by Ava Benton
When he crouched in front of me and told me to remember that I had survived, I had almost felt good for the first time since the attack. I believed he would protect me.
Especially when I saw how big his brother was.
Damn. I pitied anybody who thought they could go up against those two.
“Are your cousins as big as you?” I asked when he dominated my sofa, arms stretched out along the back.
“Yeah. Not as big, but close,” he smirked.
“Wow. What are you, bodybuilders? Slate told me you’re ex-Special Ops. What do you do now?”
“The sort of thing we’re doing here. But since you’re wondering, yeah, we lift weights.”
I got the feeling he was laughing at me and wasn’t sure why. I couldn’t be the only girl to ever comment on his size. I realized I was probably talking too much. It wouldn’t the first time my mouth got away from me.
I heard the bathroom door open and guessed Slate was picking up his clothes. The image of him being naked in my bathroom—not just naked, but wet—made me blush. He was really something. I wondered what Mom would’ve thought of him and his brother.
“So what happens now?” I asked, anything to take my mind off of him.
Slate’s voice rang out behind me as he walked out of the bathroom and through my bedroom. “Now, we find this fucker and make sure he can’t hurt anybody again.”
“Well said,” Roan murmured. He had a dry sense of humor and was obviously very smart.
“How will you do that?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Slate replied. His hair was wet, dripping down over his shoulders and chest. Beads of water soaked into his shirt.
I swallowed hard and reminded myself that I was feeling vulnerable and not thinking clearly. He wasn’t a hero. Somebody was probably paying him. But who?
“Okay, if that doesn’t matter, why don’t you tell me why you’re actually here? Who sent you? You know what happened to me and I’m not sure how word got out. But who sent you?” I couldn’t imagine. I didn’t know that many people—certainly nobody with the resources to hire private protection.
They exchanged glances. “You probably don’t know what a big deal it was that a shifter attacked you,” Roan said.
“No, I do. That’s not kosher.”
Slate snorted. “Something like that, yeah.”
“So, what? Will a bunch of shifters come after me now so I’ll shut up?”
They looked at each other again.
I got the feeling they were having an entire conversation without saying a word, and it creeped me out.
“We came here to offer you protection,” Roan said.
I already knew that and was about to tell him so when he continued.
“We’ve been authorized to offer to cover all moving expenses should you choose to leave town,” he added.
Slate winced.
So did I. “What do you mean, leave town? Why would I leave town?”
“For your safety,” he said. “Our client has enough money to ensure that you’re well taken care of. He’s willing to provide everything you need.”
I sat down on an end chair. Hard. “I don’t understand this. The guy who attacked me, who was he? Some sort of big shot?”
Slate made a noise in the back of his throat to cut Roan off. “I’ll put it to you straight.”
“I wish somebody would,” I muttered.
“It’s in our client’s best interest that you not reveal to the authorities what happened to you.”
“I haven’t told anybody,” I said as my heart rate doubled. I looked at Roan, then back at Slate. “Remember, I told you I left the hospital before the cops came. I didn’t want to talk to anybody about it. I was too ashamed and scared.”
“I know. The client knows that, too. Still, he wants to be sure. If the human community finds out what happened to you, it might be enough to start a massive raft of shit between them and the shifters.”
My eyes slid shut. I finally understood. “You’re not here for me. You’re here for him. You want to make your client happy.”
“That’s not true.” Slate stood in front of me.
I looked up at him. I believed him. I trusted him. It was weird; there was something in his eyes that made me trust him—fully.
He locked gazes with me. “I want to be sure that bastard doesn’t come back to finish the job. We are going to stop him for good.”
“But it would be better if you were out of town,” Roan spoke up behind him.
I leaned to the side so I could see him and he could see me—and how serious I was. “That’s not going to happen.”
He looked around. “Can’t bear to leave all this?”
“Dude,” Slate growled.
I didn’t let Roan’s sarcasm get to me. “I can’t bear to leave my mom. She’s in a nursing home. Remember? You’re the one who was following me earlier today.”
Roan made a self-depracating grimace. “I didn’t know. I apologize. But that doesn’t change anything.”
“It sure as hell does,” I muttered. I didn’t care how big he was or who he thought he was.
“Okay, okay. Let’s all be cool.” Slate looked down at me, and I couldn’t be completely sure, but it looked like he was trying to hide a smile. “I guess that means you don’t want to leave town.”
“That’s right. I know she’s getting good care there, but I’m not just going to leave town and never see her again. I won’t abandon her.”
“What if she transferred to another facility?” Roan suggested.
I shook my head. “Listen, I get that you’re trying to help, and you’ve got a client to answer to, but that’s not going to happen. They know her at her place. She’s been there ever since her stroke. And she knows them, which matters even more to me. She can’t speak or really communicate much at all, but they know what she needs when she needs it. I won’t make her go through breaking in another team.”
