SIMON:What makes you think I’m in New York? I did imply I’d returned to Vegas during our previous chat.
A shiver coursed down my spine.
ME:Let me rephrase: as long as you stay away from me, I don’t care.
SIMON:Goddess, why would I stay away from you? You’re my fiancée. I have a vested interest in you.
ME:Whatever. I’m busy. Find someone else to bother.
SIMON:Too busy to discuss the secret I discovered?
ME:I don’t care.
SIMON:If that’s how you want to play it. I think you should go answer your door.
The penthouse elevator doorbell rang, making me freeze.
I glanced at Stevie. “I thought Draco declined the invitation.”
“He did.” Stevie gestured with her head to the security team, and they moved into position along the hallway leading to the front entrance of the suite.
Stevie and I moved to the bar area where we kept the monitors with the feed to view the elevators.
Staring directly at the camera was Simon. As if he had no doubt I was the one watching him at the moment.
He’d come alone.
Another indication he had no fear of the outcome of this night.
Continuing to look at the camera, he typed on his phone and another message pinged on my phone.
SIMON:How about a private game, Goddess?
My heartbeat roared into my ears, and a lightheadedness prickled at the back of my mind.
His lips curved at the corners, giving the camera one last smirk right before he moved to the keypad. He punched in a code, and the lift doors opened.
“You don’t think Draco would have given him the information, do you?” Stevie asked as she set a hand on my shoulder.
“No, he’d never betray me.”
My relationship with Akari and Draco’s granddaughter, Lana, made me an honorary family member, but I’d also helped Draco on a personal project requiring my horticultural skills.
Which could only mean it had to be one of his grandsons. I bet it was Sota.
He still hadn’t gotten over the fact I’d refused to give him his Viper back after he lost it in one of our monthly poker games.
It wasn’t my fault he got cocky and bet the damn thing.
“You’ll handle this,” Stevie tried to reassure me, but we knew no matter how well-meaning her intentions, it was all bullshit.
The elevator doors opened into the penthouse, and I felt all the breath leave my lungs.
A shiver ran down my spine as I heard the deep timbre of his voice say, “I’m here to see my lovely fiancée. I’m sure she won’t mind me observing.”
“Let him pass,” Stevie whispered into her wrist mic.
A few seconds later, Simon came around the corner.