy and I used to say.” She laughed.

I wished we were only making excuses to be alone so we could get wrapped up in each other.

Sabrina and I uneasily laughed and waved as we flew out the door, saying our goodbyes.

Once we were a decent distance away from the house, we jogged in the dark down to the dock that had several paddleboats secured to it. The gentle waves had them knocking into each other, disturbing the otherwise serene scene.

“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked, out of breath.

There was no time to respond to her other than to say, “I need you to stay quiet. Please,” I added. The last thing I needed right now was for Ivy to know that Sabrina was fully aware of who I was. I pulled out my phone and answered Ivy’s call, all while continually monitoring our surroundings, just in case Izan made an appearance.

“Bloody hell, where have you been?” Ivy berated me. “You’ve really screwed the pooch this time.”

“What does Izan know? Has my cover been blown?”

“You are aware of his actions?” she asked, surprised.

“All I know is he’s more than worried about me. What has he done?”

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