The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 345

Chapter 169-1

་དག

Clao

The Saturday morning air is crisp and biting, but inside the crowded shopping center, it’s all bright lights, holiday music, and the overpowering scent of roasted nuts and cinnamon.

Locke walking through a packed mall in late December is an absolute sight to behold. He’s dressed in a black sweater, dark jeans, and his heavy leather jacket, towering head and shoulders over ninety percent of the shoppers.

People instinctively part like the Red Sea as we walk hand-in-hand down the decorated concourse. Everyone is giving his massive frame a wide berth while he casually holds my small shopping bag in his other giant hand.

I tug on his arm, leaning into his side, my face flushed warm from the indoor heat. “You know, if you stop scowling at the mall Santa, people might stop looking at you like you’re about to rob the place.”

Locke looks down at me. “I’m not scowling, baby. I’m maintaining situational awareness. And that damn Santa looks like he’s high on spiked eggnog.”

I let out a laugh, resting my head against his shoulder for a second as we walk. “He’s just tired, Locke. It’s eleven in the morning on a weekend, and the line of kids to see him stretches into the

next state.”

“Whatever you say,” Locke says, his hand tightening around mine. “So where are we going first? You said you had a mission.”

“We are on a serious quest,” I say, stopping right in the middle of the crowded concourse and turning to face him. “We need to find the pink alpaca.”

Locke stares at me for two seconds. “You’re actually going through with that?”

“Of course I am!” I say, my eyes wide with playful innocence. “I promised to get Mayhem a pink alpaca for Christmas. You agreed that it was a great idea.”

“I said he’d probably shoot it first and then secretly sleep with it under his pillow,” Locke corrects. “I I didn’t think you’d track down an actual physical store in town that sells stuffed animals.”

“sss had a three-week shipping delay, and anyway, I want to see it in person before I buy it,” I say, grabbing his hand and tugging him toward a toy store nestled between a coffee shop and a clothing store. “Come on. If we’re lucky, they’ll have a giant one.”

We step inside the colorful store, which is packed with parents, shouting toddlers, and endless shelves of bright plastic. Locke instantly looks completely out of place standing next to a display

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of pastel dollhouses, his massive leather-clad shoulders nearly taking out a shelf of wooden blocks

as he navigates the narrow aisle behind me.

“Watch your elbow, handsome,” I tease, looking over my shoulder at him.

“I am watching it,” Locke grunts, looking down at a shelf of miniature race cars with deep concentration. “If I break a dollhouse in here, you’re never going to let me live it down. Your Dad

might even kick my ass.”

“Speaking of Dad,” I say, scanning the plush animal section in the back of the store. “What are we actually getting him? He’s impossible to buy for, I’ll have you know. Every time I ask him what he wants, he just says ‘a quiet room and a cold beer.””

“Get him a high-end leather cleaning kit for his boots,” Locke suggests, picking up a tiny stufféd bear between two fingers and looking at it like it’s a tactical grenade. “Or a custom sharpening stone for his hunting knives. The man has six knives and he treats them like his children.”

“He treats me like his child, but yeah, the knives are a close second. A custom sharpening stone is actually a great idea.”

“What about Jade?”

“Jade’s been dropping not-so-subtle hints for a month about a scarf at the high-end boutique, the one next to the tea shop on Jasper Avenue. She’s been raving about a hand-painted gold and emerald one. She said the club bar is too cold and she needs something ‘fabulous’ to keep her

warm.”

“I already had the boutique set it aside in a gold gift box,” Locke says. “I heard her talking about the scarf last week and asked Mayhem if he was getting it for her,”

…

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