Bye-Bye Jerk, Hello Mr. Right by Rosie Steppe

Chapter 823

I rolled my eyes so hard they almost got stuck. Hayden really had way too much time on his hands. Decorating an urn and stashing a data sync device in a jewelry box? Was this some kind of cosmic joke? Then again, maybe he'd done it to throw people off-make them think it was just a random trinket and not something insanely valuable.

"What the hell is this?" Cole snapped, reaching for the box.

I smacked his hand away. "Chill, Drago. What's the rush? Don't you afraid there's a scorpion inside or something?"

He gave me an annoyed side-eye. "Just open it already. Hayden's brain must be a circus to come up with this nonsense."

Ignoring him, I pulled the tiny red box from its fluffy nest of white feathers.

It was way too light. No way it held the device.

Still, I flipped it open-and, of course, my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

"A ring?" Cole said, his voice somewhere between disbelief and irritation.

ring. And judging by the size of that rock, it could probably

was those weird high-tech matching

could, holding it up like he expected it to transform into a

ignored his theatrics and focused on the jewelry box itself,

ring over, inspecting it like a jeweler on a mission. When that turned up nothing, he grabbed the box and started ripping it apart. Lining, inserts, every layer-it all got

replaced with

urn, he dumped its contents onto the ground, sifting through the mess with a feverish determination Still,

with a growl, he kicked the

to

Chapter 823

+25 BONUS

it revealed no hidden compartments, no secrets. Cole's fists clenched at his sides, the tension rolling off him like a storm. Months of chasing me, following leads, and this was all he had to show for it? I almost felt

Almost.

accept the

me, I was reeling too. Hayden had told me the urn held the device. If it wasn't here, where