Page 9 of Crossed By the Stars
Her eyes traveled the length of me before winding back to my face as she said, “You know, it’s sort of frustrating.”
“What?” I almost choked as my body considered all the reasons for her frustration. Were they the same as mine? The need to feel our bodies notched together?
“You sell ten yachts and make more money than Vi and I do selling thousands of products.”
I smiled. “It’s like comparing the sale of a mansion to that of a chair.”
“A top-of-the-line, one-of-a-kind chair.”
I grinned. “Well, yes, but still a chair.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t deny it.
“We have a tail.” Cillian’s cool voice from the front drew both our eyes to him. “We’re going to split up and take some side streets to try and shake them.”
“Is splitting up really wise?” I asked. “If they saw us get into the vehicles, they won’t be distracted by following Jada’s team.”
“Mike, Terrence, and Armando are going to pick us up,” Cillian said. They were members of Reinard Security, who I knew from times when I needed more than just Cillian watching my back.
I turned my head to take in Jada. She was flipping her phone over in her lap. She’d somehow gotten smaller in the two seconds that had passed from her declaring the quality ofViolette’sproducts to now, as if she’d shrunken in on herself.
“I should go home,” she said quietly. “No need to put anyone else at risk.”
“The home that got breached?” I said dryly.
“They won’t care, Armaud,” she said, dropping her voice so Cillian couldn’t hear. “They’ll just shoot their way through whoever is there.”
“So, what are you suggesting? We all should just put you at the front and take ten steps back?” I growled. The thought of her being shot?again?was too much to think about.
Two years ago, her father’s lieutenant had gone rogue when he’d found out she’d been working with Dawson and the FBI. He’d shot her and almost killed Violet and Dawson in the process. When I’d finally gotten to the hospital and seen her looking tiny and frail in the hospital bed, my heart had truly stopped. I’d thought I’d have to have the crash cart applied to my chest.
She’d teased me that day about going soft, but I’d barely been able to speak as I’d taken her in. She’d looked completely opposite from the confident, larger-than-life Jada Mori I’dknown. She’d looked frail in a way she’d never once looked at any moment in the years I’d known her.
Her fragility had overwhelmed me. The knowledge that I hadn’t been at her side when it had all gone down, because I was throwing a childish tantrum, had filled me with guilt. I’d left the party she’d held for Dawson and me early because she was dancing with Malik, the Russian scum who used to procure her tranquilizers. I’d left because she’d had an engagement ring on her finger… a ring tying her not only to the man who’d shot her but also to the entire criminal syndicate her father headed. The one my family hated with a deep and unyielding force and secrets that not even Jada knew about. Seeing her recovering from the bullet hole her fiancé had put in her, I’d been pushed into action. I’d promised myself I’d never abandon her to assholes again. And yet, I still had…my duty to my family had won out once again.
Now, waiting for her to respond after basically agreeing to put herself in the line of fire to save others, my heart clenched tightly. I gritted my teeth and said, “You act like you deserve this. Like it’s inevitable. As if you want it to happen.”
Her face flamed, shoulders springing back, chin lifting. “I don’t want to die. It’s the second time you’ve suggested it today. Stop.”
“Giving in to them is the same, isn’t it?” I pushed. Her fire grew with every word I spoke, and I was happy to see it. I wanted her to remember the self-assured thirteen-year-old she’d been when we first met, turning my fifteen-year-old body into a stumbling, uncouth pile of hormones.
“Giving in and keeping people safe isn’t the same thing,” she said.
“It’stheirjob to keepyousafe,” I reminded her. “It’s what you’re paying them for.”
We pulled down an alley that dropped us at the back ofEn Feu. Another black vehicle pulled in behind us, and Cillian’s teammates emerged. They opened my passenger door, and I got out, giving Jada my hand. She took it, and I felt a tremor run through her. I wasn’t sure if it was from our bodies colliding, the car following us, or the warning she’d been given with a bloody image accompanying it.
We stepped inside the restaurant’s kitchen and were met by a fluttering butterfly of a man, Ilan, who was the owner. He air-kissed Jada, repeated it with me, and then led us to a booth at the back of the restaurant. With our entourage of bodyguards, it was hard to blend in, and we drew eyes and whispers.Neither Jada nor I were celebrities that the Americans seemed to worship like the British did their royal family, but we were well-known by the gossip rags and the media. We were interesting if not worship-worthy.
Jada slid into the dark leather booth, and I followed.
“Ordering or letting us pick for you tonight?” Ilan asked. His thin, goatee-lined face was full of eagerness.
“I’ll always trust you to know what I like, Ilan,” I answered.
He grinned and hurried away, leaving us in silence that the quiet murmur of the candlelit restaurant didn’t quite fill.
Rana and her team entered from the front entrance and weaved through the tables littered with silver-rimmed china and cut-glass crystal to join us. It drew even more eyes our way.
