Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY
Jade
“Riley picked this restaurant in town,” I say as I step into the black BMW. “She said it’s a place that just opened and they have amazing security so we should be more than fine.”
“I still don’t think that going out in public is a good idea,” Malachi reaches the other side of the car, opening the door and stepping inside.
“It’ll be fine,” I say, grabbing my lipstick from my purse and pulling the sun visor down but the smooth metal tube slips right through my fingers, hits the rubber floor mat, and bounces out the open door, dropping onto the gravel driveway, and rolling straight under the car.
“Fuck,” I look down at my black heels.
“What’s wrong?” Malachi asks, turning to face me.
“I dropped my lipstick,” I tell him. “And it went under the car. Could you get it for me?”
“You couldn’t think of closing the door before retouching your lipstick?” he raises an eyebrow and I shake my head.
“I thought we were in a rush.”
“Fine.” He gets out of the car, walks around the front bumper and then crouches beside the heavy front tire as he reaches his long arm under the car.
I wait for him to stand up but a wave of panic washes over me when he doesn’t.
I watch as the line of his shoulders drops and his back goes completely rigid. The casual, relaxed posture he’s carried for the last three days vanishes in an instant, replaced by absolute stillness.
“Malachi?”
He stays quiet but he starts pulling his arm out slowly.
Judging by the look on his face, I’m not even mad when I see that he isn't holding the silver tube of my lipstick. When I take a better look at his hand, I realize he’s holding a small, flat black square with a heavy magnetic backing.
It has a blinking red dot in the center.
We both stare at it, his jaw tightening so hard the muscle ticks beneath his skin.
“Clear the vehicles,” he stands up, shouting.
The perimeter guards move instantly at his orders. Four men drop to the dirt, sliding mirrored poles under our car, under the escort vehicles, and under the supply trucks.
“Clear!” One guard shouts.
“Clear,” Another guard echoes.
“So the other cars are clear,” I say to Malachi. “The only one being tracked is ours?”
His face is dark with rage as he nods. “That son of a bitch!” Malachi grabs my arm, and marches me straight back inside the cabin, locking the front door behind us.
“You think Nolan is behind this?” I ask, trying to keep up with Malachi as he paces through the living room.
“I know he is,” he answers. “He never disappeared.”
“But we don’t know if it’s one of his men who placed the tracking device…”
“No, Jade,” Malachi stops, his eyes dead serious as he adds. “Nolan has been studying your schedule, he’s waiting for a chance to attack and I’ll be damned if I let him get anywhere near you.”
For the next hour, the living room becomes a war room. Malachi paces the floor with a burner phone pressed to his ear, talking to Elijah, who is scrubbing the security feeds, pulling the mechanic logs, and running the names of every single person who walked past this car in the last week.
I remain on the sofa, carefully listening to every word that’s said in this room, trying to keep myself calm while also figuring out a way to help Malachi. I hate sitting around and being useless.
“Nothing,” Malachi sighs, throwing the burner phone onto the counter. “We couldn’t find anything. There are no blind spots and no one was caught on camera.”
“Not even a wandering stranger?” I ask.
“No,” he shakes his head. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“So we have no idea for how long Nolan has been watching every step we take…”
“We know one thing,” Malachi turns to face me, the look in his eyes terrifying.
“It must have started after the Mercedes was sent to be repaired.” Which means he only started tracking our movement after we paid that visit to my family and were shot at.
“Exactly,” he nods. “Also, if there had been a tracker on it, we would have found out then.”
“Right.” I bite my lower lip to hide the smile that sneaks up.
It’s good to see that a part of him is alive again.
“But he must have placed the tracker at some point after you started driving the BMW. Do you think he might have done it sooner and just patiently waited for you to start driving the BMW?”
“I don’t think so,” Malachi shakes his head. “But it is possible that he was expecting you to drive it.”
“We might have underestimated him,” I sigh.
“You need to cancel your appointments for the month. I already doubled the guards on the gates and told the drivers you won’t leave the property unless I am in the car with you...”
“Excuse me?” I push off the edge of the sofa.
“You heard me.”
