True to Boss world, a car was waiting for Elodie by the curb in front of her building, when she stepped out at six pm.

It was a dark SUV with tinted windows, and a large door that slid open as soon as the driver saw her exit.

"Good evening, ma'am," The older man greeted, dark eyes trying their best to stay above her neck.

His smooth hands tried to reach for the rolling suitcase in her grasp, but she brushed him off by side-stepping him smoothly.

Elodie gifted him with a smile. "Good evening, sir."

She basked in his shocked expression as she climbed into the car, lifting her suitcase with her, despite the protest from the driver, and set it by her foot.

Resigned to the fact that she wasn't going to let him do the work, the older man nodded and said, "We'll be heading to the airport right away, ma'am."

"Thank you, sir."

Again, he tossed her a startled look, then shut the door and rounded the car to the driver's side, opened the door and got behind the wheel.

"You almost gave the man an apoplexy by thanking him," came a familiar voice from somewhere behind her.

Elodie had been so caught up in the driver's reaction to her paying respects to him that she hadn't noticed the shift in the air; which was so visible now that that she wasn't caught up in herself.

She leaned a elbow on the armrest of her chair, and peeked into the back.

Hana was seated on the second single chair to Elodie's right, typing on her iPad, lips paused into displeasure.

Dressed in a knee-length three-colored (white, peach and navy blue) tiered tight gown, and dark sensible pumps, Hana looked like a business woman.

Elodie's gaze fell to her own outfit, and she smiled ruefully. "Hello to you too, Hana."

Hana shook her head. "Please refrain from thanking the helps in the future. It'll just make things awkward."

Elodie had alot she could tell the other woman what she thought of her archaic views on how things should be between a worker and their employers, but knew her vitriol would be wasted on the wrong person.

Hana was only acting the way she'd been trained to do.

But, Elodie didn't like it.

Not that there were many things she liked about anyone associated with the Don himself. Speaking of the man himself...

"Are we picking up Angelo on the way?"

"We're meeting him at the airport."

"Okay," Elodie said, toying with the hangnail of her index finger. "Do you know where we're going?"

Hana looked up long enough to cast a furtive smile her way before returning to whatever held her attention on the screen. "I'm not supposed to say."

"You can't give me a hint too?"

Hana shook her head.

Elodie sighed. "Why are you here then?" Seeing Hana's questioning brows, she added, "why are you accompanying me? I thought you were only hired on a temporary basis."

"Mr. Casieri has a lot of business to conduct in London, and...shit."

That wide-eyed deer-caught-in-a- headlights look Hana was wearing was comical.

Elodie took pity on her, though, refraining from setting her on edge the more. "Don't worry, I'll feign total surprise when Angelo tells me where we're going."

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Sure."

Hana's tentative smile was one of relief. "Thank you."

"But"—Elodie's grin widened at the look of trepidation on Hana's face; she must be thinking the other shoe was about to drop—"you have to finish what you were about to say."

She deserved the stink-eye she got, but Hana, remembering who she was with, quickly erased it. "What I was saying earlier was that Mr. Casieri would be conducting a lot of business meetings in...you know where... and I am to keep you company while he is away."

"Oh."

Elodie settled back into her seat, mind whirling with the information she'd gleaned.

Angelo was going to London just as the BIA had told her he would. Which also meant that he was enroute to getting the Tsar Bomba from his secret seller.

A part of her didn't want to believe that he was capable of such wickedness, but Elodie hadn't known him long enough to determine that he was as merciful as he said.

And here, she was beginning to think of him as some type of villainous vigilante on the wrong side of justice.

When would I ever learn that people suck?

"I'm sure he'd find the time for you no matter how busy he is," Hana piped up from the back, perhaps sensing Elodie's unease, but all for the wrong reasons. "Mr. Casieri wouldn't want you on the trip otherwise."

"Thanks, Hana, but it's not your job to make me feel better." Elodie played into the other woman's sympathy.

Prechance, I could play into Hana's ill-conceived notions about my appearance on this trip, Elodie thought.

The other woman probably thought she and Angelo were on the track to becoming a couple, and if what she heard about how he treated his woman was true; then Elodie would be subjected to the same treatment by the people closest to him.

And if what Hana said was true, then she needed to come up with ways she'd be able to accompany Angelo on his meetings if she wanted to give the BIA any tangible information.

In fact, Angelo must be within her sight at all times.

*

The drive to LAX airport took three hours, because: one, the distance from Bayview to L.A. was about an hour on a good day, and an hour and thirty minutes on a bad day; and two, traffic was a bear as usual.

