by Cynthia Eden
Only he’d gotten to play the hero. Rushing to the rescue.
And Gwen…Gwen had no clue that the guy was as twisted as they came.
He marched toward his desk. Keyed up the computer. Gwen’s purse was on the floor beside his chair, and he kicked it out of the way. He hadn’t cared about the purse, but it gave him a good cover. If she’d called the cops, they would just think he’d been mugging her. They wouldn’t know what he’d really been doing.
No one would know. After all, he was very good at this type of work. An expert.
He typed in his password. Got the system linked and up and running and…
The feed slipped right up on his screen. He smiled when he saw the interior of Gwen’s apartment. But that smile froze on his lips when he realized that Gwen Hawthorne wasn’t alone.
Fucking bastard.
This was really going to mess up the plans that had been put in place.
***
Gwen shook her head. Her thick, blonde hair slid over her shoulders. “That’s not exactly a scene that a girl can forget.” She swallowed. “I had to pull you off him.”
His hands had clenched into fists. Hell. Chance forced his body to relax. Ethan wasn’t there. Gwen was safe.
That one night was etched in his memory. The night his self-control had broken. He’d already told Gwen all about Ethan’s past by that point. Her father had been the one to give Chance that particular dirty job. He’d had to break the news to her. Chance had stood there while pain and horror flashed across Gwen’s face.
After that, she’d broken up with Ethan Barclay. Kicked the guy’s ass out of her life.
Chance had gone to Gwen’s apartment that fateful night. Gwen had been hurting—because of me—and he’d just wanted to take her pain away. But he hadn’t. Gwen hadn’t wanted him there. She’d told him to leave, that she had to be alone. Chance had roamed the city and then found himself back at her apartment, staring up at the window. He’d hated for her to be in pain. Hated the thought of her tears.
Then he’d seen Ethan’s car parked near the corner of her street. His instincts had gone into overdrive and he’d found himself racing to her building.
“Why did you come back that night?” Gwen asked him now.
He rolled his shoulders, trying to push away tension that just wouldn’t vanish. “I knew you were hurting, and I didn’t want you to be alone. I was coming back to…talk. And then I saw his car.” His breath eased out. “I was at your front door when I heard you scream.” He’d broken that damn door and rushed inside. Gone straight to the bedroom. He’d kicked in that door, too, and when he’d see Gwen in bed and that bastard Ethan looming over her…
“I’d never seen you like that.” Now her voice was soft. Her eyes slid over his face. “You just…erupted. I had to pull you off him.”
Because he’d wanted to destroy the bastard. “He broke into your home.”
She nodded. “I sure didn’t invite the guy back. After what you’d told me, did you believe for a second that I had?”
With her scream ringing in his ears, he hadn’t exactly been thinking straight. Just feeling. Following a primitive instinct to protect.
“Ethan said he came here that night to talk with me. Because I’d been ignoring his phone calls. He wanted to tell me the truth about his past.”
Fuck that. “The truth is that he’s a criminal. A bastard who beat his ex-girlfriend up so badly that she wound up in the hospital. I wasn’t going to let him do that to you.” A simple fact. “I wasn’t—”
“You were doing your job. Protecting the boss’s daughter. That was your thing, right? Your assignment. To eliminate all possible threats.”
It had been one hell of a lot more than an assignment.
“I can’t help but wonder…are you doing your job now, too?”
If he said that her father had come to his office, Chance had no doubt that she would kick him out of her home right then. He didn’t want that to happen and he also didn’t want to lie to her. So, very carefully, he said, “I will do anything necessary to protect you. Always. From any threat.” He held her gaze. “Now I think you’re the one who needs to start sharing your secrets. That man tonight…was that the first time you’ve had an encounter like that? Is something else going on? Is—”
She paced toward her window. Stared out. “I’ve gotten…phone calls, okay? Late night phone calls from numbers that I don’t recognize. Numbers that I can’t trace. The callers would never say anything. Just silence. I turned the phones off but…” One shoulder lifted and fell. “When I’d turn them back on, there would be dozens of messages. Messages made of nothing but silence and the occasional whisper that I couldn’t even understand.” She looked back at him. “It was probably just some kids playing games, but it made me nervous, so I got a new number.”
