Leander’s eyebrows furrow. “Why? Did I say something when I was drunk?”
“No,” I answer.
Well, that worried him. Did he say something?
“You just sounded lonely,” I say. “And a bit lost, to be honest.”
“I did?”
I nod.
He eats his last dumpling. “Well, people say a lot of things when they’re drunk.”
Yeah. Usually true things.
“You also seemed to be angry with Mason,” I add.
Again, his guard goes up. “What exactly did I say?”
I try to recall the conversation. Hard to do. It seems to have been eclipsed by the conversation I had with Mason right afterward.
“Something about Mason being selfish,” I say. “You said it was his fault you got mugged.”
“I did?”
I nod.
Leander sits back and taps his fingers on the table. “I said I was mugged?”
No. He said he fell, but since he doesn’t remember, I decide to use his fuzzy memory to my advantage.
“Yeah.”
He touches his beard. “Hm.”
“You don’t remember what happened to you?” I ask him.
He drinks water, then shakes his head. “No. But I don’t think I was mugged. Are there muggers in Eastport now?”
He has a point. But if he wasn’t mugged, who beat him to a pulp? Because yes, he was beaten to a pulp. And why won’t he admit it? Because he’s ashamed of it? Because he’s covering up for someone?
I lean forward. “Leander, I really want to help you.”
He was amazing once. I know he’s been knocked off his pedestal, but he doesn’t have to sink any further. I don’t want him to.
“Really?” he asks me.
I nod. “Really.”
He grins. “Well, that’s sweet. Then again, you’ve always been sweet towards me, haven’t you?”
This time, he leans forward, placing his arms on the table. I lean back because he’s too close.
“Hey, you gave me a Valentine card once, right?”
“Yes.”
“What? Did you have a crush on me?”
My eyebrows rise. Is he seriously asking me this?
Oh, right. He never noticed it, either. I’m not the only one who was oblivious to someone else’s feelings.
“Yeah,” I admit.
It’s over now anyway.
“But I outgrew it.”
“That’s too bad,” Leander says.
Whoa. He’s not flirting with me, is he?
“Because I’ve only noticed now that you have such beautiful eyes.”
What?
Before I can react – I’m not sure I know how – Leander reaches across the table and brushes some tendrils of hair off my cheek.
“Leander, I…”
Suddenly, I catch a whiff of something flowery. And strong.
I glance down and realize that Leander has something in his hand. A bottle? I don’t know what it contains, but whatever it is, it’s making me dizzy. Sleepy.
I think I’m going to faint again.
My vision blurs. My heavy head falls on the table. As I hear the thud, a final thought goes through my head.
Maybe I shouldn’t trust any man with the last name Burke.
Chapter Twenty-Six ~ Taken
Mason
“What do you mean you lost my wife?” I ask the two men in front of me as I beat my fists on my desk. “Weren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on her?”
Ever since the attempt on my life, I’ve hired bodyguards to watch over Aster when she’s not in the apartment. Even when she left DC, they followed her, watching from a distance. Even after Owens was taken care of, I didn’t call them back, just to be safe. I thought they’d keep Aster safe. At least, they were supposed to.
This is why I have a security system installed in the building instead of posting guards on every floor. Computers can be trusted to do what they’re supposed to do. Humans? They slip up sometimes, like what just happened.
“You had one task,” I tell them. “Watch over my wife and keep her safe. And now you’re saying she’s gone? Where the hell is she?”
I’m furious, yes, but more than that, I’m worried about Aster. I’m scared because I don’t know who has her or where she is. The fact that her phone has been turned off is not a good sign.
“She was in a cafe on 14th Street,” the heftier of the two men in front of me says. “But she left because a man approached her. We were going to step in, but she went with him and it didn’t look like he was forcing her. It looked like she knew him. Then they went into an antiques shop. After two hours, she didn’t come out. Rob and I went in and she wasn’t there.”
“We asked around, but nobody knew what happened to her or even claimed to have seen her,” Rob says. “It was as if she was never there.”
Impossible. They’re lying, which means they’re in on the abduction.
“Did you search the place?” I ask.
“Yes. We discovered an exit on the other side that led to a different alley.”
It’s likely that whoever took Aster brought her out through there.
“Have someone keep an eye on that shop, both front and back,” I order. “Keep track of everyone who comes and goes.”