Page 82 of The Woman with the Wallet

“Yeah, I think it will work,” Zeno said as Miko wrapped an arm around my hips and curled me into his side.

Normally, I would have thought that it would make me feel weak. But right then, I was happy to feel Miko’s strength, to lean into him, to allow him to comfort me.

“You okay?”

I didn’t give in to the urge to insist I was fine.

“It was like I was back on that bed for a minute,” I admitted, resting my face against Miko’s chest and breathing in his comforting scent.

“He’s gonna pay for it.”

“And the diamonds.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the diamonds,” Miko said, his hand sliding up and down my spine.

“Half a million dollars.”

“You’re more important.”

There was no helping the snort that escaped me at that.

“You don’t believe me?”

“No.”

“Why would I lie?”

“You’ve known me for point-five seconds.”

He opened his mouth, then paused, thinking.

“I’m sorry if I haven’t made it clear that you’re important to me,” he said, this time making me open and close my mouth, not sure how I wanted to respond to that. “I’ll do better moving forward,” he added, his arm giving me a little squeeze. “Do you think this will be as quick as it was for Max?”

“Way to make me sound easy,” I grumbled.

“Trust me, sugar, there’s not a damn thing easy about you,” he said, but the teasing smile and light in his eyes soothed over the barbed words.

“Depends on his social media footprint, really. But if he’s dark on there, I might be able to pick him up on more street cameras, see if he’s moving around the city. But if he went back upstate, there’s less I can do. Not as many cameras there,” Zeno explained.

“Shit,” Miko said after reaching for his phone.

“What is it?”

“Text from my boss. I’m gonna have to head out for… half an hour or so.”

“Okay,” I agreed, surprised at the way disappointment flooded my system. In such a short amount of time, he had begun to mean too much. So much, in fact, that I didn’t want him to leave. Not even for half an hour.

What the hell was that about?

“Okay. Well, while you do that, I’m gonna give Lil a call,” I said, moving away from Miko. Mostly because I liked being in his arms just a little too much.

“That’s a good plan. Zeno, you got a gun, right?” Miko asked, making Zeno look over, one brow cocked as if Miko was asking a ridiculous question.

“Alright. Good. I will be as fast as I can.”

“Miko, I’m a grown-ass woman. I’ll be fine.”

But, damn if his protectiveness didn’t give me that warm hug feeling once again.

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