Page 3 of No Control
She’s fucking engaged.
I sit in my rented black Tahoe, staring at the steering wheel, anger burning in my chest. With all the research, time spent, and all the long sleepless nights of studying Lydia, I never knew the woman was betrothed to someone else.
And this is a big problem. Huge problem.
Because while I’m the kind of man who gets what I want, there are some lines that I’ll never cross—and being a homewrecker is one of them. But, the painful thought of Lydia’s body being touched by another man, threatens to initiate the darkest side of me. And to add to such murderous temptations, she’s engaged to him. There’s a fucking rock on her hand.
How was this missed?
Pulling out my phone, I scroll to Jude’s name, clicking it without a second of hesitation. I listen to it ring in my ear, my eyes focused on the exit of the coffee shop. Lydia still hasn’t left, and as I check my watch, I see that it’s been eleven minutes since I abandoned her at the booth.
“Hey,” Jude’s voice grates my nerves. “How’d it go?
Mission accomplished?”
“She’s engaged.”
“Yeah?”
“What do you mean, yeah?” I growl, gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. “I gave you one job, Jude. One. Fucking. Job.”
“And I did it? Just like always?”
“I asked for everything on her.”
“Yeah...”
“So why did you fail to add that?”
“I didn’t.”
“It’s not in the file,” I sneer, losing my patience.
“It’s not? Aw shit, hang on then. It should’ve been in the digital file...” His voice trails off, replaced by the incessant clicking of his fingers on a keyboard. It would be annoying, but lucky for me, I’m given the best distraction yet as Lydia steps out of the coffee shop…
And appears more paranoid than an amateur drug mule.
Her blonde hair hits just below her shoulders, though the winds whip it violently around her face. I bite my lip as I imagine that hair fisted in my hand, the strands cutting off the circulation of my fingers. Lydia glances around the area before damn near running to her SUV, parked right out front.
Shit.
I knew I’d gotten under her skin, but I hadn’t been out to terrify her—not yet, anyway.
“Damnit, Henry, I’m sorry,” Jude groans. “I put it in the wrong file.”
“Big mistake for the best hacker I know.” I grit my teeth, wishing like hell Lydia’s windows weren’t tinted so darkly. She’s clearly the kind of woman who doesn’t like eyes on her…
But she’s never getting rid of mine.
“I’m sending it over now. What’s the payout on her? Hopefully I didn’t screw that up for you. I didn’t even get the link—I didn’t think we took on women, anyway.”
I blink for a moment, not registering his question as Lydia backs out of the parking spot. “I’m going to put you on speaker.” I shift the call to the Bluetooth system of the rental, and then pull away from the curb, following Lydia at a good distance. I let a few cars get in between us.
It’s better not to add to her newly developed paranoia.
“Henry?” Jude’s voice plays over the loudspeaker.
“Yeah?”
