Page 55 of Midnight Torment

My little lace panties were a bit too tight after that growl, and the dampness in them wasn’t due to the humidity of the weather.

We moved effortlessly through the market, deliberately stopping to look at stalls as if we were tourists. Jordan even bought some of the stuff he told me off for buying, all the time covertly watching up and down the street. Johannes acted like a guide, trying to talk us into buying from different vendors.

I spotted the man who’d been following me, tightening my grip on Jordan, and discreetly nodding in his direction. He moved through the crowds, never once looking at any of the stalls.

“Stay here,” Jordan commanded, giving Johannes a death glare before stalking in the direction of the man.

“Shall we buy some presents?” Johannes asked with a mischievous grin. “Come.”

“Jordan said to stay,” I pointed out.

“We’ll be back before he is.” I was kicking myself for following him until we arrived at a stall in a relatively quiet corner filled with crystals and all things shiny. “These are more like you than the wooden animals.”

Jordan would kill me for all the extra weight in the luggage, but this was my first real holiday and I was determined to collect memories in little trinkets. I bought a small chess board beautifully crafted in different woods to create the light and dark, and I chose a chess set in deep amethyst and quartz. I added other crystal treasures to my purchases.

I didn’t even argue with the vendor when I finished shopping. What was the point? Jordan had handed me a lot of cash when we arrived and told me to spend it on whatever I wanted. These people were sitting in the scorching hot sun every day to try and make a living.

“Wait.” The vendor called me back to press a deep red stone carved into a rose into my hand. “This is for you, to protect you from evil and allow you to see the truth.”

“Thank you so much.” I hadn’t seen anything like it on display on the stall.

Her head tilted to the side as if she was listening to someone. “He loves you more than you know and will sacrifice himself for you. When the time comes, you must help him find his way back to the light.”

Her words confused me and left me more than a little afraid. Anything to do with psychic stuff tended to send shivers racing up my spine. Even watching a ghost story had the same result.

“Adaora likes you,” Johannes said as he led me back to where Jordan left us. “She is a powerful medicine woman who reads auras. Keep the stone with you at all times since she carves them herself and imbues them with her magic.”

I didn’t believe in anything like that, but I didn’t want to offend him since he seemed very determined. “Thank you.” I slipped it into the pocket of my long, flowing trousers.

Even though I didn’t believe in magic or mysticism, I couldn’t stop the shiver of fear that rippled down my spine, because I did believe in good and bad. That man today had spooked me, and it terrified me that someone out there could take Jordan from me. I had gotten him back after our past mistakes, but no one returned from the grave.

***

Chapter Eighteen

Jordan

I zeroed in on the stupid fucker with a death wish who followed the wrong woman today. He was quite clearly still searching for her, and stopped at the corner of an alley to make a phone call.

“Yeah, she definitely looked like the woman in the photograph. I doubt there are too many women like that.”

He got that right. Johannes had been right earlier as well. She was way out of my league, and it didn’t matter that I was a billionaire. Megan exuded a purity because she saw the best in everyone.

“She darted in and out of shops. I was trying to keep watch, but she never stayed still long enough to grab her.”

Thank God I had made Caine train her in counter manoeuvres to outwit anyone following her. I’d watched them from a distance in London to see how many of the men tracking her that she noticed. She improved every time she’d been out.

“No, no sign of him, and I can’t imagine he’d let her wander around alone, so maybe she wasn’t the girl from the photograph with him. Yeah, I’ll let you know if I see her again, although she could be anywhere now.”

I’d moved into position behind him while he was distracted on the phone and waited until he hung up. My arm slipped around his neck and my other hand snapped into position to hold pressure on his throat while I dragged him into the shadows. His phone fell to the ground, still open for me to have a quick search through. I tilted his head up and increased the pressure. He tried to struggle but by the time he realised what was happening, it was already too late.

His fingers tried to prise my arm away. His feet and legs were useless in the fight since I had his body tipped back. I never said a single word. At this angle, there would be little to no bruising on his body, no sign of an attack, and the pathologist would probably rule it a heart attack since right now his heart and lungs were struggling to work.

His movements became sluggish, his efforts dwindling, until all fight drained from him. I sustained pressure for another few moments to make sure he was dead. After I propped him up against a wall, I felt for a pulse, and lifted his phone.

An alert message had been sent out with photographs of Xavier and Cassandra, Ash and Lucrezia, and me and Megan. Each of us had a value attached, and I didn’t know whether to be impressed or annoyed that our bounty was the highest.

I snapped photographs of the images to send home, including the phone number that had sent the alert. If I was home, I would have kept his phone, but I couldn’t risk it, so I took what I could off it, wiped it clean, and put it in his pocket. Then I moved his hand to his throat to make it look as if he’d been holding it before he slumped down the wall. I photographed the cards and identification in his wallet before replacing it as well. The last photographs were his fingerprints and face.

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