by Ava Bloom
“Jade told me what they looked like.” Faith’s eyes were glassy when she looked back up at me. “I’m shaken up, but it wasn’t a big deal. I don’t want to lose a day of work so I can sit in the police station and talk about men they will probably never catch.”
“Do you have security cameras?” Logan asked.
“I do,” Faith said, biting her lower lip and wincing. “But the memory cards filled up two days ago, and I never cleared them.”
I groaned. “Faith…”
“I know, I know,” she said, shaking her head. “You were always reminding me to stay on top of them, but with what happened to you last week, I just wasn’t thinking about it.”
Faith looked even thinner than usual sitting in front of me, and I wanted nothing more than to grab my phone and call the police, but this was Faith’s decision.
“Do you need anything?” I asked, rubbing her arm. “Logan could come over and stay with you for a bit.”
Both Faith and Logan began to protest at the same time.
“I’m fine. Customers will start coming in soon and—"
“I’m paid to protect Jade, so I really shouldn’t—”
When they realized they were agreeing, they both stopped talking.
“Fine,” I sighed, grabbing Faith’s hand and squeezing it. “But please promise me you’ll call the police if they come back. Or at least run over here. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Faith’s eyes darted up to mine and then away. She shook her head. “Promise.”
“This neighborhood is really going to Hell,” I said, my tone light and teasing in an attempt to break the somber mood settling over all of us.
“It really is,” Faith said, no hint of joking in her voice. Then, she slid from the table and left, giving me a small wave through the window before she went back into her shop.
“I can’t believe that happened—” I started to say just as Logan began to talk.
“I don’t believe her.”
I spun around, eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
His lips twisted nervously, and he shrugged. “Her story doesn’t make much sense.”
“She was robbed and came over here for help. What about that doesn’t make sense?”
“Why did she scream when she walked into the studio?” he asked. “The robbers were already gone, so there was no need to—”
“She was frightened,” I said, surprised that he could be so out of touch with human emotions. Who wouldn’t scream after getting robbed?
He shrugged. “Her trembling seemed to come and go.”
“People react in different ways.”
He took a step towards me, but I pulled away. I wasn’t ready to be close to him again. Not until I understood what he was trying to say about Faith. She and I weren’t best friends or anything, but I cared about her. I’d known her for a long time, and she had scared my attackers away and saved me from being raped. I wasn’t going to let anyone disrespect her.
Logan saw my backward step and planted his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets. “She didn’t want to call the police.”
“She doesn’t like the police,” I said. “They make her nervous.”
“Who wouldn’t call the police after being robbed?” he pressed.
My hands were shaking now, the desire that had been flowing through me only a few minutes before had been replaced with indignation. “Someone whose people have been systematically oppressed by our justice system for centuries. Jade didn’t even want to go into the police station with me the night of my attack. She was too uncomfortable. So, I don’t blame her.”
Logan pinched his lips together and let out a loud exhale through his nose. “I know she is your friend, but it is my job to notice things like this, and something is weird with Faith. I don’t think you can trust her.”
“You are muscles with a gun,” I snapped. “Not a detective. Don’t pretend to know more about my friends than I do.”
Logan’s face was red, his jaw clenched, and I could tell I’d hit a nerve, but I was too angry to care. He’d hit a nerve with me, as well.
“You are a bodyguard. Your job is not to isolate me from my friends and family. It is to make sure the creepy men who attacked me don’t come back. Why don’t you focus on that and leave the real detective work to the professionals?”
His fist tightened at his side, and I could tell his arm was trembling. Something like fear rose up inside of me, but I pressed it down. Logan wouldn’t hurt me.
“I’ve parachuted into an ocean and swam to shore where I faced enemy fire,” he said, his baritone voice low and shaking. “I’ve deactivated explosives, seen my friends blown to bits before my eyes, and killed more men than I can count.”
His green eyes were dark and stormy, and I realized too late that I’d pushed him too far. “Logan, I—”
“Your father may be paying me,” he said, taking a slow step towards me. “But you are not better than me. I am performing a service for you, but I am not your guard dog. I’m not some beast you can sic on your enemies and then rein in. I am a professional who was willing to sacrifice myself for your right to freedom, and now I am here to do a job, and if you can’t respect that, then maybe it is better for me to leave. Because I am not going to be bossed around by some little rich girl and made to feel less than. Do you understand me?”
It was the most I’d ever heard Logan say at one time, and I felt sick. Guilt and anger formed a toxic mixture inside of me. “Some little rich girl? Is that how you see me?”
Logan didn’t respond. He just clenched his jaw and looked at me. That was answer enough.
“Get out,” I said, pointing to the door.
His brows pulled together quickly. “Jade.”
“Get out,” I repeated, the words slipping out like individual cracks of a whip. “Don’t come by my apartment. Don’t come to my studio. Don’t show up anywhere I am. I don’t want to see you again. I’ll make sure you are paid what you are owed, but you are fired. Leave.”
