Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
A single red rose. Every time.
My stomach drops so fast I have to grab the counter.
Liam always brought me one rose. Never a dozen, never a bouquet. Just one perfect stem, because he said I wasn’t the kind of woman who needed to be buried in flowers to feel special. It was our thing, our signature, our private language. On the pillow after our first night together. Waiting on my seat before a job. Tucked into my suitcase when I wasn’t looking so I’d find it later and think of him.
One rose. Every single time.
And I’ve been drying them in my window like love letters from someone else.
How did I miss this? How did I not recognize his signature on every single stem?
Because I didn’t want to. Because it was easier to believe that Liam had moved on, found some other partner, some other life, some other woman to bring single roses to. I told myself he wouldn’t come looking because the alternative was too terrifying to consider. Liam can find anyone. I’ve watched him track down a forger in witness protection once, just for fun, just to prove he could do it. If he wanted to find me, nothing I did would stop him.
I just assumed he didn’t want to.
Turns out I was the idiot who thought disappearing meant being forgotten. He’s been here for weeks, maybe months, leaving his calling card on my doorstep again and again, and I was so caught up in Knox and my shiny new life that I couldn’t see what was right in front of my face.
The roses weren’t romantic. They were a message.
I found you. I’ve always known exactly where you are.
I sink onto the couch and press my palms against my eyes until colors bloom in the darkness.
What does Liam want?
The diamond. It has to be. Twenty million dollars in flawless perfection, hidden somewhere in the Northwest Territories that only I know about. Liam trusted me to stash it, and I never told him where. Insurance for both of us, he said. But really, it was insurance for me. A secret I’ve kept for five years, the one piece of leverage I have if everything goes sideways.
Something must have changed. Some pressure I don’t know about, something that made him decide breaking our agreement was worth the risk. Or maybe Kedrov got close enough to spook him. That man doesn’t forget, and he doesn’t forgive. We always knew he’d keep looking.
But I’m not ready to go back to that life. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready. But if Liam is back, trouble is coming with him. It always does. And whatever brought him out of hiding is going to land on my doorstep whether I’m ready for it or not.
I watch the streetlight paint stripes across my ceiling through the blinds. Somewhere out there, Knox is probably parked in his car, watching my building. Protecting me from threats he doesn’t even know exist. And somewhere else, Liam is doing the same thing, watching from whatever shadow he’s found to hide in, waiting for me to be ready to face him.
Two men watching me. Two different versions of obsession.
One represents everything I want to become. The other represents everything I’m trying to leave behind.
Chapter Eleven
Hailey
The envelope is waiting for me when I open my door the next morning, propped against the doorframe. No postmark. No return address. Just my name in handwriting I’d recognize anywhere, those confident loops and slashes that used to leave notes on my pillow, sign forged documents, scrawl love letters on hotel stationery across three continents.
My hands are trembling before I even get it open.
Inside, there’s a photograph. Eight by ten, glossy, professionally printed. Twenty million dollars staring back at me from a piece of paper.
The Snowflake Diamond.
I sink onto the hallway floor right there, my back against the doorframe, unable to make my legs carry me any farther. God, I’d almost forgotten how beautiful it is. Twenty-three carats of perfect clarity, cut in that distinctive pattern that earned its name, each facet catching light like frozen starlight. In the photo, it’s displayed on black velvet under museum lighting, probably the insurance company’s documentation shot before we liberated it from Kedrov’s private collection.
No note accompanies the image. Liam doesn’t need one. The message is clear enough.
I know you saw me last night. I know you recognized me. And now we need to talk about the one thing that still binds us together.
I stare at the diamond for a long time. The last time I saw it in person, I was shoving it into a waterproof case and burying it in frozen ground while my fingers went numb and my breath fogged in the arctic air. I thought I was being smart. Careful. I thought I was buying us time.