I glanced over my shoulder as Ronan entered the house. Matias had said there were several men surrounding it, but I had yet to see any of them. I figured that was a good thing because I didn’t want to alert my neighbors to anything going on.
"Okay, so here's the plan." The man's eyes landed on me as I gestured for them to sit with me at the table. "As ill-advised as your plan was, the fact is that we believe it will draw Bishop out. The key is to make it look like Matias has finally given up on hunting Bishop. That he's too focused on his relationship with you to want to keep pursuing Bishop. That, in itself, will hopefully push Bishop to make a move."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I've been giving him what he's wanted all this time," Matias responded. "Me. He's enjoying the hunt. If we take that away from him…"
As Matias let the words hang, I felt a shiver go throughout my body. What kind of evil was within the man if he found such pleasure in his obsession with toying with Matias?
"But if Matias suddenly just gives up looking for him, won't that make Bishop suspicious?" I asked.
"Yes," Ronan said. "That's why Daisy is going to continue to delete the majority of your social media posts shortly after you put them up. It will make it look like Matias is trying to live a normal life with you but is still playing it safe. Daisy will conveniently miss a post or two on one of your smaller accounts. That way if Bishop isn't seeing the posts when they happen, he'll be able to find one or two here and there if he does a search. Unfortunately, we have no way of tracking him, so if and when he shows up, we won't know it until it happens.”
"So you want me to keep posting about Matias?" I clarified.
Matias shifted nervously at the other end of the table. The move surprised me because I'd never seen him nervous. But he wasn't the one who responded to me. It was Ronan.
"We actually want you and Matias to take it a step further."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"We want you to go out and do things that a normal couple would do. Dates, grocery shopping, stuff like that. Basically, we need it to look like you and Matias are living a happy life together. If Bishop is watching, seeing the proof in person that Matias has moved on will just enrage Bishop further. It will also give credence to your social media posts."
I found it difficult to swallow around the lump in my throat. Despite the fact that this entire thing had been my doing, now that it was here, I was terrified. Ronan must've sensed or seen something to indicate my growing terror because he said, "We'll have men following you the entire time; they just have to do so from a distance. Matias has been hunting Bishop for two years, so he knows the man better than anyone. Given the circumstances, the safest place you can be is with him."
"And who's going to protect him?" I asked softly.
My eyes found Matias’s across the table. I couldn't read the expression in them, though.
"What do you mean?" Ronan asked.
I shook my head. I wasn’t supposed to give a shit about Matias’s emotional stability or physical well-being. "Never mind," I murmured. "What else?"
"Chances are, Bishop is not going to stage an attack on you and Matias until you're out of the city. So over the next couple of weeks, you're going to hint at a dream trip with your boyfriend. My men and I are in the process of finding an ideal site that's both remote and accessible at the same time. The good thing is that Bishop will have no way of knowing that Matias isn’t alone anymore. He won't be expecting Matias to have the backup that he does."
I nodded in understanding.
"Sam, I know this is challenging, but if Bishop is going to buy into it, it needs to look real. Is that going to be a problem?"
I shook my head. It most definitely wasn't going to be a problem to pretend I was head over heels for Matias.
"Matias?" Ronan said.
"Not a problem," was all he said. He sounded all business and I felt my heart sink.
"When do we start?" I asked. The sooner we got this going, the sooner it could be over and I could get back to the life I'd had before Matias had snuck into it. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to go back to my boring nights of reading in bed and not waiting for Matias to break into my house.
"Right now," Ronan said. He handed me my regular phone… the one Matias had taken from me at Declan Barretti’s house. "Post all your social media stuff from this device. Since we can't completely wipe proof of Ryan and Elliot from your lives, you can mention them being off on an adventure, but nothing more. Spin it so it looks like you're celebrating the fact that you have alone time with Matias. Use the phone as you normally would, but don't contact Elliot or Ryan or Cruz from it. Use only the burner phone for that."
I nodded in understanding and then reached for my phone. I took my time creating a post stating exactly what Ronan had described. I glanced at Matias and said, "Ready?" The man looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. He nodded and stood. I went to him and put my arm around him, prepared to take a selfie. Matias felt so stiff against me, I was sure there was no way we were going to pull it off. But then he leaned into me and nuzzled my neck. Not only did it look real as hell, it turned me on beyond belief and all that came across in the picture. As I forced myself to pull away from the strong arms that were wrapped around me, I handed the phone to Ronan because I couldn't bring myself to actually post the thing.
When it was done, Ronan handed me the phone back. "Why don’t you go get ready for your first official date?" Ronan suggested. "I've made reservations for you at this little Italian bistro—"
"No," I cut in. "Matias would never go for something like that," I said absently as I turned to look out the window. "He's not a crowds kind of guy. He’d want to go somewhere where it was just the two of us."
The silence behind me was deafening, so I glanced over my shoulder. I was afraid I might have overstepped my bounds when it came to this whole planning thing, but Ronan was watching me with a look of surprise rather than irritation and Matias… Matias just looked completely confused.
"Golden Gardens Park. There's plenty of people around, but you can still find quiet spots. We could do a simple picnic or something. Would that work?" I asked.
Neither man answered me at first. It was Ronan who finally said, "That'll work." I wanted to laugh because it was absolute craziness. I was finally getting to go on my first date with the man I'd lost my heart to, but not only were we hoping that we’d be stalked by a man who hated Matias with everything that he was, but I was having to arrange said date through Matias’s boss.
I took the opportunity to escape to my room, mumbling an excuse about needing to get ready, but there was no getting ready for something like this. The most I could do was try to protect my heart over the next two weeks or however long it took. Then, when it was all over, maybe I'd be able to go back to my quiet, unassuming life as a single dad, and only when the loneliness became unbearable would I dig deep into the recesses of my mind and remember the fake dates.
And pretend they'd been anything but.