Logan stared at me, and I could tell he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. He turned on his heel and stormed out of my studio. As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, I sagged against the table, curled my arms around my chest, and began to cry.
9
LOGAN
I STORMED DOWN THE BLOCK, stomping hard enough I was surprised I wasn’t leaving dents in the concrete. Blood rushed in my ears, and my fists refused to unclench.
Jade wouldn’t listen to me.
And more than that, she talked to me like I was a servant. A mindless mass of muscle to be used at her discretion. Even though I’d told her why I became a bodyguard, why I felt I was qualified to protect people, she refused to acknowledge that I might see things she didn’t. She refused to believe that I could be right about her friend.
Sure, I could have presented the idea more subtly, but I don’t think Jade ever would have listened to me. Because at the core, she didn’t respect me. She’d spent her life trying to prove she wasn’t some rich snobby girl, but that is exactly what she was.
I didn’t know if I really believed that, but it made me feel better as I got into my car and slammed the door. It still smelled like her, and I hurried to start the car and roll down the windows. I needed to forget about her. This was going to be another job in a long string of short-term employment, and I’d have to look for a new gig soon.
Luckily, her rich daddy had been paying me handsomely, so that bought me a little time, but still. I’d have to explain this to Mr. Armstrong. Tell him that I’d been fired from this job because I’d let my emotions get the better of me and insulted the client…after nearly fucking her in the back room. Maybe I’d leave that part out.
I pressed my forehead to the steering wheel and cursed. Loudly. Several times.
If anyone walked past my car, they probably thought I was a lunatic, but I didn’t look around to see. I just let it all out. The frustration, both mental and sexual, was going to rot away inside of
me if I didn’t get it out.
After a minute of cursing and pounding my hands on the steering wheel and all around acting like a petulant child, I sat up in my seat and took a deep breath. Surprisingly, I felt a lot less angry. I was also riddled with guilt.
Jade had opened up to me. I knew she was sensitive about her father’s money and that her relationship with him was strained, and as soon as tensions got high, I used that information to hurt her. I was a piece of shit.
I wanted to turn around and walk back into the studio, but I knew enough about Jade to know she’d sooner plunge a paintbrush through my eye than apologize. Not so soon after the fight, anyway. I had to give it some time. As I drove home, another realization began to sink in. Even if Jade did forgive me, I couldn’t work for her again. Even if our argument hadn’t driven us apart, the sex would have. We were getting hot and heavy in that back room, and there was no way that would end well for my placement as her bodyguard. Our business relationship was officially over.
When I got to a stop sign, I pulled out my phone and called Theo.
“Logan. Long time, man. How are things?” Theo asked. He was out of breath, and I could tell he was working out.
“This a bad time?”
“Great time,” he breathed. “I’m working out before I take Gemma out for lunch. I want to be a little musky for her.”
“I don’t want to hear that.” He and Gemma were disgusting together. They loved one another, which was nice, but they also had no boundaries.
Theo laughed. “You are so uptight. I thought working for an artsy type would loosen you up a bit.”
Good segway. “Actually, that’s why I’m calling—”
“Shit,” he hissed. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“What?”
“You got fired.” It was a statement, not a question. “What did you do?”
“What makes you think it was my fault?” I asked, trying to sound offended, but I couldn’t muster the energy.
“Well, was it?”
There was a long pause where I savored every second when he wasn’t sure, when he thought maybe I’d been the victim of another bad placement. Then, I sighed. “Yes, it was.”
Leaving out the finer details, including the steamy ones from the back room, I explained to him what happened with Faith and how Jade refused to listen to my theory.
“Did you have any proof Faith had done anything wrong?” he asked.
“No, but—”
“But nothing,” he said. “You should know by now that you can’t implicate close friends of your clients without proof. Serious proof. You might be their bodyguard, but you are the newcomer in her life. You have not earned the same level of trust from her as her friends and family. If you want my opinion, it sounds like you let your groping in the back room affect your judgment. You thought one make out session meant she should trust you.”
He was right, and I hated it. “You sure sound judgy for someone who dated one of their clients.”
“That might be true, but unlike you, I kept a hard line between business and pleasure,” he said. “I didn’t let our indiscretion affect my ability to do my job.”
I rolled my eyes and was glad Theo couldn’t see me. His bicep was as big as my head. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. She fired me.”
There was a long pause. “So?”
“So what?” I asked.
“So, you are going to let Jade continue to hang out with someone who might mean her harm, and you aren’t going to do anything about it?” he asked.
“What am I supposed to do? If you remember, she fired me.”
“Listen.” I heard the beep of his treadmill as he turned it off, and though he was still out of breath, I could tell words were coming more easily. “Think about how you will feel if you walk away and then something happens to her.”
My chest tightens at the thought of anything happening to Jade. Of the attackers coming back when she is alone in her studio. Of them taking her into the back room where we had kissed. Of them overpowering her and hurting her.
I blinked and realized I’d swerved out of my lane of traffic. I jerked the car back into my lane just as a truck blasted its horn.
