Page 127 of Tempting Little Thief

She gapes at me. “How do you know that?”

“Put a few things together.” With the help of Delta, but I don’t tell her that. “What’s this got to do with you? He comin’ for her?”

“He should. It’s the ultimate disrespect to the Fikile name to make a deal and back out of it.”

Fikile, need to remember that.

“My dad says he has no idea she’s gone, but it’s beenweekssince she came home, and we can’t find any movement on him.Bronx said he’s in Costa Rica, so my dad must know this, but it doesn’t make sense. Enzo’s people would have called and told him. He would have come. The only reason she’s back at Greyson Manor is that my dad thinks he won’t step onto the grounds. And now he’s got her back at Greyson Elite with every other asshole who probably already told their parents all about her returning. And now people are wondering what the hell’s going on being the gala is two days from now, and that’s probably why he’s here looking for me right now unless something else happened he hasn’t told me and—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, chill, baby.” I reach over, squeezing her thigh. “Slow down. So you think this Enzo Fikile wants to send a message, show no one can fuck him and get away with it?”

“That’s exactly what he will want,” she says, so fucking sure.

“What if he just wants his girl back?”

She gapes at me, her expression clearly saying,Did you seriously just say that right now?

Popping a shoulder, I face the road. “That’s all I’d want. I’d want you and I’d come fucking find you.”

She’s quiet, so I take a quick glance.

“Keep talking,” I tell her.

She rolls her eyes. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

“So you think your dad’s hiding something from you? Am I getting that right?”

“He has to be.”

“What reason would he have to do that?”

“I don’t know.” She drops her head back with a huff. “I have gone over it a thousand times in my head, with the girls, with—” she cuts herself off, eyes snapping my way briefly. “Dom and the others. My sister won’t say anything other than she was ignored by his staff, and supposedly, no one even looked at her, so she’s fully convinced no one would notice—foolish girl is convinced she’s invisible and not worth other’s time or something.” She mumbles the last part, more to herself than me. “She says they brought her food, but she hada fully stocked kitchen in the wing where he put her, so she thinks because of that, it covers those being left untouched. Who knows.” She lifts one shoulder, looking out the side window, her tone betraying the words that leave her next. “Maybe she’s right.”

We’re both left to our own thoughts the last couple minutes of the drive and then she’s telling me to pull up behind a black town car. Kylo hops out, running back this way, his dark hair flopping all over the place.

“Your guard.” My mind is running. “Do you trust him, too?”

Rocklin nods, reaching up to touch my face as Kylo waits outside the door, eyes bouncing around like a good guard dog. “He’s the only reason I am able to be here. He trusts me and my judgment.”

“Why you whispering, Rich Girl?” My tone is sharp, something clawing at my chest.

The corner of her mouth lifts, but it’s not a smile I want to see. “I might not see you … for a while, depending on what’s going on. He’ll have me on lockdown.”

“He can’t keep you from me.”

“Security will be insane.”

I don’t say anything. I let her say what she feels the need to say and when the lights of the town car turn on, Kylo opens the door.

Her thumb strokes my cheek once, and then she climbs out, sliding in the back seat of the car in front of us, a guy that ain’t me sliding in beside her because he’s part of whatever’s going on and I’m not.

I glare at the road as I peel out, the fucking canyon between our worlds getting real fucking old, real fucking fast.

My eyes flash to the driver, but the windows are so black I can’t see anything beyond the ratty reflection of my rusty Cutlass, worth less than the cost of the paint job of the mirrored car.

If he’s her guard, the man who swore to protect her and keep her safe … why haven’t I ever seen him? Where is he when I’m creeping at night or checking up on her from a distance?

Where was he when she ran out of the school to come to me and where was he today?

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