Page 25 of Shadow

“Let me talk to a buddy. I’ll escort you to Vegas in style,” he said with a wink.

“You’re not coming with me.”

He lifted his head to the ceiling and prayed for patience.

“I don’t know what makes you think I’d let you get on a plane and travel all the way across the country without protection. You have a stalker, Olivia. Your security goes with you everywhere.”

She sat up straighter and scooted to the edge of the booth. “I don’t have a stalker. There is no evidence anyone is following me.”

Technically, she was right about the evidence, but he was positive she had a stalker, and this was more dangerous than she was acknowledging. And after she told him that having him around would help her get used to him being home, there was no way in hell he was letting her skip town for days without him.

“Someone set your bar on fire with you in it. He knows where you live. He erased surveillance footage. Even if he’s not actively following you everywhere you go, you have a stalker. And a sophisticated one at that.”

She sighed. “Fine. Can we just finish breakfast, please?”

He picked up his fork and waved it in her direction. “By all means. But you still haven’t let me go over the rules. Don’t think you’re going to get out of hearing them.”

“Let me see if I can guess them.” She held up her hand with outstretched fingers and started counting off rules as she spoke. “No going anywhere without you. I’ve already learned my lesson there. No posting on social media about where I am. We’ve already talked about my social media, so you don’t have to worry about that one. And no arguing with you about something involving my safety. But you’re so easy to argue with, so that might be a hard one for me.”

She stuffed a bite of pancake into her mouth as he raised an eyebrow at her.

“You think you’re pretty cute, don’t you, Liv?”

She’d basically covered all the rules, but he was adding another one, just to annoy her.

“You have to let me drive from now on.”

Her mouth fell open. “That’s so not fair. What if something bad happens and you need to… shoot someone?”

Laughter shook him. “You expect a high-speed shoot-out?”

She huffed. “No. But still. It’s my truck.”

“And I’m the safety expert, and I say that from now on, I’m driving. See rule three.”

She stood and pulled out her wallet. “I’m done with this stupid conversation. I’m going to pay the bill. Are you ready?”

He jumped up and grabbed her wallet from her. “I’ll take care of breakfast.”

She huffed and held out her hand. “Give it back. I pay Peter’s firm to provide security. If you’re working for Peter that means I’m your client. I will not let you buy my breakfast.”

Ripley shrugged and tucked the thick wallet into the front pocket of his jeans. It barely fit, but he didn’t think she would try to get it back since it was sitting perilously close to a certain body part.

He thought wrong.

She shot her hand out and shoved it in his pocket. “Nice try.”

Since he couldn’t get the wallet back from her without making a scene, he turned and sprinted for the counter where he laid his credit card down before she could catch up with him.

“You’re a bastard, Cannon Ripley,” she muttered while she watched with a sullen expression as the server swiped his card.

He laughed and signed the receipt, adding in a generous tip.

“Never claimed to be anything else, baby girl. Let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 8

OLIVIAscowledwhenRipleyheld his hand out for her keys. She’d hoped he was joking about the no driving rule.

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