Page 18 of The Stalking King

I stare in awe, my body stirring, my heart doing the same. She looks beautiful. Her face is framed by subtle soft curls.

“What?” she says, laughing awkwardly.

“Just… you.”

She rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “Just give me your hand.”

I put my hand on the table. She scoots the chair over so she’s closer. When her leg touches mine, a surge of heat shoots through me. I do my best not to let it show, but my body goes tight everywhere.

She cleans up the cut then puts a Band-Aid on it, a simple thing. But it leaves me feeling like I’m floating.

“I need to call my mom,” she says. “I was supposed to be swinging by tonight.”

I glance at the clock. “It’s almost ten.”

“I know, and I’ve got work at six.”

“Damn, Lia. That’s too much.”

She shrugs. “I can’t afford to think of it like that. It’s just what I have to do.”

It shouldn’t be, I almost growl. But it’s not my place to stand between her and her mother. It’s my place to stand between her and the rest of the world.

She takes out her cell and presses call.

“Hungry?” I ask, standing and walking to the fridge.

“Maybe a sandwich or something?”

I bow, shocked at how playful I’m being for once. I’m never like this. “Your wish is my command…”

She looks at me, shocked, as though she has any idea about how dark I really am. As I make two meat and cheese sandwiches, she talks with her mother. It’s basic chit-chat, but I get the sense that Lia is the grown-up in this relationship. She talks warmly, masking her tiredness, asking if her mother has eaten, showered, and how she’s spent her day.

“She’s been through a lot,” Lia says, once the call is over and I carry over the plates.

“I’m sure she has.”

“Don’t look at me like that, then,” she murmurs, then takes a big bite of her sandwich.

I take an even bigger bite of mine. She meets my eye, grinning, then takes another bite, filling her mouth. I chuckle, muffled by the sandwich, and do the same. We eat our sandwiches like that, in the semi-lit room, surreal and smiling and disconnected from just how insane this situation is.

My cell phone goes off. It’s Anton.

“Yeah?” I say, answering.

“He’s a loyal bastard, I’ll give him that. I’ll keep working on him, though don’t expect anything tonight.”

“And the other thing?”

Meaning… the protection on Evelyn’s property.

“Everything’s in place. Three cars is a lot though, boss.”

“It’s what I’ve ordered.”

“Yes,” he says, then hangs up.

“Your mother is safe,” I tell Lia.