Page 81 of Their Arrangement

---

Said nothing.

Didn’t look away.

Loyal passed through the bullpen, file in hand.

Didn’t speak.

Didn’t pause.

But his gaze lingered.

Right at the bow.

Still tied.

Still his.

And he knew it.

Wolfe was across the room, half-shadowed in his glass corner. Pretending to read something I knew he wasn’t seeing.

His jaw was tight.

Fingers tapping.

He hadn’t looked at me since the elevator.

But every time I moved, I felt the echo of his gaze.

And Royal?

Royal wasn’t watching from afar.

He was perched at the edge of the shared table, legs stretched, phone in one hand, sipping coffee like I was scenery.

But when I turned, he wasalready watching.

Grinning.

Not a smirk.

Something else.

They don’t know what to do with you now, sweetheart.

The words weren’t spoken.

But I felt them in the look.

I turned back to my screen.

Opened a new file.

Started typing something that didn’t matter.

Because what mattered now?—

Was who was watching me.

---