Two men in dark suits, comms in right ear of each, opened the door when the car parked by the curb leading to the entrance of the busy airport.

"Good evening, ma'am, Ms. Hana, I'm Declan and this is Delaney," The one with the athletic swimmers build said, hand still on the knob of the open door. "We'll be escorting you to Mr. Casieri."

Hana was beside Elodie in a flash, frowning at the new comers. "Mr. Casieri didn't inform me about you."

Again, Declan spoke, "You can confirm with him."

Hana eyed him. "I'll do just that."

An awkward silence lingered in the air while Hana typed away on her large screen.

Elodie caught their driver, thrice, stealing glances at them from the corner of his eyes.

She wondered if he was knew employed or just hired for the sole purpose of delivering her safely to the airport.

A few minutes later, Hana shut off her screen with a sigh. "Very well. Lead the way."

Delaney was already reaching for the handle of her suitcase just as Elodie was about to, and the minute their fingers brushed, she withdrew hers and let him have at it.

Hana climbed out of the vehicle first, and Elodie followed her.

"Don't make eye contact with anyone," Declan was saying, "don't interact, and please don't say a word."

Elodie nodded her assent, mind boggled about what could have caused this cloak and dagger stuff.

Without even realizing it, until they were walking through the double doors, Elodie had been caged in from the front and back by Declan and Delaney, while Hana walked by her right.

Bizarre.

Elodie kept her head down as she was told to, but couldn't resist peeking just one time.

Her gaze snagged on a woman with dyed blonde hair which was slung into a high ponytail, dressed in a floral print summer dress, deep red sandals and large sunglasses that obscured almost half of her face.

Elodie couldn't shake the feeling that this woman was watching her.

But before she could make sure of it, she was whisked away by her guards, toward a private hangar, away from all the people and children in bright colorful dresses and shirts, and Elodie lost sight of the woman.

Chucking her paranoia to the tense air wafting off of Declan and Delaney solid frame, the woman was pushed into the back of her mind.

Soon, they were stepping onto the airstrip where a a small plane—a jet, to be precise—was waiting for them.

The steps were still out, and the door was opened, although there was no one in sight.

"Please go on right in, ma'am," said Declan, gesturing to the plane. "Mr. Casieri's waiting."

Elodie paused on the first step to ask, "You're not coming?"

"I'll see you in London, ma'am."

When it didn't look like he'd offer anymore explanation, Elodie started up the stairs, Hana hot on her heels.

There were three men already seated on-board, but her eyes immediately sought out the one person that made her insides churn and palms sweat.

Angelo was relaxed into one of the five crimson leather in the plane, tray out and laptop perched on the said tray. There were also several documents strewn about; some opened and others still shut.

He didn't look up, but did wave her into the seat across from him.

Elodie took her seat, while Hana went to join the other men—Rocco and Bones from the yatch—in the back seat. Both men nodded their greetings and she responded equally.

"You look better than you did the last time I saw you."

Elodie tore her gaze away from the mystery that the other men were and settled on Angelo. He was still working on his laptop, not meeting her gaze.

"A lot of rest and sleep work wonders, it seems," she replied. "You also look well rested."

His lips quirked at the corners, briefly, then settled back into a scowl. "That's true."

Elodie smiled, then remembered who this person truly was despite the façade he was trying to create, and cleared her throat.

"Where are we going?"

"London."

Elodie side-eyed the fuck out of Hana whose eyes were already trained on her. Wasn't their location meant to be a secret? How come Angelo gave it up easily?

"Are we going to see the queen?" Elodie winced at her lame attempt at a joke, face flooding with embrassment.

"Not that I know of, but we can if you want," Angelo said, fingers hovering over his keypads. "Do you?"

She didn't think he meant that. And she sputtered badly, "Ah-no...no? I mean, the queen...No."

Angelo's head snapped up and he trained those arresting eyes on hers.

They were warm and mirth danced in them, although he kept his face passive. "Take a deep breath."

Elodie took a deep breath, exhaled silently, and tried again. "Thank you for the offer, but that won't be necessary. I was only joking."

"I know."

So he'd been...pulling her legs?

Who knew the psychopath also knew how to joke?

"Why did you pay for me for two weeks?" She asked, unable to work out a good reason beyond the fact that he wanted to recreate their time in the forest.

The image that accompanied her thoughts made her shiver. And no, it wasn't the good type of shiver either.

"'why', you ask," he murmured, laptop now forgotten as he leaned into his chair.

"Yes, why? Because the last time we saw each other, you couldn't get out of my sight fast enough."

Am I actually...angry?

Duh, E2 murmured.

No one invited you to this party, coward.

