Page 38 of Provoke You

I met Matt’s gaze. The worry I found in his eyes was my undoing. Tears rolled down my cheeks, as anger churned at the pit of my stomach. “What the fuck was all that? I’ve never been so afraid in my life.”

“Me neither.” He cradled my cheek and kissed me hard on the mouth. I ran my hands up his biceps and shoulders. His body was all cold and steely muscles from the time he’d spent fighting monsters for me.

“Thank you for coming to get me.”

He cleared his throat. “Just doing my job, ma’am.” The smile that pulled on his lips told me I was way more than that to him.

“I’ll make sure and leave you a five-star review.” I kissed him. I wanted to go home and leave all this behind, forget about Old Ben, forget about the hotel. But I knew better than that now. Whoever sent those guys after me would not stop until they got exactly what they were promised.

“What is it?” Matt placed his index finger under my chin to make me face him. “You can tell me.”

“One of the guys called me a spoiled brat. Like he knew me. Like he knew me enough to hate me.” I fell back on my heels, feeling drained.

“Hey. For your safety, we need to assume your dad and his investors are behind this, but let’s remember he’s innocent until we have all the evidence. Okay?”

“Okay. So now what? Are you still taking me to Paris?”

“No. I’m sure that place has been compromised too. We also need to get Ben to come to us. There’s only one place where he knows to go look for you.”

I slipped my hand around the nape of his neck and into his hair. “You’re coming back to New Orleans with me?”

“I am. Hiding you will not make this thing with the hotel go away.” He seemed defeated but at the same time determined.

“Is that another assumption? Somehow we’ve gone from trying to keep me safe to blocking Dad’s hotel deal?”

“Mrs. Turner mentioned someone visited Ben a few months back and asked him to kindly disappear. What do you think he knows?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Old Ben and Dad are the only ones who know that when I turn twenty-five, I can stake a claim to the LeBlanc fortune. They also know I didn’t want it. I bet that’s why Dad was in such a hurry to get me out of New Orleans. He knew that if he touched the Baroness, I wouldn’t stand for it. Is the hotel that important?”

“It doesn’t need to be. It could just be part of some power play, like Jennifer said. A chance to bid on properties around the world.”

“It doesn’t matter, does it? If I decide to go after Dad’s investors or not, they’ll come after me regardless. Just to make sure the new venture goes through.”

“We need to find Ben and find out what he told the men who visited him.”

I almost died today, but at least one good thing came out of it. Matt didn’t just want to find Old Ben to get me to go to Paris. He wanted Old Ben to help me.

“Hey, Boss.” Kitt’s voice boomed from the top of the sand dune. “We gotta double-time it.”

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