My Great Escape Led Me to You novel Chapter 430

430 /432

Just then, a waitress arrived at the table with three steaming cups of coffee. Emily Blair reached out and took them, her gaze dropping just as something stirred outside the café window—though she missed it entirely.

Across the street, Tristan Davis’s expression shifted from stone-cold to momentarily uneasy the instant he spotted Emily Blair through the glass.

As Emily glanced away, Tristan did the same, deliberately turning his attention elsewhere. In that very moment, he caught sight of two men, a hundred yards off, scanning the crowd—clearly searching for him.

His mood soured even further.

He spun on his heel, slipping into the throng of pedestrians. The press of bodies offered cover as he moved, keeping a wary eye out for a place to lose his pursuers for good.

Those two men had been tailing him for days, and the irritation was starting to fray his nerves. It was because of them he’d rented that shabby little apartment on the edge of town—somewhere no one would think to look. Even so, he barely spent any time there, always wary of leading trouble straight to his door.

Instead, he’d been shuffling between hotels, never staying in one place for long. Just that morning, he’d seen the pair loitering suspiciously outside his hotel. Without a second thought, he slipped out the back and ducked into the city’s early bustle.

Whoever sent these guys wasn’t messing around—not like the useless ones before. These two were professionals, their tracking skills relentless. No matter where he went, a glance over his shoulder would reveal them, always lurking just a few steps behind.

He was so on edge he felt like marching over and picking a fight with them, just to get it over with. His bad mood was so obvious that even a group of girls who’d tried to flirt with him were scared off by his scowl.

Now, Tristan crouched in the shadow of a dumpster, well out of sight. He raked a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his eyes and back over his head.

From this vantage point, he could just make out Emily Blair inside the café. The entire street-facing wall was glass, giving him a perfect view of her. Even with the foot traffic hustling past, nothing blocked his line of sight.

He watched her quietly, still wearing that sour expression, not realizing just how stiff and uneasy he looked. Ever since that awkward encounter with Emily in the apartment hallway, they hadn’t seen each other. He hadn’t thought about her at all—at least, that’s what he told himself. But the moment he laid eyes on her today, all those memories came flooding back.

He remembered how, after he’d rejected her, Emily had nearly knocked her head against the wall in frustration. The memory made him snort under his breath.