Page 43 of Shock

“Oh, thank God.” I straighten out and stretch out to relieve the ache in my muscles.

“How long?” She tosses the knife, embedding it in the nightstand.

“A year or so. It started off just making sure you got home ok. I never liked the idea of you riding by yourself. But then when they fired you…” I trail off, not because I’m ashamed but because I just can’t stand not having her in my arms for another second.

“Bella, I need to see you. I couldn’t live without knowing you were ok. I was going to tell you every thing at dinner, but you rain-checked me.” I stand and walk to her slowly so she can stop my approach if she wants to, but as soon as I open my arms, she falls into them.

“Thank Christ,” I whisper as I kiss her head, temple, cheeks, and anywhere else I can reach with my lips.

“I never felt unsafe, you know. It was just mildly irritating that someone was following me.” I chuckle cause if this is how she treats a mild irritation, then the rest of my life is going to be interesting.

“Anything else you want to confess? I hate surprises, Diego, so get all out now.” I nod and sit her on her bed.

I kneel in front of her and hold her hands, mainly out of precaution but also because I need to feel her skin on my own.

“I may have broken into your security system and planted a tracker on you.” Her eyes bulge out.

“You got into our system?” She laughs and pulls out her phone.

“Hannah Banana, what can I do for you?” A voice fills the room on speakerphone.

“You’re a hack, and it’s time to retire!” She grins at the phone.

“Try again,” the guy orders, but Hannah’s glee will not be outmatched.

“Abel, I’m sitting next to my stalker, who has just admitted to hacking your ass.” The line goes quiet, and Hannah frowns.

“Hello?” The man on the phone finally chuckles.

“Hello, my good Doctor. My name is Abel Brooks, VP of the Paradise chapter. I’d like to congratulate you.” I look at Hannah, and she shrugs.

“Thank you? But may I ask for what?” His manic laughter makes me wonder about his sanity.

“You avoid her catching you longer than I thought. Do you know how hard it was to let you into my system?” What?

Oscar is very fucking good with computers. He handles our bookings on the dark web. He’s been into gaming, coding, and anything tech-related since he was a teenager. So when he said he got in no issue, I never dreamed of questioning it.

“You let us in? But why?” Hannah’s good mood fades as she realizes Abel somehow knew, and she can’t rub it in.

“I have never seen anyone so determined to cover their tracks. It was too clean of a job. He left no calling card to follow, no breadcrumbs to trace. I wanted to see where he went. You tell Oscar not to try so hard next time. I enjoyed the challenge. Oh, and Hannah?” She snaps out of her thoughts when she hears her name.

“Yeah,” she says softly.

“He’s gone to a lot of trouble to keep an eye on you. Especially when you’re showering. Later.” The fucker hangs up with that little tidbit, and I swear on my mother’s grave that if I ever meet the man, I’m going to lobotomizehim.

“YOU PUT A CAMERA IN MY SHOWER?!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

SHOCK

“Hannah, shut up,”He cups my face in both his hands and kisses me through my protest.

“I…an’t…lieve….ou...mmm” I bite him to get him to listen.

He just growls and deepens the kiss until I’m too fucking hot and bothered to stop him. If he plans on ending all our arguments like this, I may just give him forever.

I’ll never admit it out loud to him, though.

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