Page 58 of Missile Strike

But this was her mess, and she needed to face it head-on.

Danny turned into her neighborhood. When he reached her townhome, he parked, then motioned with his fingers. “Let me see.”

Silently, she handed him the paper.

He skimmed it, then handed it back. “What’s done is done. We’ll figure out what to do tomorrow after you’ve had some sleep. But tonight, we’re having movie night.” A mischievous twinkle brightened his eyes. “Or maybe we play truth or dare?”

She blinked. “Truth or dare?” He was changing directions so fast she couldn’t keep up.

Danny leaned in, close enough that his face was all she could see. His scent all she could breathe in. “Tonight, we chill. Have some fun.” All trace of humor fled his expression. “Tomorrow, I’m going to start teaching you how to defend yourself, so I never have to watch you make yourself small again.”

Chapter Fourteen

“Senator Strickland isn’t pleased that you hung up on him,” Ryder said when Danny called to check in after he and Bella returned to her home. “And he’s threatening to sue The Charlotte Times reporter.”

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose as a headache threatened.

He’d closed himself in Bella’s guest bedroom so she didn’t overhear what he knew would be a tense series of conversations, first with his boss, then with her father.

“Bella wasn’t in any frame of mind to deal with the senator.”

Through the blinds, he watched two boys tear down the sidewalk in swim trunks, their towels flapping behind them like superhero capes.

“As for the reporter,” he continued, “everything she wrote was reported after Bella’s kidnapping—I checked. What I’d like to know is how she knew to look for it and why.”

Something he intended to follow up on Monday when Olivia got back into town.

“I’ll call the senator and apologize.”

“No need.” Ryder’s voice contained a hint of steel. “I reminded him he specifically asked for you, and he needs to let you do your job as you see fit.”

A chuckle escaped Danny’s lips. “I’ll bet he loved hearing that.”

“He’s upset. Understandably so. The note on Isabella’s car plus the news article have him and his wife quite concerned. He was relieved to hear that you’ll be staying with her from now on.”

Danny’s chest tightened. The senator wouldn’t be relieved if he knew how hard Danny had to work to maintain a professional distance from Bella.

He didn’t simply want to keep her safe. He wanted to touch her. Replace the fear shadowing her eyes with pleasure. Her laugh reminded him of the notes in the upper octaves of a piano. Light and airy.

His Bella didn’t laugh enough.

When this job was over, maybe he’d come back to visit—if she let him. There was an amusement park nearby with some fun-looking roller coasters. He’d talk her into going on at least one of them.

Maybe he’d even work her up to jumping out of an airplane with him.

A grin creased his cheeks.

He didn’t know what it was, but the idea of getting Bella to push past her carefully ordered boundaries and try new things was like a shot of tequila straight to his brain—liquid fire that morphed into a smooth, mellow high.

He wanted to be the one to topple those carefully constructed walls and set her free.

The grin faded.

Bella had spent years building a life around certainty and control. She deserved a man who’d be there when she came home at night, not one constantly chasing the next assignment.

A man who’d be steady.

Stable.