With time to kill before my meeting with Nancy, Kace and I decide to check out the other two properties on our own. We can’t visit the apartments, but we can view the locations. For the small price of the cookies I’ve packaged up at the bakery, we score a ride with Savage and Adrian. And, of course, in between cookies, they entertain us in the process. “The sugar’s the best,” Savage says, licking icing from his fingers.
“I vote chocolate and peanut butter,” Adrian chimes in.
“Of course he does,” Savage replies, eyeing us around his seat. “He lives on peanut butter cups.”
“Only on weekdays,” Adrian says. “On the weekend I eat junk food.”
I laugh and nudge Kace. “I think I need to live like him.”
“You will in Europe, I promise you,” he says, motioning to a building and Savage has Adrian pull over. “We’re going to get out and get a good look at the area,” Kace says, opening his door and exiting to offer me his hand.
I join him on the street, the night air brisk, but the snow is now long gone, and hand and hand Kace and I walk toward the towering steel building. The area is nice, though the restaurant and shopping, we decide, is limited. With Kace’s finesse, we are actually able to walk inside the building and talk to the staff, all pleasant, but in the end, we both agree. It’s just not up to the standards of the first building.
A few minutes later, we do the same at the second building, with about the same outcome. We’re just headed back to the SUV where Adrian and Savage lean on the vehicle, waiting for us, when an odd tingling slides down my neck. My hand goes to that newly formed hotspot under my hair and I cannot resist looking over my shoulder, scanning to find no one is there.
Kace’s arm slides around me and he angles us together, scanning behind us as well. “What’s up, baby?”
“I don’t know. I just had this odd sensation of being watched.” I glance at Savage and Adrian, who seem unaffected, and back to Kace. “But they would know, right?”
I’ve barely spoken the question when Adrian appears by our side. “Problem?”
“Nothing really,” I say. “I just had an odd sense of being watched. I don’t know if you know what I mean, but—”
“I do and never second-guess your gut. It exists for a reason.” He makes some kind of signal to Savage and then steps aside. “Climb into the vehicle where it’s warm,” he instructs. “We’ll check the camera and have a man do a foot search.”
“Come on, baby,” Kace says, his hand on my back urging me forward, and I don’t have to be told twice.
I eagerly slide into the back of the SUV and once Kace has joined me, I say, “I hope I didn’t turn nothing into something.”
“Better safe than sorry. Always. Let them handle it and we’ll focus on something positive like putting in an offer on that apartment.”
Stunned, I twist around to face him. “This fast?”
“I don’t want us to lose it and I’d like to try and get it built out while we’re gone. Or at least close to finished so we don’t end up living in a hotel. You’re happy with it, right?”
“Of course, I’m happy with it,” I say, and he doesn’t need further encouragement.
He has his phone in hand when Savage and Adrian join us in the vehicle. “All clear,” Savage says, glancing back at us, “but we’re following up with the cameras.”
Already we’re moving and already Kace is on the phone. I’m silently pondering the woman I’d seen earlier and now this incident, wondering if I’m losing my mind, or what. Just about when I decide I am, Kace is making an offer at ten percent under asking for half in cash. I don’t even want to know how much that is going to be and I focus on the excitement instead.
Thirty seconds later, he’s disconnected. “Done.” He’s all nonchalant as if he hasn’t just offered some insane amount of money for a place to live. “Now we wait,” he adds.
“When will we know?” I ask.
“For this level of real estate, maybe tonight,” Kace says.
Tonight, I repeat in my mind.
It all feels so fast. Kace’s urgency to do this feels fast, too. I mean his logic for why he’s rushing makes sense, but he was so adamant he wouldn’t be pushed out of the building. I’m afraid this is all about that “more” he has planned for Alexander.
For now, though, I just want to get us both out of this city.