“You’re locking me up like some prisoner, “I say, crossing the rug until I am standing directly in front of him. “We have an agreement, Mal. You promised me freedom and agreed not to interfere in my private life.”
“That was before Nolan started tracking you," he says, leaning forward over the counter.
“I wasn’t the only one who drove that car!” I shot back. “It’s your car.”
“Even if you had sat behind that wheel once by yourself, it’s enough for me to make this decision.”
“I’m not spending my life locked away every time a threat breathes in my direction. I refuse to live like that.”
Malachi steps into my space, backing me up until my hips hit the edge of the kitchen counter. He plants a heavy hand on the wood on either side of my waist, boxing me in completely, and leans down until his face is inches from mine.
“You can hate me while you're alive,” he says, his leaving absolutely zero room for negotiation. “Or you can love me after you're dead. And I’ve already decided which one I prefer.
“We ran the serial number on the tracker,” Elijah tosses a folded printout onto the center of the wooden table. “It’s ghost hardware. Completely untraceable.”
Malachi’s brothers and Riley came to the cabin with the excuse that they wanted to have dinner together, but I know better than that. They’re here to check on the security themselves.
“He didn't put it there himself,” Zeke speaks. Riley sits beside him, her hand resting on his thigh under the table. “Nolan has someone close enough to touch your vehicles.”
“Which means this cabin isn’t a permanent solution,” Cain agrees, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “If he can get to your cars, he can track the supply routes, so he could even poison your delivery food.”
“We’re not getting delivery food,” Malachi looks at his brother over the glass of whiskey.
“Even worse,” Cain insists.
“I’m going to risk being the bad guy here,” Levi finishes his whiskey and sets the glass down with a loud sound, turning to look at Malachi. “You should put Jade on a plane.”
“What!” I almost jump from my seat but they ignore me.
“The compound in Ireland is completely isolated,” Levi continues. “We have three gate checks and an armed perimeter. Nolan doesn’t have the men or the money to cross the Atlantic. If you keep her there until we put him in the ground, we can be certain that she’ll make it out of this war alive.”
I blink, waiting for Malachi to shut him down, to say we don’t separate. The realization that Malachi is considering his brother’s proposal is more terrifying than finding out Nolan has been tracking my every move.
“No!” I say, everyone at the table turning to look at me. “I’m not leaving.”
“Jade,” Malachi speaks, his voice calm. “I told you earlier that the most important thing for me in this is for you to stay alive.”
“But…”
I don’t want to leave you.
“Set up the flight,” Malachi turns back to face his brothers.
“I’ll have the jet fueled and ready," Elijah says.
“Good,” Malachi nods before turning his eyes to me once again. “You should start packing.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say, dropping my glass wine back on the table.
Malachi’s jaw tightens. “Nolan is hunting you. You are a liability in this city right now and the only option to keep you safe right now is for you to go Ireland.”
“I’m your wife, Malachi,” I say, keeping my voice completely level, refusing to let it shake, even as my chest burns. “I’m not a piece of luggage you ship out of the country the second the water gets rough.”
“It’s a chess game, Jade,” Zeke says, his tone completely calm. “If hiding the queen will protect you, you do that.”
“Hiding the queen in chess is cheating,” I snap back.
“Not in the game that I’m playing.”
“So that’s how it’s going to be?” I continue. “My father treated me like a physical asset and used me as collateral to save his fucking ass, and now you do the same thing.”
“It’s not the same thing,” Malachi plants his hands flat on the edge of the table. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“By locking me away halfway across the world!” I push my chair back and stand up, the wood scraping harshly against the floorboards.
“I walked into the Eden with you. I sat at a table with my father to cut him out of our lives. I did not marry into this family just to be shoved on a plane and hidden in a fortress the moment someone pulls a gun.”
The room goes dead quiet and I don’t care how everyone is staring at us right now, probably judging me for behaving this way and Malachi for marrying someone like me instead of a woman who obeys each and every order that comes from his mouth.
Malachi stands up slowly. He is taller, broader, his entire frame radiating the cold, unyielding authority he uses to break his men.
“You’re going to Ireland,” he says, no place left for argument in his voice. “The discussion is over.”