Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47

“But someone got through?” I pressed.

“Not really. The son of one of them.” He looked at his hands briefly, then back at me. “Sparrow believes he has been waiting. Watching. And now that I have shown my face publicly for the first time, he has made his move.”

I sat with that for a moment.

“So what happens now?” I asked. “What measures?”

“I will need to appear less in public until the threat is neutralized.” He paused. “And we will need to stay away from each other for now.”

I looked at him.

“If the enemy saw you with me today, he would likely assume it was coincidence,” he continued.” Unfortunate timing. But if he saw you with me repeatedly, he would realize you are important to me. I cannot put you in danger.”

Hearing this, something moved in my chest that I did not have a name for and was not ready to look at directly.

Important to me.

Was I really important to him? How important? Important enough that he thought about me when I was not there? Important enough to keep me away to keep me safe?

I pushed the thought away before it could do any damage.

“For how long?” I found myself asking.

“One or two weeks.”

One or two weeks.

I sat with that. I looked at my hands. I thought about the lab, the new location, the team, the five billion that needed to be organized and directed and built into something real. I thought about all the work that was waiting for me.

One or two weeks away from him was exactly what I needed. The space to focus. The space to remind myself what this was and what it was not.

My heart was not listening to any of this.

“Your arrangement sounds perfect,” I told him.

“Good.” He stood. “We go to the hotel. You get dressed and then I will take you wherever you need to go.”

I nodded slowly. Then I paused. “I’ll just go back home to Julian.”

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Something moved across his face.

It was brief. A shift, a tightening, something that was there and then smoothed over so fast I almost

missed it.

Almost.

I stared at him.

Did he not want me to go back? Was that what that was? I replayed the expression in my mind and told myself I was reading too much into a half second of a man’s face. I was overthinking. I was doing exactly what I had warned myself not to do.

I shook my head and let it go.

“Thank you,” I returned, and shook it.

His grip was exactly what I expected it to be.

The helicopter brought us back to the city.

We entered the hotel through the back, the way we always did, the way that avoided lobbies and cameras and any possibility of running into someone who should not see us together.

“I will get dinner ready,” Dominic said when we were inside.

“Where is Sparrow?”

“Outside. He and the others will escort you home.” He was already moving toward the kitchen. “You have

not eaten since this afternoon. Neither have I.”

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Chorter 48

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