“Understood,” Slate said, shooting Roan a look that probably told him to shut the hell up if he knew what was good for him.
And rightly so, because I had no patience for him just then. It was always easy for people who didn’t have a relative in a condition like hers to tell me what I ought to do.
Roan stood, towering over me.
I gulped, but he wasn’t looking at me.
He was looking at his brother. “Can I speak to you in the outside?” he muttered.
Slate nodded and followed him out.
Obviously, I got up and tiptoed to the door around a second after they closed it. I could only make out little bits and pieces of the conversation.
“…supposed to do with her?” That was Roan.
Boy, he sounded pissed; I was making his life difficult. Poor baby. He had no idea.
“Here?” Slate asked.
“You think you could do that?”
“…don’t know, but…”
“Crazy!”
“Vincent… not happy…”
I scurried back to my chair when the knob turned and was sitting where they’d left me by the time the door opened. I thought Slate might have known I was listening, though.
He had a funny look on his face, but he didn’t say anything to give me away.
“Do you absolutely need to be here? In this apartment, I mean?”
I grimaced. It wasn’t much, but it was my home. “What’s the alternative?”
“A hotel. A nice one.”
“Slate…” Roan warned.
“He could afford to move her to a new town, he can afford a fucking hotel,” he snapped.
Roan stepped down.
Slate turned back to me. “What do you think?”
“How long?” I asked.
“I don’t know. We’ll take care of this as fast as we can. That’s all I can promise.”
I tossed the idea around in my head. “Why do I have to leave at all?”
He looked uncomfortable. “Because you can’t be alone right now. Just in cas
e you decide to start talking to the wrong people.”
“Which means…” I was starting to understand what it meant, but I wasn’t sure if I felt comfortable.
“Which means one of us would be with you at all times.”
That was what I thought.
8
Slate
“This is fucking nuts,” Roan growled as Maggie packed in her room with the door closed between us.
“The whole thing is nuts. It’s nuts for Vincent to think he can just pack this girl up and shove money down her throat to get her to shut up. Not everything’s about money. He doesn’t understand that.”
“Get off your high horse,” Roan warned. “Don’t pretend you’re acting like this all because of a deep sense of justice.”
“Acting like what?” I asked, more defensive than I wanted to sound.
“Like you’re gonna take care of this girl, protect her, like she’s being treated unfairly. Like Vincent is wrong for wanting to protect his clan.”
“I’m not against that. I just think he should be a little more thoughtful. The girl can’t just pick up and leave everything because he wants her to. And she’s freaked out after the attack, but she’s not shattered.” I smirked. “She would’ve chewed you up and spat you out if I didn’t stop her.”
I half expected him to get annoyed, but he grinned instead. “Yeah, she’s got a spine.” He grew serious then, and his smile faded. “Who’s gonna stay with her, then? I guess you’re the person you had in mind.”
I shook my head like I had never considered it. “No. I didn’t have anybody in mind.”
“Right,” he smirked.
“I didn’t.”
“Well, I think it’ll be you by default. Carter and Drew are much better at the legwork than we are. They’ll be out and around, probably looking to find out who the shifter talked to and where he was when he did it. Which means they won’t be around to watch her all the time.”
“What about you?”
He chuckled. “Yeah. Let me tell Hope I plan to stay with a girl cute enough to play Snow White. See how long my balls are still attached to my body.”
I chuckled, too. He was right, and I was counting on that, anyway.
Hope would never go for it, no matter how much she trusted him. She knew what happened when a girl in distress got too physically close to men like us, seeing as how that was how they got together in the first place.
“So it’ll be me,” I said with a shrug.
“Stop pretending you don’t care either way,” he said. “You’re not a good actor.”
“Stop busting my balls for a minute, okay?” I folded my arms and looked out the window at the grim parking lot. Anything would be an improvement over this place.
“I’ll go out and call Mary and make the arrangements. Vincent will probably go for it if we promise to make it quick. Hell, if we can take this guy out, there’s no reason for her to flap her gums about the attack. We’ll be saving him a lot of money in the long run.” He went out to the hall for his call, leaving me alone.
I couldn’t believe the situation I was suddenly in.
The thing was, I didn’t hate it. Not a little bit. Even if one of the other guys had stayed in a room with her, I would want to check on her constantly.
I’d need to see for myself that she was safe and well. Not that I didn’t trust them—I trusted them with my life—but it wouldn’t be enough for me when she was involved.
The memory of the blood on the driver’s seat and steering wheel, the way she had trembled and cried when she remembered the way the shifter had been hiding behind her car. Waiting for her. He could wait for her anywhere. What if he was still looking for her?
“I think I have what I need,” she said when she opened the bedroom door. She wheeled a large suitcase and dragged a smaller one behind her. “My costumes and stuff are all at work, so I don’t have to pack them.”
“Work?”
She frowned. “Of course. I have to go to work in a couple of days. They’ll fire me for sure otherwise.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think you should stay out of there for a while.”
