Page 25 of French Escapade

I shrug and hurry to the car. Élodie has taken the hand Ted offered to help her climb into her seat. Her dress is pretty, but not the best thing for acrobatics.

Jimmy and I take the back seat.

“Belts on,” Ted orders. “It would be annoying to get arrested for a traffic violation with everything we have in the back.”

“What’s in the back?” Élodie asks. “No! Don’t tell me. It’s better if I don’t know.”

“You didn’t want us to enter the lion's den naked, did you?” Ted asks.

“Of course not!” she protests.

“There you go. If things go south they can fight back.”

Élodie turns towards us. “But, let me be clear—” she starts solemnly.

Without giving her a chance to finish her sentence, I reassure her. “We just want to save Madison, so I promise that even though I would love to teach Arkady a lesson, I won’t lay a hand on him, unless he stands in my way.”

What I keep to myself is that I hope he will. Nothing would make me happier than to rearrange his face. If I get half a chance, I’ll make sure he’s no longer able to seduce naive, innocent girls by making them believe he’s Prince Charming.

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