Page 96 of My Unhinged Alphas
Mara lowers her voice. “From where?”
I don’t answer that. I just unhook myself from behind the counter, trying to look like this is normal, like a man from the worst night of my life showing up at my café is just an awkward inconvenience.
My arms fold across my chest before I even think about it. Not because I’m cold. Because I need something between us.
Knox waits while I come over. Of course he does. Calm as ever. Dark clothes, unreadable face, not a hair out of place. He looks like he belongs nowhere and everywhere at once, and I hate how much he changes the air around him just by standing there.
I stop near the front window, far enough from the register that we won’t be overheard easily, close enough that Mara and Jess can still see me if they’re watching.
Which they absolutely are.
“I don’t want you at my work,” I say under my breath.
His expression doesn’t change. “Noted.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“No,” he says. “It wasn’t.”
I glare at him. “Then why are you here?”
“To talk.”
“That tells me nothing.”
He looks past me for half a second, probably checking the room, then back at me. “How much did you say?”
My stomach tightens. “Excuse me?”
“To your friends.”
“Nothing.”
He studies my face like he’s weighing the answer, and that annoys me more than it scares me.
I tilt my chin up. “How did you find me?”
That gets the smallest shift out of him. Almost a smile. Not quite. “I’m the best tracker in the city,” he says. “Nobody escapes me.”
I stare at him. “That’s not as charming as you think it is.”
“I wasn’t trying to be charming.”
“No?”
“No.”
There’s a beat. Then he says, “You shouldn’t be scared if you have nothing to hide.”
My brows go up. “So you think I’m hiding something?”
He doesn’t answer immediately, which is answer enough.
I let out a quiet, disbelieving laugh. “You people are unbelievable.”
“That’s not a denial.”
“That’s because I don’t owe you one.”