“Not possible.” She put her hands on her hips. “I can’t give up my life, remember? I need a job.”
“We could arrange something.”
“No, you couldn’t. I love working there, and they’re good to me, but everybody has a limit.” She tapped her foot, looking over my shoulder as she thought about things. “What if I could arrange something else?”
“Like what?”
She grinned. “You want to follow me everywhere? Maybe your client, whoever he is, could pull some strings. As long as you don’t mind being around a lot of kids.”
It finally hit me. “You mean, follow you around at work?”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“I’m gonna have to give that one some thought.”
“Hey—I thought you wanted to stick to me like glue.” There was a wicked look in her eyes. She was enjoying the thought of me stuck with a bunch of screaming, smelly kids all day.
The front door opened. “Okay. I think we’re all systems go.” He picked up Maggie’s suitcase without any effort, then grabbed the other one.
“That easily?” she asked.
“Easy for us. Maybe not so easy for the person who has to make these arrangements—but that’s not our problem.”
“If you say so. I’ll follow your lead on this.”
Roan left the apartment with the bags in tow.
Maggie waited for me to step out before locking the door behind us. “You seem to be taking this a lot better now,” I observed as we walked down the hall toward the stairs.
“Yeah. I guess I am.” She shook her head, then shrugged. “I guess because I don’t feel alone anymore. I have you guys with me now. There’s a lot to be said for that.”
“It makes sense. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.” I wondered if that were true for me, the one who was going to have to stay with her and maybe go to work with her and be around her delicious scent for who knew how long.
I could almost see why a shifter would risk everything to attack her.
9
Slate
“This is gorgeous!” Maggie’s jaw dropped when she stepped into the suite. I couldn’t blame her—it was pretty nice. I had stayed in hotels all over the U.S. and in several countries around the world while working with Mary and the rest of the team, so I had a pretty deep well of experience to draw from.
“As we said, the client has plenty of money. He doesn’t mess around.”
“Clearly not,” she murmured as she walked around, running her fingers over the silk sofa and matching chairs, the mahogany coffee table, the granite countertop dividing the living room from the kitchen.
I was impressed with how far the hotel had gone to set the kitchen up with state-of-the-art appliances—how often could it possibly be used? I knew I wasn’t staying in a hotel to do my own cooking or even to hire somebody to do it for me in my suite. That was what restaurants and room service were for.
“And it’s a suite,” I felt the need to remind her, “so there’s plenty of room for the two of us.”
“Room? Jesus Christ, this place is roughly twenty times the size of my apartment. We could house an entire extended family in this place.”
She turned to me with a smile—when I saw how comfortable and relaxed she was, I couldn’t help but smile in return.
I wondered what kind of girl she was when she didn’t fear for her life. Smart, sarcastic, and she didn’t take shit from anybody.
My kind of girl.
Dangerous thinking; it wasn’t like we could be a part of each other’s lives.
“I figured you would want space of your own. I don’t want you to feel crowded, you know? Not after…”
The frown came back, and there were little lines between her eyebrows when she spoke. “Yes. Thank you. That’s really thoughtful.”
�
�You sound surprised,” I grinned.
“What can I say?” She sat on one of the silk-covered couches—gingerly, I noticed. “You meet a guy like you, you and your brother both, and you don’t expect thoughtfulness.”
“No? What do you expect?”
“Thugs,” she teased. “Meatheads. People who can’t string more than a couple of words together at a time.”
“Me read books sometimes,” I growled, pointing to myself.
She threw her head back and laughed. “Good job, Thor.”
“Anyway, do you think you’ll be comfortable here?” I asked, struggling to come up with things to say to break what was going to very quickly become uncomfortable tension.
I was in a ridiculously expensive hotel suite with a girl whose eyes and mouth I couldn’t stop looking at.
“I’d better unpack,” I said as I picked up my bag. “And by the way, I’ll even take the smaller room. You’re welcome.”
“Generous, too,” she giggled.
The sound followed me into the smaller bedroom—which was not small, not by any stretch of the imagination. I closed the door and leaned against it, letting out the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
I had never been so eager for a case to wrap up, and we had hardly gotten started.
Her scent called to me. The light in her eyes called to me, too, and the way she smiled and the way she thought. And the way she needed protection. She needed it badly, more than she knew.
Of course, she had no idea what I was. That I was just like the shifter who had attacked her. Well, maybe not just like him—but that wouldn’t satisfy her. To her, we would all be the same.
And she was just somebody I needed to take care of until the client was satisfied. That was all. Nothing more than that. I had to keep the line from blurring.
My phone rang. It was Roan, calling from downstairs in the room he was still sharing with the others.
“How’s it going up there?” he asked with a knowing smirk in his voice.
“Just fine. I think this will do well.”
“I’m sure it will.”
“Could you give it a rest, please?” I asked as I dropped my suitcase on the bed.