He waited.
“I got a new number a few times,” she confessed. “But…but I haven’t seen anyone. No one has been in my house or at my gallery.” The gallery…her gallery. The place she’d built from the ground up. She didn’t just showcase her work there. She showed the work of up and coming artists. She gave them a chance to shine in D.C. She loved that damn gallery. But lately…I’ve been nervous there. I hate to work alone at the gallery late at night. My spine tingles and I wonder…am I really alone? Gwen cleared her throat. “I just…I’ve had some kids prank calling me.” She rubbed her arms. “I can’t go running for help every time my phone rings.”
He crossed to her side. Stood close, but didn’t touch her. His control was already a near thing and one touch might push him over the line. “You can run to me any time you want.”
He heard her breath catch. “Months pass,” she whispered, “and I don’t see you. Now, suddenly, you’re back in my life?”
“You’re the one who told me to leave.” Shit. He hadn’t meant to say those words. But they were right there. Right between them. When he’d burst into her apartment, when he’d put Ethan in the hospital, she’d stared at him as if Chance had been a stranger.
Stay away from me. Her desperate whisper had haunted him for too many nights.
Until he couldn’t stay away any longer.
“I was kind of in the middle of a break down right then. My ex had just broken into my apartment and you’d gone all crazy bad-ass fighter on me. Things like that will shake up a woman.” She licked her lips. “I…missed you.”
Because he’d been her confidant. For years. Her father hadn’t let many people get close to Gwen, and when Chance came on board, Gwen had gravitated toward him. She’d been living at her father’s place back then, and they’d shared late-night dinners. They’d gone for early morning runs. He’d gotten used to her being the first person he saw when he woke up in the morning, and the last sight he had before bed.
And she got beneath my skin.
Then things had changed. One night…on Christmas Eve, he’d been weak. He’d almost given in to his need for Gwen. Too late, he’d pulled back, but he’d hurt her.
Gwen had moved out of her father’s house. A few months later, she’d fucked that bastard Ethan. And she’d seen Chance for the man he really was.
Stay away from me.
Now she reached out. Her fingers skimmed along his jaw.
Did she have any clue how long he’d wanted her touch? How he’d dreamed about her? Dreamed of the things he wanted to do to her? “I got tired of staying away,” he told her, his voice close to a growl.
She inched closer to him. “You’re not working for my father anymore. So that whole…not crossing the work line doesn’t apply any longer, right?”
“We can cross any line we want.” He wanted to cross every line with her right then. He wanted to take her, right there, to claim her as he should have done so long ago. Then there would have been no fear from Gwen. No threat from Ethan. It would have just been the two of them.
“I want you,” Gwen said, staring up at him. “But I’m afraid.”
No, no, no. He didn’t wa
nt her afraid of him. “I’d never hurt you.”
Her smile was bittersweet. “You could destroy me, and you’d never have to lift a hand to do it.”
“Gwen—”
“Ethan didn’t matter, not enough to break me. You…you’re different.” She backed away, almost hitting the window. “You should go now.”
The last thing he wanted to do was leave. He wanted to stay right there with her. All night long.
“I’m safe. You protected me.” Her head inclined toward him as her hair brushed lightly over her shoulders. “Again. So you can go home knowing that I’m all good for the night.”
“Or I could stay here, with you, and make absolutely certain that you’re…good…for the night.”
Her pupils expanded. For an instant, he saw desire blazing in her eyes. His heart thundered in his chest because he was so very close to the one thing he wanted most.
“I’m not going to make a mistake again.” She shook her head. “So for tonight, it’s good-bye.”
