Page 33 of Love Me

I put them back in and close the safe. I am efficient, but most of all, I won’t leave a job unfinished. For all his talk, Hunter is not the risk-taker I am. It’s the only reason I’m here, and he’s not.

I watch the movements of the guards. I have ten seconds to move from one point to the other unnoticed. That’s a narrow time frame, but I’ve been in trickier situations.

“That was training. Getting caught in there will ruin everything,” he says what I am thinking, loving to make a point.

Light on my feet, I run from one corner to the other until I am in the thick forest, just a shadow among shadows.

I yank off the goggles once in my car, then unmute my earpiece.

“Fuck, you always do this,” Hunter says.

Turning on the ignition, I call my father.

“I think I found something.”

“I am at the house, meet me there.”

“On my way.”

“Make sure no one follows you.”

“Always.”

I put the car in reverse and drive away, analyzing every vehicle passing me. Only a bike lingered on my tail longer, but that must be my paranoia. No one I know drives a bike.

After a fifteen-minute drive, I reach the two-story mansion where Cillian, the elusive director of the Preston School in England—a troubled rich kids’ private school—is staying. At the top of the stairs, he waits for me. Worry is etched in the corners of his eyes. Cillian greets me, and I hug him back.

Hunter’s engine revs, only to come to an abrupt halt. The way he is driving, breathing, how he holds himself, I know his precise state of mind.

“You could have gotten caught,” he says, frustration thick in his voice.

“Yet here I am.”

He jams his finger into my chest.

“Follow orders.”

I wave my phone in his face. “If I followed your orders, we wouldn’t have these.”

“Let’s get inside,” Cillian says.

Inside the office, I see my father. After a brief hug, he plucks my phone from my hand and gets to work. On the projector, the screen fills with pictures of the property noted on the document.

“Felix must be keeping her there,” my father says.

Hunter and I exchange a glance.

Cillian squeezes my father’s shoulder and says, “You’ll be reunited soon.”

“At times, I don’t know who’s more gaga,” Hunter whispers.

I tip my chin in confirmation, and he continues. “It’s not that I don’t trust your abilities, but I worry. If it’s between you and this mission, I will always choose you.”

“I’ll be more careful,” I add quickly.

Hunter is family and I would do the same because losing him would be like losing a part of myself I would never get back. I have lost too much already.

“I received an invitation for a charity gala at the mansion. They asked me to attend with my best students… and Felix will be there,” Cillian adds.

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