“You will feel so guilty,” he said, his voice soft now. “You’ll never forgive yourself. Trust me, I know.”
“I know you do,” I said. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“You might not be her bodyguard anymore, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t responsible. Do what you have to do, Logan.”
I hung up the phone, cursed under my breath, and pulled a U-turn at the next intersection. Ten minutes later, I was parked at the end of the block, eyes trained on Jade’s studio.
* * *
NOTHING HAPPENED that first day or the next. Jade left the studio and went home. She didn’t go for a run the next morning, but went straight to the studio where she stayed all day, coming to the door only to accept her order from the Thai restaurant a few blocks away, and then went home again. Still, I sat and watched. Partly because I felt responsible for her safety and partly because I was way too much of a coward to walk into the studio and face her.
I wasn’t ready to apologize, and I wasn’t ready to hear whether she’d accept it or not. Jade had treated me poorly, but Theo had been right. It was my lack of professionalism that had caused all of this from the start. I shouldn’t have kissed her—even though it was amazing, and days later I could still feel her mouth on mine—and I shouldn’t have accused her friend of any wrongdoing without proof.
So, I followed her, keeping a safe distance and hiding in plain sight. I parallel parked between cars one block down from her apartment, so she couldn’t see my car from the steps of her building. I parked in front of the orthodontist office six doors down from her studio behind a hedge that was tall enough to hide most of my car, but trimmed enough that I could still see the door of her studio. I could see when it opened and closed, whether she was alone or with someone, and I could see when I needed to duck so she wouldn’t see me. It was a good system. Or, at least, as good as it was going to get for the time being.
I hated that I couldn’t ask her if she’d received any other notes or threats at the studio because I had a strong feeling one would show up soon. I wanted to believe the robbery at Dark Roast Coffee had no connection to the attack on Jade, but it seemed too coincidental. Two attacks on two different women who worked next door to one another in such a small timeframe was a big red flag, and I couldn’t let it go. Whether Faith was involved or not, it was strange.
Jade worked late the third night after our fight, and I was walking back to my car after using the restroom and buying a sandwich from the shop on the corner when I saw someone walked down the street ahead of me. It wasn’t illegal for anyone to walk down the sidewalk, but my sensors buzzed when I saw the figure. He wore dark clothes and kept his head low, hands stashed in his pockets. I followed about a block behind him, trying to convince myself I was just bored and tired. I was finding trouble where there wasn’t any. Following this guy was just an excuse to get closer to Jade, to walk past her studio, even.
I almost turned around and went back to my car when the man suddenly ducked into the alley. The same alley where Jade had been attacked. The same alley that intersected with a perpendicular alley in the middle of the block and allowed access to the back door of Jade’s studio.
I dropped my sandwich and ran.
The man hadn’t done anything wrong, and I couldn’t just tackle him, no matter how much I wanted to. The only thing I could do was get to Jade and make sure she was okay. If the man was innocent, going to see Jade would completely blow my cover. She’d probably call the police on me for being a definitional stalker. But if the man wasn’t innocent, if he had turned down that alley with evil thoughts in his head, then I had to get to Jade.
I sprinted past the alley and slid to a stop in front of the studio. The front display window lights were off, but the lights in the back were on
, and I could see Jade painting. She had her back turned to the front door and was standing in front of her easel, head tilted to the side in thought. She was wearing the gray wrap dress she was wearing the first day I’d seen her. The fabric washed over her curves, and I had to push through a lot of inappropriate thoughts. After taking a deep breath, I pulled on the handle of the front door. It clattered in the frame, and I saw the metal bolt had been slid into place. Good for her for being safe.
I raised a fist and knocked, but Jade didn’t turn around. That was when I noticed the black headphones over her ears. They had blended in with her hair, so I hadn’t noticed them right away. The points she’d earned for safely locking the door were now deducted for playing music so loud she couldn’t hear when someone was trying to break in through the front door.
Then, I paused. Maybe the headphones were a good thing. Everything appeared to be fine. No one had burst through her back door and attacked her, so I could just move away from the window, go back to my car, and Jade would never need to know. I could talk to her another time. I’d stop by the studio, apologize, make no mention of the fact that I let paranoia get the better of me.
I took a step away from the glass, preparing to go home and try to actually get some sleep. I was standing up thanks to the power of caffeine, and I could feel it’s magic starting to wane.
So, when I saw a shift in the shadows at the end of Jade’s studio hallway, I didn’t immediately react. My vision felt a little fuzzy, and since the adrenaline was beginning to seep from my veins, I felt sluggish. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on the darkness when I saw a large shape separate from the deep shadow.
Every nerve in my body bristled and stood to attention. Jade was still standing in front of her easel, oblivious to the danger lurking mere feet away in the hallway. I had to do something.
I spun away from the window, searching the ground for something, anything I could use. In a square of dirt around a skinny tree was a rock only slightly larger than my fist. It was white and chalky, jagged around the edges. It was perfect. Without hesitating, I grabbed it, reared my arm back, and then spun as I shot put the rock through the display window of Jade’s studio.