I harrumph.
“You’ll see,” he promises.
His words from my first day of school come back to me.
Margo Wolfe. Haven’t you heard? I’m king now.
What does that make me?
27
“A fair lace mask for the pretty girl?”
I glance up at the shop owner. He’s been hovering, pointing at various costumes and accessories. None have been quite right. Although, I’m not quite sure what I’m looking for. I don’t have a dress, and Caleb, who seemed to have a plan, has disappeared.
The shop owner holds out a delicate, pale-pink mask. It’s meant to cover half the face, not both eyes.
“No,” Caleb says, coming up behind him. “I found it.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Where is it?”
“You have to wait outside.” He grins. “I think it’ll be better if it’s a surprise.”
“Seriously?”
The shop owner appraises us.
Caleb narrows his eyes at me. “Out.”
I raise my hands in surrender. “Fine. I’m going to get coffee.”
I leave the shop, contemplating circling back and trying to get a glimpse of whatever Caleb is buying. Instead, I resist the urge and cross the street. There’s a cute little coffee shop directly across from the costume shop.
Playing nice, I order myself a latte and Caleb a black coffee.
We were both obsessed with tasting coffee when we were young. It never failed to wrinkle our noses. But at the time, coffee was synonymous with caffeine. And what better to help two ten-year-olds stay up past their bedtimes than caffeine?
I shake the memory out of my head as Caleb comes into the shop. A paper bag dangles from his fingertips.
“I got you one,” I say.
“Is this bribery?”
“No.” I roll my eyes. “Not everything has a string attached.”
He shrugs. “You’d be surprised.”
We sit and drink our coffee, and I try my hardest not to even look in the direction of the bag.
He glances at his watch and straightens. “We have to go. My appointment is soon.”
“You said you had to sign papers? For what?”
He winks. “Just boring business stuff.”
“Your dad—”
“Just leave it, Margo.” He rubs his eye. “Can we go ten minutes without questions?”
He doesn’t say please, but I imagine the plea chasing his request.
“Fine,” I murmur.
I’ll just have to observe and see if I can figure out what Caleb Asher is hiding.
We take a taxi. It drops us off in front of a tall building, and Caleb winds his hand through mine. He leads me into the lobby and points to a group of armchairs in the corner.
“Sit.”
Since I promised no questions, I keep my mouth shut and take a seat.
Caleb approaches the front desk and leans toward the receptionist.
She nods, pointing to a bank of elevators to her right. He pushes through a turnstile, goes down a hallway to the elevators, and waits. When he glances back at me, I pretend I wasn’t watching.
He steps onto the elevator a second later, and I shoot to my feet.
“Hi,” I say to the receptionist. “Can you tell me where he was going?”
She raises her eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“I just—”
“We can’t give out that information,” she says, lifting her chin. “Are we going to have a problem?”
I take a step back. “No.”
As I slink back toward my seat, I scan the placard of companies and the levels. Where would Caleb go to sign paperwork?
There aren’t too many names listed. Half of them take up several floors. There’s a PR firm and a real estate office that might be promising. Besides that, there’s a law firm, a plastic surgeon, and an investment firm. Oh, and insurance.
I shake my head and sit.
Caleb reappears twenty minutes later. He comes over to me and offers his arm.
“That took longer than expected,” he says.
I slip my arm through his and shrug. “It’s okay.”
“Do you want to do anything else? Or should we call it a day?”
We’d already walked around Times Square, took a selfie together under the glowing screens, and found masks. The day catches up to me, and I yawn. “Food, then home?”
He nods. We round the corner, almost smashing into a man walking toward us. He freezes, staring at Caleb. His face goes pale.
“Mr. A-Asher,” the man says.
“Tobias.” Caleb inclines his chin, staring at the man with cold eyes.
“I wasn’t aware you were in the city.”
“I wasn’t aware I had to notify you when I wanted to get away from Rose Hill for an afternoon.”
Tobias shakes his head. Once he’s started, he doesn’t stop. His whole body trembles, like a strong wind is rushing through him.
My curiosity is officially piqued.
Caleb glances down at me, and Tobias follows his eyes. He flinches when he registers me.
I tilt my head. “Do I—”
“Don’t,” Caleb snaps. He puts his hand on the small of my back, propelling me around the frozen man.
“I’ll call you later,” Tobias says to our backs.
Once we’re half a block away, I force us to slow down. “Who was that?”
Caleb shakes his head. “I thought we were still not asking questions.”
“You can’t just—”
His eyes flash. His hand slides around my neck, threading through my hair. He yanks my head back, exposing my throat.
“I can,” he murmurs.
There are still bite marks under my scarf and two layers of concealer.
He tugs the fabric away from my neck, eyes heating. “You covered them up.”
Slowly, he puts his thumb in his mouth and then rubs at my skin.
“There.” He releases me, grinning. “Now the world will know you’re mine. Don’t fucking hide it next time.”
We’d managed the day without him going all dark on me. And here we are…
I press my thighs together, ignoring the impact of his words on my body. Especially because we’re in the middle of the freaking sidewalk in Times Square.
People move past us like we’re rocks in the middle of a river.
He’s hungry, and I can’t help but feel the same. Like we’ve unwittingly been starving ourselves.
He touches my neck again, and then he straightens. He smirks at me.
He knows what he does to me.
My phone buzzes.
Unknown: How’s it feel to be so small in such a large city?
I choke on my gasp, shoving my phone back in my pocket.
Caleb raises an eyebrow. “What was that?”
“Riley trying to be funny.” I clear my throat. Please don’t call me out on that lie.
He narrows his eyes but doesn’t question it.
We eat pizza at a diner on the second floor of a building. It overlooks the street. The people below, on the sid. They’re a sea of grays and blacks. When the sky opens up, suddenly every single person seems to have a black umbrella.
Caleb frowns. “I’ll call the car.”
We had left his at the edge of the city, then took a black car into Manhattan. The driver didn’t say a word to either of us, although I caught Caleb slipping him folded bills.