Page 102 of Ewan

“Yes, I was.”

His leniency toward me has just about been consumed, and he squares his shoulders and tilts his head back, his arms crossed over his chest.

“So why are you here then?” he asks, not in an amicable tone.

I’m not blaming him for being upset. I’d also be if I were him. Besides, he’s right. I was following him.

So what should I tell him?

“I was walking in the park when I realized I needed to use the bathroom and headed inside to look for a restroom, so here I am.”

“So, it just happened that you were here?”

“Yes. You just happened to be here, too.”

His eyebrows tilt.

“Have you been following me?”

My eyes slide from his handsome face to his inked hands. And suddenly, I realize I have nothing to lose.

What can I say? I’m busted.

There’s no point in denying it.

I lift my eyes. He’s waiting patiently.

“Yes, I’ve been following you. I didn’t know you’d be here, but I saw you from across the street and wanted to know where you were headed. I noticed you had men with you, like that night at the restaurant. And then there was something else…”

My friend told me you are a mobster.

The last few words never make it to my lips.

“Yes?”

“Nothing. That’s it,” I say resolutely.

I learned this trick from my pupils. Colley does that a lot. Once he makes up his mind on something, there’s no way I can extract more information from him.

Colley might get away with it, but Ewan has none of it.

He closes the space between us and slowly unfolds his arms.

“Why are you here, Scarlett?”

His face is tilted down, his eyes waiting for something good to come from me, and my joy morphs into sadness.

I don’t have anything good to tell him. I was spying on him because I was as suspicious of him as he is of me right now.

It pains me to say the next words, but I’m doing it anyway.

“Someone had warned me about you,” I say, and his eyes dip, evading my scrutiny, before coming back to mine.

“What are you talking about?”

I notice the tension threaded through his eyes, and more than ever now, I know he’s hiding something from me.

Can I even ask him to be truthful with me?

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