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Getting to his feet, Noah prepared to face the barrage of questions that was coming their way from the cops, but his main focus continued to be keeping Rowe and his friends alive.Chapter 20Ian sat in his office doing the part of his job he enjoyed the least. Paperwork. He wanted to rush through it so he could get to the next thing on his schedule—planning his Thanksgiving dinner—because it was less than two weeks away. But even menu preparation failed to keep his attention. This first major family holiday without Mel was going to be a challenge for them all and again, he’d have to think about the fact he walked away from that wreck when she hadn’t. He rubbed his thigh, wondering if the break had truly never healed or if he was cursed with phantom pain. A permanent ghostly reminder of guilt.
Sighing, he tried focusing on the numbers in front of him, feeling antsy and so unbelievably restless he wanted to crawl out of his own skin. He hadn’t put up a fuss about Sven becoming his shadow again because lately he’d felt the prickly sensation of eyes on him. It came at odd moments, and a couple of times he’d felt it in his own home. And he kept the blinds shut most of the time now—ever since Snow had told him about Gratton watching him in his own bedroom.
He shivered, wishing not for the first time that his friend had kept that part to himself. He knew Snow had only told him to get him to shut his blinds at night, but he’d dealt with a return of fear that had taken him months to get past. He’d never let Snow know that or about the insomnia he fought so hard as a result.
His eyes burned now with exhaustion and he blinked as the numbers on the screen in front of him blurred. He rubbed his eyes.
Just knowing Dwight Gratton had been watching him…
There were several men in his past he wished to never hear about or see again and Dwight Gratton had been at the top of the list. He’d even surpassed Ian’s fear of Boris Jagger and that took something since he’d spent two years of his life in hell with Jagger.
If he didn’t love Lucas, Snow and Rowe so much, he would have moved far from Cincinnati years ago. Every instinct he had screamed run every time the man’s name came up in the news and it had been often lately. But those three men who’d swooped in and changed his life meant everything to him and he couldn’t imagine life without them. He had a real family that he would do anything to protect.
And it killed him that his past kept putting them in danger.
He heard a clatter from the kitchen and every hair on his body stood at attention. He opened his mouth to call Sven’s name but his voice caught in the lump of terror lodged in his throat. The old, familiar fear slammed into him like a punch to the gut. He stood quietly and picked up the baseball bat he kept next to his desk. Rowe had given him a gun, but he hated the damn thing.
It could be Sven out there, but he’d noticed the man cleared his throat when he entered a room, a nice way to alert the person he protected that he was there. People gave up a lot of privacy with bodyguards.
He hated the way his hands shook as he quietly moved toward the open door of his office. He was stronger now, capable of taking care of himself and he would never, ever let anyone hurt him again. But sometimes…sometimes the fear was strong enough to leak through his barriers.
Just as he reached the door, there was a horrendous crash and a series of grunts. He ran through the maze of stainless steel to find Sven on top of someone on the floor near the back door. As he crept closer, Sven’s head snapped back and he yelled before lifting one massive fist, obviously ready to pummel whoever was underneath him.
“No!” Ian yelled when he saw the prostrate man’s furious face amidst the remains of broken plates.
Hollis Banner growled and yanked Sven down to head butt him before Ian could stop it. Sven let out a sort of roar. Ian panicked and jumped on his back. “No!” he yelled right in the man’s ear. “He’s a friend. A friendly! Cease fire!”
Sven stopped moving the second Ian’s slighter body hit his back. Ian had noticed when Sven had guarded him all those months that he seemed to have an unnatural fear of hurting anyone smaller than him—though most people were. Smaller, that was. Even Hollis, who was several inches over six feet and muscled, didn’t have the massive bulk of Sven. But Sven was especially careful around guys built like him.