“But your locks—you need them changed—”
“I’ll secure the deadbolt again when you leave. And I’ll put a chair under the door.”
She’s kicking me out. His back teeth clenched, but he leaned forward, and, after a tense moment, he pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “If anything happens, if you get scared, call me.”
“I will.”
She walked him to the door. Gazed at him a little wistfully as he slipped out of her apartment, then she shut the door in his face.
Hell. Getting back into Gwen’s good graces wasn’t going to be nearly as easy as he’d hoped.
***
Gwen was being a good girl. She’d just sent that bastard on his way. Locked the door. Now she was pacing her apartment. Looking a little lost.
And completely alone.
He leaned toward his screen. She had no idea the hell that was coming her way. She thought she was safe.
There was no safety.
Before he was done, Gwen would know that. Gwen would know what it was like to lose everything.
Every fucking thing. It was his job to make sure she suffered before the end came.
***
Gwen’s light was still on.
Chance sat in his car, darkness all around him, and peered up at her apartment. He could see her silhouette near the window.
A light rap came from the passenger side of the car. He’d known that Lex was there, so he unlocked the door and let the guy inside.
“Huh…kind of figured you’d be doing the surveillance from inside her apartment,” Lex said as he handed Chance a burger from the local fast food joint. “Guess you struck out tonight, huh?”
“Screw off,” Chance told him as he tossed the wrapped burger onto the dashboard. “I want to know how the hell you lost that van.”
Lex winced. “The clubs are all letting out, man. Traffic two roads over is a bitch. The guy knew that. He planned it. He disappeared in that maze and there was no catching him. At least…not yet.”
Chance waited.
“I’ve got some connections we can use. I’m already pulling strings to get access to the traffic cams in the area. We might get lucky and spot the guy on video. If we do, we’ll find him. The guy only slipped away for the time being. He’s not gone for good.”
He’d better not be.
“So are we still looking at the ex? Ethan Barclay? You think the guy got obsessed and can’t let go?”
“Ethan has a history of obsession.” And violence. “Three years ago, his ex-fiancée was killed in a car crash, one week after she’d broken up with him. Then he had another girlfriend, Marjorie…she wound up in the hospital, with broken ribs and a concussion. She filed charges against him, but then…hell, I don’t know what happened. She dropped the charges and vanished. He got away clean.” His fingers tapped against the steering wheel. “So, yeah, I think it’s safe to say the man may have one serious problem with rejection.”
Lex whistled. “Sounds like a serious asshole.”
“Ethan has had plenty of brushes with the law, but nothing has stuck. The guy has been in and out of jail more times than I can count. Or at least, he was, until he turned eighteen. Since then—”
“He’s gotten smarter about avoiding arrest,” Lex guessed.
Chance nodded. “That’s what I figure.” The guy sure hadn’t gone legit.
Gwen’s lights turned off.
Chance tensed.
“Um, man, are you sure he’s the only one obsessed?”
Very slowly, Chance turned his head to stare at his friend.
“What I mean…” Lex rushed to say. “What I mean is that until we have proof that Ethan is our guy, we have to keep our options open.”
Damn straight they did.
Lex bit into his burger. “And I also meant…” He mumbled around the food, “that you’ve got it bad for her.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
He stared back up at Gwen’s window.
***
Her phone rang. Gwen turned in her bed, moving so that her gaze fell on the phone that rested nearby. The phone was on the nightstand and when it rang again, it vibrated, moving slightly against the wooden surface.
She reached out and her fingers curled around the phone. She swiped her finger across the screen. Gwen didn’t recognize the number. She shouldn’t answer it—
She did.
“Hello?” Gwen put the phone to her ear.
Nothing.
Another one of those damn calls.
“This isn’t funny,” she snapped. “Stop calling me. I’m sick of this game, got it?”
She heard the quick exhalation of breath and then… “Never said it was a game.”
