Page 30 of Love’s Strongest Soldier

“Don’t worry. We’ll figure this shit out.”

As we stepped out the door, I shot Savion a text.

Me: It’s a dud.

I opened the back passenger door for Luxe and climbed in after her.

The ride back to the hotel was silent. All she did was stare out the window the entire time. I wasn’t sure what to say to her; that was why I just kept my mouth closed. We arrived back at the hotel, and I climbed out and held the door for Luxe. She brushed past me and entered the building.

We rode the elevator up to our floor. As we both stopped at our doors, I stared over at her. The glow she had when we left was no longer there. Her eyes were dull. She seemed exhausted, but I couldn’t really blame her. If I were in her shoes, I probably would be too.

“Good night,” I told her as she pushed her door open. She didn’t even respond, just entered the room and shut the door behind her.

Sighing, I entered my room as well and shut the door behind me. Stripping out of my clothes, I headed straight to the bathroom to take a shower. As I was in there, my mind drifted to Luxe. I wanted so desperately to solve this for her. It was slowly sucking the life out of her.

Resting my hands against the tile wall, I lowered my head and allowed the water to beat down on me. There was no way I should be this concerned about Luxe. I’d never cared this much for a mark before. Yeah, I did my job at keeping them safe, but Luxe was different. She was pulling emotions out of me that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Dealing with her was getting harder by the day.

Once I was done, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist. There was a knock at my door. I thought it was coming from the hallway, but it was coming from Luxe’s room. When I opened the door, she stood there, still in her dress.

Rolling her eyes, she said, “I can’t get it unzipped.”

She turned, giving me her back. I grabbed her hair and draped it over her right shoulder and then reached for the zipper. As it tugged down, my heart skipped beats. Luxe had been the only person to ever get a reaction out of me like that.

The straps slipped off her shoulders. She caught the front of it because she didn’t have on a bra. Without uttering another word, she went back into her suite and shut the door behind her.

A few days later

Frustrated wasn’t the word for me. It was like I wasn’t getting anywhere. After not being able to solve this on my own, I finally gave in and gave up the last client I sold the painting to and was going to let Savion take it from here. I was over it. Maybe he’d have a better time at tracking the painting down than me. It was only so far that I could get with being a woman. People liked to take me as a joke. They didn’t see a threat when I came to them, especially dressed in a business suit.

Ghost had yet to apologize to me, so I decided that I was going to show him exactly how I felt that night. No, I wasn’t about to sleep with someone to get even with him, but I did let this guy from the dating application set up a date. He was handsome, but I didn’t feel like getting to know him. He was going to serve his purpose and then be sent on his way.

I needed something extremely sexy to wear tonight for the date. Ghost knew that I had somewhere to go, but I hadn’t explained to him that it was out to dinner with a man. That part I wanted to be a surprise, when he pulled up and saw the guy greeting me.

I found this lil number in the back of my closet. It was a black jumpsuit with a mesh top. That was about as extreme as I was going to take it. The younger women these days walked around with their ass cheeks hanging out. No one would ever catch me dressed like that. To me, I felt like they were leaving little to the imagination. I didn’t see how men were so cool with their women leaving the house like that. To each his own though.

After I got dressed, I unwrapped my hair and put a few curls in it. The silk press was lasting a bit longer than expected. Every so often, I’d get one because I didn’t want to damage my curls. I took pride in my hair and did whatever necessary to keep it healthy.

Once I was dressed, I headed into the living room where I found Ghost sitting on the couch. He was dressed in all black like always. His eyes lifted to me, and just from the twitch of his jaw, I knew I looked good.

“Let’s go,” was the only thing I said before heading to the door.

Little did he know, this was the start of pissing him off tonight. I was going to purposely be all over Rob to make Ghost feel some type of way. Did I feel bad about using this man for my own personal gain? No. Men used women all the time. I hadn’t come across a genuine one yet, and I was forty.

Ghost opened the door on the truck for me. He hadn’t been driving his own cars anymore ever since I stole his car and left him. But I did it for a cause. He was acting like I was just gon’ run away every time he decided to drive his own car or something.

Shutting the door, he rounded to the driver’s seat and then asked, “Where to?”

“Take me to Sterling House.”

His eyes peeked at me through the rearview mirror. I grabbed my phone and pretended not to see him looking. We rolled out of the parking garage, and I scrolled social media to keep from eyeing Ghost.

He pulled up to the restaurant, and they had valet. The place was already fancy as hell, and we hadn’t even made it inside yet. Ghost allowed valet to take the truck while he came around and opened the door for me. He extended his hand in my direction, but I didn’t take it.

Stepping down from the truck, I headed for the door. An older couple was coming out, and the guy held the door for me.

“Thanks,” I said and entered the building with Ghost not too far behind me.

“How many?” the hostess asked as she gathered the menus.