Page 79 of Stitched Up in You
“Bernadette isn’t leaving this house,” Frank growls.
They’re talking about me. I get to my feet, my brows furrowing as I walk into the nearby dining room. Frank sits at the head of the table, a scowl pulling across his face as I walk inside.
He might as well be dressed in his normal three-piece suits and not the dressed-down jogging outfit he’s wearing with how he seems to preside over the dining room like it’s a boardroom.
I notice two new faces, men I haven’t met before who look to be in their mid-twenties, along with Mikael, Nero, and Bruno, who sit on the opposite side of the table in their monotonous black.
Bruno smirks while the others gape at me like I’m a freak show and they don’t know how to react.
“I heard my name,” I say, and it’s like the times in the movies where you can hear a pin drop.
I glance around the table filled with people, trying not to remember how Frank blew my mind sitting in that very seat not long ago. Has it really only been a few days?
“What’s going on?” I ask, meeting his gaze.
A muscle ticks in his jaw, but he doesn’t answer.
“There’s a gala tomorrow night we need you to attend,” Mikael says, responding for him.
“I told you she’s not going,” Frank states, scowling at Mikael.
“Not going where? What gala?” I ask.
“The one celebrating your engagement,” Mikael says.
Oh shit. I wince at Frank, feeling a bit sheepish now while his face seems to turn into a thundercloud, and a wave of nausea pulses in my middle.
“I, for one, can’t wait. I hear all the media outlets are going to be there, even SupTV,” Bruno says, leaning back in his chair.
“Your dress for the occasion is waiting in the parlor room,” Mikael says.
“There’s already a dress? Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on? I’m starting to get a headache,” I say, stepping further into the room and falling into the empty chair next to Bruno.
“We can all see what’s happening between the two of you, Frank, and I realize now why you’re so concerned, but shehas togo. It’s the only way the plan works. While you’ve been holed up away from the world, the team has been hard at work taking back what was stolen from Talbot using the informationshefound. We still need her to find who has the rest,” Mikael says, balling his fist on the table as he glares at Frank.
My tummy does a flip as I’m not sure what’s happening between Frank and me, as my mind snags on one detail. “Did you find those shipments?” I ask, wishing I’d thought to ask what was in them before.
I know better than most that billionaires are weird with their money. One of my grandmother’s wealthier friends was known for traveling the world with a line of servants behind her and famously traveled with shipping containers filled with her bedroom suite and living room furniture. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on lugging the contents of a house around with her while she picked out which continent she wanted to live on. It just never occurred to me to ask when Frank interrogated me that first night.
“They found them all but one container,” Frank says, his gaze boring into mine.
If anyone is shocked that Frank already let me in on the shipments and things, no one says anything. An image of the glowing blue flower in a shiny glass comes to mind, and I recall how he mentioned they’re toxic to humans, chills racking up my spine.
“Oh my god,” I mumble.It’s my fault they took it.
A sense of security washes over me the next instant, and my brows pull into a frown as I gaze up at Frank at the head of the table.
Mikael clears his throat, stealing my attention away. “It seems it was the company owner’s idea to hack our securitysystem and steal information for his new startup idea. Our largest issue is that he stupidly shared the formula with his shareholders to get the backing he needed,” he says.
“What does the formula do?” I ask him.
“The effects are euphoric for the first few weeks, and the aging reversal is almost instantaneous, but the humans are left with only months to live after ingestion,” he says.
Too bad it wasn’t one of the horny ones. My stomach flips in response at the thought I could be responsible for people dying. “Right, okay. I get why we have to track down these guys, but an engagement party? We’re not even really engaged,” I announce to the table, frowning when Nero snickers.
“We know,” Mikael says.
“For all intents and purposes, we are engaged,” Frank articulates, his tone of voice full of possessiveness sending shivers down my spine.
