Page 15 of Finders Keep Her
Chapter Eight
ELLIE
How is it possible that I am sitting across from Ronan eating breakfast right now? This shouldn’t be possible. I might have really lost it in my obsession over Ronan and his thighs. Thighs that are so very close to mine.
My mind races with a million questions, but I am starting to understand why Zero hadn’t been too worried when I called him. He clearly knew what was happening. That makes one of us because I’m still at a loss.
It took me a little bit to get myself together in the bathroom. Not only mentally but appearance-wise as well. I may have pinched myself a dozen times just to make sure I was in reality and not still asleep in the bed of the truck.
Ronan takes a bite of the eggs my dad made for us. His eyes always stay trained on me. What if he’s here to kill me? Why am I only thinking that now? That can’t be it. Cosima would kill Ronan and Zero if they plotted my death. But she might not know.
But then there was the kiss. What the hell was that!
“I’m not going anywhere, so you can eat and stop staring.”
“I’m not staring,” I lie, stabbing my fork into my scrambled eggs.
“I think she is trying to convey the expression 'if looks could kill.' Her mama had that one down. Kept me in my place more than once.”
I can’t help but soften when my dad brings up Mom. I always enjoy hearing him say that I do things she did or that I remind him of her. It makes me still feel a closeness to her.
“I tend to be hard to kill.” Ronan picks up a piece of toast off the pile my dad put in the center of the table, buttering it. He’s so damn nonchalant about the whole thing as though he sits down every day to eat with us. I swear it feels like I’m in some sort of alternate universe.
“All of you are hard to kill or give the slip,” I mutter.
“Strawberry or grape?”
“Grape,” I answer. Not a clue what he’s talking about until he grabs the jelly and puts it on the toast before setting it on my plate.
“You need carbs too.” My dad hides a smirk behind his coffee cup.
“Oh my God, now there are two of you worrying over me and food?” That’s going to be annoying. Okay, another lie. It’s endearing, but I’m not encouraging either of them. Plus, why would Ronan kiss and feed me if he only intended to kill me? None of this makes any damn sense.
“Someone needs to be watching out for you.” Dad pushes back from his chair, standing to take his plate over to the sink. What the hell? All of a sudden he’s all Team Ronan?
“I am one of the most feared hackers in the world, and I need to be taken care of?”
“Yes,” they both answer at the same time.
Well then. I guess they’re going to team up on me. As I take another bite of my food, I start to realize that my dad and Ronan have a number of things in common. Is that weird? Does that mean I have daddy issues?
“Relax,” Ronan says, snapping me out of my own thoughts. I notice my dad is now gone too. “He went to go check on a few things. You get lost in your head like that often?”
“Don’t be doing that stare-at-me-and-assess thing.” I wish I had that ability. I can’t read people for shit.
“So you can watch but I can’t?” My fork pauses almost to my mouth. I can’t help the images that flash through my mind of him pleasuring himself as I did exactly that: watch.Focus, Ellie.
“Is that why you’re here?” I put my fork down. “Are you going to kill me?”
“The last thing I want to do with you, Ellie, is kill you.” His expression turns heated, for once showing some emotion. The man isn’t easy to read.
“Why are you here?”
“Why do you watch me?”
“Hey, I watch interrogation stuff on YouTube, and I know asking a question with a question is full of deceit.” One side of his mouth pulls up, and I think he might smile.
“I’m not hiding anything from you, little fox.” He leans back in his chair, picking up his coffee to take a sip.
