“No one knows about this place. There is no cell service so you can’t be tracked either, and I’ll never let you out of my sight.” I close the distance between us and meet her gaze. “No one can find you here, Birdie.”
“Should I be relieved or more scared?”
“I installed the CCTV system myself. It covers every inch and has multiple levels of security to stop any hacking attempts for each camera individually and—”
“That’s not what I meant.”
I swallow, catching the undercurrent in her voice. Swirling in the blue of her eyes is something beyond fear now, something that makes my pulse quicken in an entirely different way.
“You’re not as scared of a psycho stalker as much as you’re scared of this?” I gesture at the space between us, and I realize we’re standing too close to each other but never close enough. I can’t take my gaze off her lips. Birdie’s breath hitches, but she doesn’t retreat. I’m one breath away from inhaling hers.
I’ve been fighting for so long, but, in her presence, I’m only a man, and she’s an electric and undeniable storm here to break me. With a gulp, I bend my head down to her mouth, ready to surrender.
Her lips part. “You said you’d protect me.”
“I am protecting you.”
“From everything, but no longer from myself, no longer from you.”
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK. “When will I ever learn? I can’t win this game, not with you.” My eyes squeeze, and I grit my teeth on a shaky breath. Pulling back, I claw at my chest as if I could rip my heart out and end all this suffering once and for all.
“Tristan—”
“Stop. I beg you to fucking stop.” Both my hands run through my hair, pulling at the ends, and I turn away from her. “I’ll go check in with the team and tell them to come over to take their posts here.”
“No. No guards.”
I face her. “Excuse me?”
She folds her arms across her chest. “I…don’t want anyone else here.”
“Why, so you can toy around with me a little more, watch me burn to satisfy whatever sadistic urges you have every time you give me hope and then brush me off?”
Her expression pales and then darkens in a split-second, as if I’ve just stabbed her in the back. “You really think this is what I’m doing?”
You really think I’m falling for your crocodile tears you won’t even shed?“If I’m wrong, enlighten me.”
Her mouth opens and then closes. She presses her lips and shakes her head before she says, “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, I didn’t mean no guards because I wanted you here alone for whatever fucked up reason you thought I had. I don’t want other guards, period.”
“Well, I wish I could stay up twenty-four seven and guard you by myself indefinitely, but I hate to break it to you that I need more manpower and weapons to fully protect you, Mrs. Abel.”
“Then bring Brandon, only Brandon.”
The one guard on the team she hates the most? I’m about to ask why, but then it all registers in my brain. Brandon is the only one she can trust because he was there, talking to her, when Butterfly Man was in her bedroom.
She puts her hands in front of her to pacify me. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s—”
“You’re right, I don’t. Wake up and smell the coffee. Your stalker is Torrance, Birdie.”
She cocks a brow in defiance. “Or one of the guards.”
“For God’s sake, not again. Did you hear him at the lighthouse? He asked if you couldn’t get the same sunrise and ocean air from your terrace, not house, not office, not front yard, not room,terrace. There are only two terraces in the house, Birdie. One in your bedroom and one in mine. The only one that has an ocean view is yours. As far as I know, he’s never been to your room or upstairs at all, how the fuck did he know that?”
Her gaze slants around the corners, and then she shakes her head pensively. She understands where this is leading. She just doesn’t want to believe it.
I throw my hands in the air. “How could you be so blind?”
“How could you? You said it yourself, no one came in or out of my house. The most viable explanation is that it’s someone who is already inside and isn’t expected to leave.”