E2 rolled her eyes. Again, duh.

"That's because I wouldn't have let you go if you still remained in my sight," he admitted, holding her gaze with his arresting ones, almost daring her to look away.

Elodie's tongue darted out to swipe her bottom lip, then she grimaced when the bitter taste of lipstick invaded her taste buds.

She was at loss as to what to do with Angelo's confession.

While she was aware of his obsession with her, Elodie didn't think it went that deep. Being an object of a cold-blooded killer wasn't the big flex most books and movies made it out to be.

It terrified her.

"I like the shirt," Angelo said, interfering her inner monologue.

Her eyes automatically dropped down her body. While the Agency did provide most of the clothes the Angels wore to their outings with their clients, Elodie also had her own private collection of clothes at home for when she had an emergency and had to go from her place to wherever she was meeting her clients.

She'd chosen to wear a sleeveless, sheer mesh see-through crop tank top, which had a hand print design covering the tops and sides of her breasts, but left the valley between them and a generous amount of cleavage visible—she wasn't wearing a bra.

Then, she'd paired it with mid-thigh length zip-up red leather skirt, chunky black, ankle-length leather boots, and a red beret sat on her head.

It was a daring and calculated risk wearing something as bold as this, but Elodie had taken a bit of comfort in the fact that Angelo was less likely to want to sleep with her when they had company.

She wasn't so sure now that his hungry eyes became locked on her boobs.

Her phone began to ring, a saving grace really.

It was Jean.

Elodie nodded at Angelo. "Sorry, I've got to answer this."

"No problem. Just don't stay too long, we'll soon be cleared for take-off." Then, as though he hadn't been eye-fucking her, Angelo returned to his laptop.

Eloide retreated to the jet's bathroom, which resembled a fancy powder bathroom with a silver gold faucet and shining rose gold toilet.

As a kid, Elodie had always imagined flying on a plane, and she'd never done that even while growing up because money was tight and her parents never had enough saved for a vacation.

This was as like a fantasy made for royalty and Disney princesses, not a—to borrow Brooks words— waitress moonlighting as an Escort at night. Things like these didn't happen to someone like her.

Elodie took a seat on the shut toilet lid.

A lot of comfortable room around here, she mused.

"Hey." She lifted the phone to her ear. "What's going on? Are you alright? Is Mace doing fine?" They hadn't spoken beyond that morning after they'd made arrangements for her two weeks absence from work and her brother.

Jean would crash at Elodie's place and make the trip to see Mace every morning before heading to work for a small amount of money; they fought over the payment and finally agreed to disagree.

She didn't want the money, but Elodie insisted on paying for Jean's troubles, and they'd finally settled on an amount that was enough to buy a box of pizza and three bus trips.

Elodie was on edge now knowing she was leaving her country and her brother. She trusted Jean to take care of Mace and she believed her friend wouldn't be calling if something bad had happened.

"Yeah, yeah," Jean replied. "Everything's peachy, we're good. Zero problems here. Just wanted to check in with you. You're good?"

Elodie exhaled quietly through her mouth. "Yes. I'm okay."

"Good."

Tears well up in her eyes. Elodie tore off a piece of tissue paper from the roll secured on its holder, and winced when the smell of mint invaded her nostrils. She dabbed under her, careful not to smudge her mascara.

"Listen, I'm calling to remind you to have fun, too. Don't worry about Mace and just let go for a bit, you deserve it, okay?"

Elodie closed her eyes, her grip on her phone intensifying. She didn't know how to stop worrying about her brother, and didn't want to.

Jean wouldn't know that, though.

A knock on the door shattered the quiet in the toilet just as Jean said,"Got to go, babes. I'm heading to yours now."

"We're about to take off, Ms. Evans," Hana's soft words were muffled by the door.

Jean was going to the bus station.

"Call me tomorrow?"

"Sure thing."

They said their short goodbyes, and Elodie went to rejoin the others.

*

A/N:

NEWS: I'm think of creating a discord server for everyone, where we'd all be able to connect on a deeper level, plus, spoilers content, discussions about every of my books, ships, fanarts sharing and quiz!

Let me know what you think.

Yes, we're updating each week now, and I'm so excited to share this book with you.

There are many loops and turns many of y'all won't see coming but I'm glad you're enjoying this!

Please, don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts on the new chapter.

Do you think Elodie has forgiven Boss?

Has she also forgiven Angelo?

Would she let him fuck her again?

What do you want to see more in the book?

Thank you for reading, if you're still here, and special Thanks to you that remembers to vote on each chapter (ily❤️).

Don't forget to vote, comment and share❤️