intrigued him. But now, with maturity and bright determination, she got to him in different ways. She was more than simply a curiosity.
She was a challenge!
Damn, she was beautiful! And smart and didn’t give an inch! He liked that about her.
What he didn’t like was that she might be getting close to something that he and his friends had been working on for the past several years.
Picking up his phone, he dialed a number. “Jenna,” he replied as soon as his friend answered. “I just spoke with Ella Fleming and, apparently, she’s onto us.” He paused, listening. “Right. But we need to be a bit more discreet. Otherwise, the whole operation could be revealed, which would put our people in danger.”
Hanging up, he wondered if…was his father still countering the group’s efforts? Were his father and his cronies still active? Malcolm had thought that their efforts had been shut down, but perhaps it was time to make sure.
Chapter 4
Ella paced the confines of her tiny apartment. The whole place was really just two rooms – a combined kitchen and den area and her bedroom. Okay, maybe three rooms because she had a bathroom too. But do bathrooms really count as a separate room? Probably not. And why in the world was she debating the number of rooms in her apartment?
Because she didn’t want to face up to the issue that was really bothering her. Which was that she couldn’t understand why she’d reacted so intensely to Malcolm’s kiss today. Good grief, they’d argued…and she’d…!
Ella dropped onto her sofa, holding her head in her hands. “What in the world happened today?” she muttered. Throughout their conversation, she’d been distracted by his hands, his mouth, his eyes…just about every part of him. Then when they’d stood by the door…something had just snapped inside of her. So she hadn’t been able to resist when he’d lowered his head and…kissed her!
“It was crazy! Just an insane moment in time,” she said out loud. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone in her apartment to tell her that she was wrong.
“I need pictures,” she decided, looking at the blank walls. There was a sofa against one wall and she had some utensils in the drawers of her kitchen. A bed in her bedroom with sheets and a blanket along with several pillows. Shampoo in her bathroom, but other than that, she had nothing. Oh, she had a large bank balance. Her success over the years and her lack of expenses, lack of spending, had helped her grow her bank balance into a respectable amount.
“I really should decorate,” she told herself. “Maybe if I added a bit of color here and there, I wouldn’t stay away so long.”
She stopped and looked around, startled by those words. “Stick around? Why in the world would I want to stay here?” she muttered. “The stories are out in the world! That’s what I do! I go out and find injustices in the world and tell everyone about them.”
Ella sighed and leaned back against the cushions of the sofa. “And still, not the issue that I should be facing at the moment.” Getting up, she walked into her kitchen, needing a beer or a glass of wine, something that would help her relax so that she wasn’t wound up so tightly. Unfortunately, she’d only been back home for a few days. She didn’t even have food in her fridge yet. Good grief, she hadn’t even turned on her fridge! Because she was gone for so many months at a time, she turned off the fridge and even unplugged it in order to save energy. Ella had been in too many places around the world that didn’t have electricity, so there was no way that she’d take it for granted or waste it when she wasn’t even around to enjoy it.
“I’m doing it again,” she laughed, shaking her head as she pushed the fridge door closed. “Okay, so I kissed him. That’s not a crime. A simple kiss isn’t going to skew my perspective at all!” Ella looked around, but the sofa didn’t agree with her. “It won’t!”
She sighed and shifted on her feet. “I’m really getting antsy if I’m talking to the sofa.” Grabbing her messenger bag and her keys, she pulled the bag’s strap over her shoulder. “I know exactly how I can move on. I’m going to find evidence that he’s involved!”
Leaving her apartment, she rushed down the stairs and jumped into her car. It was a tiny hatchback that didn’t