Page 138 of Rush of Jealousy

“Thank you,” I say with a smile. I cannot stop looking at my ears. The pain is gone, and I finally have earrings.

“Graham, you ready for your Prince Albert piercing we talked about?”

Graham sighs beside me, grabs my hand, and pulls me from the leather chair. His credit card gets swiped, then he gets handed a receipt to sign. “Bye, Logan. We won’t be back.”

“Yeah you will. Now that Angie has a taste of my talents, she’ll be back for more.”

“You wish,” he mutters.

“You just better hope that when she does return, it is your name I am tattooing on her ass and not someone else’s.”

I get pulled out of the shop and into the refreshing fall air. “Well, that was fun.”

“Fun?” he asks with confusion.

“Yes. Exhilarating. Let’s go skydiving now.”

Graham looks down at me and smiles. “How about next weekend?” he says with a laugh.

“Graham? Is that you?”

The saccharine sweet voice coming from behind us makes the hairs on my arms stand up. Sophia.

We turn and see her puffing her way down the sidewalk in heels and a long wool trench coat.

“I got another text,” she says, ignoring my presence entirely.

“When?” Graham snaps, taking her phone from her hand. He glances at the screen and tenses. “Dammit.”

“I’m scared,” she whines. “I’m being targeted.”

I can’t tell if she is being sincere or if she is simply trying to get Graham to notice her. “I need you to hang low this weekend,” he directs. “I’ll try to trace the message. And put out feelers.”

“But what happens if my stalker shows up at my apartment?”

“I had the security system installed, remember? You have my cell number and Collins’s. You’ll be safe.”

“You can’t guarantee that and you know it.”

“Just stay put for one weekend, Soph. Your apartment building is a fortress. Nothing bad will happen to you if you stay there. And why are you just wandering the streets? The office is a mile away. Let me drop you back off at your place.”

I stand in silence as if I am invisible. No one looks at me. Sophia doesn’t even acknowledge my presence with a passing glance. I follow Graham to his parked car, and Sophia slides into the front seat before I can even say or do anything. And Graham just allows her to claim it. I move into the backseat and stare out the window. I work at keeping my temper at bay. It’s a short car trip to her place. We are basically neighbors—despite living in different buildings.

“Want to move up front?” Graham calls back to me once Sophia is safely inside the lobby.

“I’m fine.”

He looks back at me through the rearview mirror, and I refuse to make eye contact with him. We are back at our place within minutes. I open my car door and slide out, walking silently beside Graham as we make our way through the parking garage to the elevator.

“You lying to me?”

“Maybe.”

He lets out a sigh. “We are friends, Angela. That is it.”

“You’re blind not to see what is so obvious to anyone watching. How can you be so intuitive on so many other things but miss her infatuation toward you?”

“I have a responsibility toward her. Not only is she my employee, but she has had a string of bad luck happen to her that I feel compelled to fix.”

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