Page 25 of Tempt Me
“Where are you going?”
Rue pulls her dark sunglasses down and peers over the top of them, giving me that cool gaze that lights the fire of desire in me.
“Work.”
That one word, said clipped and sexy, hits my panic button.
“You’re not leaving.”
“Have to. Parents orders, and all that.”
Her challenging stare angers me. She is better than this. She has fire and passion; she has fight and courage. She doesn’t need to be ordered around by her parents anymore. I don’t understand why she takes it.
“You’re in danger.”
“Won’t be the last time, so I’m going. Besides, I have Luca and Jez with me.”
Giving the two security guards the stink-eye, I don’t trust them with her life. “Give me an hour to talk to the staff and then I’ll take you.”
“No. You stay here and do that; I’ll be at the Town Hall.” She turns as Luca opens the back door of the sparkling Range Rover sitting in the driveway. Glaring at it momentarily, I realize it’s been cleaned up since our muddy race down the mountain, but the indentation where we hit McFarlane is still there. I’ve no doubt it will be gone by the time I see the vehicle again.
“We need to get going or hit the traffic, Misty,” Luca murmurs, placing his hand possessively on her back as she slips into the car without another word.
“Misty?” I growl. Why does he call her Misty?
He gives me a superior glare which agitates me, but there is nothing I can do about her leaving, without causing a massive scene and taking out two of her security team while I’m at it. Watching them drive off with narrowed eyes, I decide to get on with this interrogation and then head to the Town Hall myself to see Rue home.
Scanning the garden for any signs of something off-kilter, a clue that could point me in the right direction, I see the gardener trimming the bushes on the far side of the lawn.
Striding over, I bark, "Have you seen anyone suspicious hanging around here lately?"
The gardener looks up from his work with a frown at my rudeness, but I don’t have time for pleasantries. Not when Rue has just placed a timeline on this shitshow by leaving the confines of the villa.
He hesitates, fidgeting with his shears. But then he nods slowly. "Yes," he says finally. "I've seen someone like that."
Surprised that it was that easy, or at least, that I didn’t have to pound heads, I urge him to continue. "Describe him.”
"He was tall and wore a dark cloak with a hood," the young man replies, his voice barely above a whisper. "And there was something odd about the bundle he was carrying."
“When was this? What do you mean by odd?”
“Yesterday evening, as I was leaving. I was going to mention it…” He trails off at my low growl of annoyance. But I take a deep breath. He’s the gardener, a young man in his early twenties. Security isn’t his business.
“Package?”
“It was draped in a blanket. Like a square shape.”
The box?
But the box arrived with the tiara in it, so whoever it was must’ve got into the house first. How? How did any of this happen on my watch?
The penny drops quite suddenly. It didn’t happen on my watch because I was fucking about with Rue up a mountain in a downpour.
“Where did you see him?”
“He was outside the gate, sort of lingering, but I thought he was just delivering a package. I didn’t think anything of it until just now.”
“So you weren’t going to mention it?”
