Page 31 of Out of Control

“Always blaming the man. Sounds about right for a maneater.”

“Chomp, chomp, baby,” I smirked. “Better keep your distance or I’ll eat you alive.”

“Believe me, I tried staying away,” he said, voice strained. “Hard to do when you’re not taking the danger seriously.”

“Says the man who made me leave my secure house at dawn this morning to go comfort his mommy.”

I paused, realizing how harsh the words were as I said them. I knew I needed to apologize, but I couldn’t get the words out. Lucas looked like I dumped a bucket of ice water over his head.

“Says the woman who thinksI’mthe dick.”

“That’s fair,” I admitted. It was as close to anI’m sorryas I could make myself give him.

We let the awkwardness stew between us for a few more minutes until my phone buzzed in my purse. I looked at the time on the car’s display. 8:57. That was probably Carlo Morelli.

I couldn’t risk the call going to voicemail and missing my last lead to inside information.

I was careful to keep the display facing away from Lucas while I picked up the call, depressing the button to lower the call volume so he couldn’t overhear anything.

“Athena Kane,” I answered.

“Athena,cara mia. How is your morning so far?”

“It’s going really well. Just had a delicious breakfast with a new friend and her son, and now I’m heading back home. How’s yours, sir?”

“Oh, wonderful, just wonderful! I’ve spoken at length with Angelo, and we’ve agreed that we want you to come back into the office to discuss further details.”

“I’d love that.”

“How about tomorrow around 9:30? I know it’s a weekend, but we’d really like to have this sorted before Monday.”

“Half past nine,” I confirmed. That worked all the better for me; on a Saturday there’d be less foot traffic and less of a chance Leo Lombardi might casually see me out and about again.

“Excellent. We’ll see you then, darling.”

“Absolutely.”

I hung up and put the phone back in my purse, careful not to let the flashing display from the end of the call become visible to Blake.

“Who was that?” He was trying to sound casual, but failing.

“Why do you want to know?” I countered, fairly confident he hadn’t heard, nor seen, anything.

“It sounded like you were making plans. If you’re going somewhere, you need to clear it with me first.”

“Hold on. I don’t need to clear shit with you.”

“You really do.”

“I really don’t. I’m going to keep living my life, doing whatever I need to. If you want to follow me around then fine, but you don’t control me or what I do.”

“Fine. It was a poor choice of words. You don’t need my permission, but you do need to communicate it with me.”

“Fine,” I lied. I knew I’d have to find a way to ditch him to make my meeting tomorrow morning, but I’d deal with that when the time came. For now… “I wasn’t talking about meeting anyone. That was my dad. He wanted to know when I’d be back relaxing at home.”

My leg always wanted to jiggle itself off at the knee when I lied, so I did my best to stay still, stiffening my position in the car seat. Would he buy it?

“Why 9:30 then? We’re, like, one minute away, not thirty.”

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