Page 12 of Second Chance for Mr. Alden

He didn’t waste time saying hi. “She’s gone.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “What the fuck do you mean, she’s gone?”

“Alden, dude. She was right here, changing in her suite. I don’t know how she slipped out without me seeing.”

I paced. “You had your eyes on her the whole time.”

“I did.” He hesitated. “Shit.”

“What?” I seethed.

“Fucking, Jess. I bet she had the maid distract me!”

“You were distracted by a piece of ass?” I growled. That didn’t sound like Gage.

“No, asshole. By the cart she dumped on me. I should’ve known something was up.”

I sighed. “What shoes did she wear today?”

“She gave us the slip and you want to know what fucking shoes she was wearing?”

“Gage,” I warned. I hadn’t told Gage about the additional trackers yet.

“The white ones. She said something about matching her swimsuit.”

I let out a relieved breath. It was one of the pairs I’d tagged. I’d been taking special care to note which shoes she wore the most and started with those. Thank God, Jess was a creature of habit. She didn’t think she was, but she had tells she didn’t even know about.

“I’ll go get her. Meet us back at her house. Don’t disappoint me again, Gage or I’ll find someone else.” I’d emphasized numerous times I wasn’t taking chances with Jess’s life.

Over the past few weeks Jess had been trying to convince me the danger had passed. That perhaps she’d misinterpreted what had happened. I didn’t believe she was right. Jess didn’t overreact.

“Understood.” Gage wasn’t one to give me excuses. He knew he fucked up.

Now to deal with Jess. She was going to give me a heart attack or premature gray hair at thirty-five. I ran my fingers down over the sides of my face along my beard.

“What’s going on?” Lexi asked, stepping out of the meeting.

“I’m sorry I had to leave. Did everything go okay?”

She smiled and nodded. “We just have to wait on the approval. Thanks for doing this, Jamie.”

“About that celebratory lunch we were going to take.” I rubbed my forehead. “We need to take a detour on the way back.”

She bumped her arm against me and chuckled. “It’s about Jess. Isn’t it?”

I sighed. “Isn’t it always about Jess? She seems to constantly fight with me about anything that might keep her safe. She snuck away from Gage.”

She hired me to protect her, yet at every turn, she changed the rules about how I could do that.

“Jamie, come on. She’s not a jerk. I bet there’s a really good reason she had to ditch Gage.”

“There isn’t a single good one I can think of.” I tapped a few buttons on my screen until l got to the one I wanted and swore under my breath.

“What?” Lexi tried to peer over my arm.

“I told her no,” I ground out angrily. Fire burned its way up through my belly at Jess’s bold and blatant F-U. I clenched my hand so hard it was surprising my screen didn’t crack.

I wanted to say I was done with Jess, and the only reason I stayed was our agreement that she would help Lexi if I helped her. But truth be told, it wasn’t just about that. It had never been about that. I’d fallen in love with Jess nine years ago and those feelings had never disappeared, nor had my desire to keep her safe.

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