Page 54 of Playing with Trouble

“At least there’s that,” she said with relief.

We parted ways with Laney and Brian, and Ford and I headed back to his place.

A good five minutes of silence passed between us before I finally spoke.“I thought…”

“I did, too,” he said, before I could finish.

I swallowed hard, my fingers twisting together in my lap.“I’m so sorry, Ford.If anything happened to her because of me—”

“But nothing did,” he said, shaking his head as he glanced at me for a quick second before returning his eyes to the road.“It was morning sickness and bad timing.Nobody was after you.”

My guilt didn’t ease.“But if something had happened…” My voice trembled despite my best effort to keep it together.“Your family shouldn’t be at risk because of me.Because of my situation.”

Ford reached across the console and took my hand, his palm warm, his thumb drawing slow, grounding circles against my skin.“Look,” he said quietly, his tone measured but gentle.“In my line of work, we deal with collateral damage all the time.Sometimes a bystander gets caught up in something they had nothing to do with.It’s horrible.The target always blames themselves.The bodyguard does too.But the only person at fault is the one who caused the harm.Always.”

He paused, his thumb still skimming over my knuckles.“If Laney had been hurt—and she wasn’t—it wouldn’t have been your fault.Or mine.It would have been theirs.”

“I know you’re being logical,” I said softly.“But logic doesn’t exactly help when I’m responsible for puttingyourfamily in danger.”

He gave my hand a light squeeze before letting go.“I get that.But I’ve seen what guilt like that does to people, and I’m not going to let you carry something like that when no one was harmed today.”

“But she could have been,” I argued.

He exhaled a breath.“In my experience, I can pretty much assure you that whoever is harassing you isn’t trying to kill you.If they were, we’d be looking at something very different, like a real, physical attack.What’s happened so far with your car being sideswiped, your place being trashed, it’s intimidation tactics.And a warning.”

“A warning?”I frowned, my pulse kicking up.“About what?”

“That’s what I want to find out,” he said grimly, his eyes going between the road and his rearview mirror.“What’s happening with you is very deliberate.If someonehadtampered with Laney’s drink, I would’ve guessed it was meant to make you sick, maybe disoriented.Not kill you.Just scare you.So we’re back to square one, still trying to figure out what this person wants from you.”

Frustration coursed through me.“That doesn’t exactly make me feel better.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.”Ford made a left hand turn, then glanced at me.“The important thing is that Laney is okay.Nothing went wrong today.It was just bad timing with the Gatorade and her morning sickness.”

Shaking thosewhat ifsspinning in my head wasn’t easy.“But if shehadbeen—” The words stuck in my throat.

“No,” he cut in firmly.“Violet, this is my area of expertise.When it comes to protecting you, you need to trust me on this.”

Trust.That word landed like a stone in my chest.Every man I’d ever known had made trust feel like a setup for disappointment.My father, my mother’s boyfriends, the guys Christopher hung around, and even Andrea’s ex who’d broken her down and made her doubt herself and her desires.Every single one had proved that trusting a man was dangerous.Foolish.Weak.

But Ford wasn’t like them.

“I do trust you when it comes to protecting me,” I admitted quietly.

His gaze softened, lingering on me for a beat longer than necessary.“Then trust me when I say that if anything had happened, we would have caught it in time, just like we did today with Laney by getting her to urgent care immediately.”

I nodded, but my throat was too tight for words.

Ford parked in the underground garage, and we rode the elevator up to his floor in silence.The weight of everything that hadn’t happened—everything thatcouldhave happened—pressed down on me until I could barely breathe.

We showered.Ate an early dinner.Neither of us spoke much.Ford kept glancing at me like he wanted to say something, but whatever it was, he held it back.I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it anyway.

I hated to admit it but I was scared of whoever was out there threatening me.But mostly, I was scared of Ford and how much he made me feel.

I needed space to sort through the mess in my head—the fear, the guilt, the longing.Especially the longing.Because wanting Ford felt almost as dangerous as whoever was out there.

“I think I’ll sleep in the guest bedroom tonight,” I told him, after we cleaned up from dinner.

Ford’s expression flickered, disappointment warring briefly in his eyes before he pushed it down and adopted a neutral expression.“Sure,” he said quietly.“Whatever makes you comfortable.”