The voice was a low, rough rasp. Her heart actually stopped when the man spoke.
“Who is this?” Gwen demanded.
“You smelled good tonight.” He was still talking in that low, raspy voice, as if he wanted to disguise himself. “Like vanilla. You use that vanilla lotion, don’t you? Put it all over your body.”
She pulled the covers closer. She did use vanilla lotion. She kept it on the vanity in her bathroom.
“Scared?” He laughed then. “Are you going to sink under the covers and wish this monster would go away?”
Sink under the covers…
She had sunk beneath the covers.
“Too bad, princess. I’m not some bad dream you can wish away.” His voice roughened. “You’re not going to escape from me.”
“Who is th-this?” She hated that her voice trembled.
“I like those panties you’re wearing. They’re sexy. But you should have ditched the shirt.”
Before she’d climbed into bed, she’d pulled on a pair of bright red panties and an old college t-shirt.
He saw me. It was suddenly hard to breathe.
Sink under the covers…
She was inching even deeper beneath those covers. Dear God…was he watching her right then? Was he in her apartment? “Leave me alone,” she told him.
“Never,” he promised.
The line went dead.
The silence was suddenly too thick. Too terribly thick and consuming. Every muscle in her body was tight because she was afraid that she wasn’t alone.
She’d woken once before and found a man in her bedroom. Ethan had reached out to her and she’d screamed.
Was he back? Had he come for her again?
Maybe her father had been right. Dammit, she hated it when he was right and—
Something scratched against her window. With a sharp cry, Gwen leapt from the bed and raced out of her bedroom.
Chapter Three
Chance’s phone rang. He frowned down at the screen, but he answered quickly. “Valentine—”
“He’s watching me.”
Chance would have recognized Gwen’s voice anywhere. Anytime. But he sure didn’t like the fear that trembled in her words.
“I-I searched my apartment, twice, but the t
hings he said when he called me…he has to be here. He has to be close. He’s watching me.”
“Gwen, baby, slow down.” But he was already reaching for his car door. He motioned to Lex, covered the phone and said… “Keep an eye out.”
Then he was leaping out of the car. The snow was falling even harder. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“He called again.” She wasn’t slowing down. Her words were shooting out in rapid-fire succession. “What he said…he had to see me. He knew how I smelled.”
Chance was in her apartment building and running for the stairs.
“He knew what I was wearing. My…my panties. The t-shirt.”
Chance was on the second level of stairs.
“He could see me,” she said, her words rough. “But I can’t find him. I can’t!”
Chance was on her floor. “Baby, open your door. I’m here.”
He could hear the quick thud of her footsteps. Then the door flew open and Gwen was there. She saw him and she threw herself against him. His arms closed around her¸ the movement as natural as breathing. She trembled against him.
Gwen still had her phone gripped tightly in her hand as she eased back to stare up at him. “He was watching, but he isn’t here. He isn’t.”
He could hear her fear and he hated that she was so terrified. No one should do this to her.
Without her heels, Gwen stood at only five foot four in front of him. She seemed far too delicate standing there. Too breakable.
“He said I wasn’t going to escape from him.” She glanced back over her shoulder and into her apartment. Chance realized that she’d turned on every light in the place. “He said I’d never get away.”
The SOB was dead wrong.
***
An hour later, Chance had Gwen safely installed at his place. He’d sent Lex to thoroughly search her apartment and to go ahead and change her locks. Chance had done a sweep before they’d left the place, and he knew that the guy harassing Gwen hadn’t actually been inside her home. At least, not when the jerkoff had called her.
But he was watching her.
Which meant the guy had probably wired the place. Chance didn’t think the incident from earlier had been a mugging gone wrong. Hell, no. He thought that bastard had just planted cameras or bugs at Gwen’s place. Only she’d arrived home before the guy could make his getaway. And with Gwen so close, the guy hadn’t been able to resist grabbing her.