Page 86 of Desperate People

Cora nudges me. “Go on, then. Make that man regret wearing a tie.”

I laugh, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye. “I love you.”

“I know,” she says smugly. “Now go show your husband what a good decision he made.”

She leaves to go dance with one of our cousins, and I take a deep breath, watching as Balor straightens and stares at me.

Then, I start to move towards him. Towards our future. Towards us.

Chapter Nineteen-Balor

Whisking my wife—my wife—of six hours and twenty-four minutes away on a private jet seemed like the only way to start this thing right.

Technically, the plane is on loan from her father, but I’m the only one who knows the flight plan along with the pilot.

This here is for us now. Just us.

She’s mine.

And I want her—all of her—far away from everything and everyone that could hurt her.

Especially the threats.

The noise.

The endless, suffocating press.

And the stalker.

The one we still haven’t caught.

Oh, I’m working on it. Harder than I’ve ever worked on anything.

I’ve crossed names off my list—one by one—like a merciless executioner.

That sleazy agent, Henry Bartleby, who got obsessed with my woman, sending her offers, sniffing around her life like he owns it?

Gone.

I made sure of that.

The trainer at her gym who stared a little too long, followed her a little too close?

Yeah, I caught him. And no, he doesn’t work there no more.

The delivery guy from the grocery store who sobbed and ran for the hills after I gave him one hard look?

Out of the picture too.

But none of those assholes fit the bill.

So yeah, the hunt continues.

I’m tracking every digital footprint.

Every suspicious IP address pinging our servers. Every frame of security footage. Even the ones that were deleted before anyone else knew they existed.

But this bastard is slick—too slick.

---