Page 35 of All Tied Up
“A walk will do me good. Even with the questionable air quality.”
The corner of his mouth quirked. “All right then. But keep your eyes open. Stay alert.”
I nodded once. “Will do.”
Glancing around him one more time to see that Arden’s mother was no longer in sight, I sighed a breath of relief and gave Wayne a small wave before heading in the opposite direction.
Sixteen
Ransom
Pacing, I stared down at my phone, watching the tracker I’d put in Noa’s phone and the lining of her wallet. After Wayne had called me to tell me about the visitor she had on the street, I’d escaped to my room so that I could keep tabs on her location.
Fucking Arden was a pain in the ass. Causing more problems. Why couldn’t he disappear properly?! Dammit!
We’d shut up the PI, but I did have a line I wasn’t going to cross, and torturing his mother was on the other side of it. I had to find a way to get her to stop her pursuit of him without doing any bodily harm.
She’d been walking in the direction of her apartment earlier, and she should be there by now.
Zooming in, I looked to see the name of where she had stopped. Swanky Brew—must be a coffee shop. So far, on her outing, she had stopped at a bookstore, two boutiques, Dainty Cakes—which I’d looked up online, and it was a cupcake bakery that had gluten-free items—and now coffee. Part of me was glad she was out of the apartment, but then there was the other part that liked her to stay where I could see her. That was selfish, but my rationality was getting more questionable, the longer I was kept from Noa. If I turned into a full-blown psycho, then it was Linc’s fault—no, make that Blaise’s fault. It would be all their damn fault.
The fucking image of the Ken Doll that wanted what was mine taunted me. I’d blocked his number from her phone, but what if she’d figured it out and unblocked him? Or he could call from another line. I didn’t want to think that she would spend time with that douchebag. Especially since we’d been together three nights ago.
She hadn’t said she loved me, but the way she’d looked at me when I was inside her the other night sure as hell felt like it. I had to leave her while she was sleeping, but it was just easier that way. I wasn’t sure I could do it if she asked me not to go. She had no idea what she would be asking of me, and I was starting to think telling her no would be something I couldn’t do. So, I had slipped away while she slept, but only after lying there, watching her, for three hours. Embedding the sight of her, the smell, the way she felt, curled up against me, into my damn soul. Something to replay when I was going fucking crazy from having to stay away from her.
The necklace I’d left wasn’t an exact replica of the one she described in her book, but when I had gone looking for a necklace like it, I’d found that one instead. It was elegant, beautiful, and flawless. I’d wanted it for her. I hadn’t left a note because, like the other gifts I’d sent her, it held significance from one of her books. I wanted her to realize it and see the meaning behind each gift.
I was regretting not leaving a note now. Unlike the books thatshe’d displayed in her living room, the necklace she’d not even taken out and examined. She’d closed it, cursed at me, and later shoved it in her closet. I’d replayed the video feed of her doing it at least a dozen times, trying to figure out what had triggered her temper. I still wasn’t sure why she was so upset about the necklace, and I couldn’t fucking get away and go fix whatever had upset her. I was under a damn microscope.
Unfortunately, Linc had called a meeting that I didn’t make it to because it was at seven the next morning. I was driving back from the private airstrip in Jackson when the summons came. This was where having Bane cover for me went into play. He did what I’d asked, and it saved my ass, but Linc had been more diligent in keeping tabs on me since then.
Bane’s lie about my going to a strip club in Jackson and waking up in a hotel room, hungover, with two strippers should have been sufficient, but something about it had made Linc suspicious. Since then, he’d had me being watched too damn closely. I wouldn’t have thought he’d question it, coming from Bane, but he had, and I was having to wait the shit out.
She was moving again. Must have gotten a cup to go. I stopped and leaned against the doorframe leading into my en suite while I watched as she headed in the direction of her apartment. She’d had a good outing, and if the tracker was any indication, there had been no other issues since Arden’s mother had shown up to threaten her.
My head snapped up to glare at the door when a knock sounded on it. Who the fuck was bothering me? I was busy, dammit.
“Ransom,” Forge called. “We got business to handle. You, me, and Oz.”
Fucking hell.
“What is it?” I asked, not wanting to stop watching Noa until she was safely back at her place.
“Does it matter? I don’t fuckin’ know. Oz just told me to get you and meet him in the Escalade in ten.”
With a sigh, I watched as she drew closer to the building, then shot Wayne a text to let me know when she was safely inside before shoving my phone back in my pocket. I wasn’t sure how long we’d be gone, and I wasn’t going without a way to check on her. Going to the closet, I took out my black leather jacket, then unzipped the inside hidden pocket and slipped the phone inside.
As much as I didn’t want to be taken away from my freedom to watch Noa, a little violence might help ease all the fucking tension churning inside me. Hopefully, there would be some torture involved.
Climbing into the passenger side of the Escalade, I glanced over at Oz, who was looking at the GPS on his phone in the driver’s seat.
“What are we handling?” I asked.
“Got a few overdue debts. Linc said to go collect,” he replied.
Oz was the family’s bookie in Mississippi. This was a regular thing, but especially after the holidays. Folks overspent, and when it was time to pay up, they were broke. I almost felt sorry for some of them, but Oz vetted most everyone he let into his ring, and they passed the credit test. The stupid bastards should be smarter with their cash.
“We starting low going high, or vice versa?” I asked.
