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“One particular shadow named Bernard.”
Daniel frowned. “He followed you?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I walked on the beach. I went quite a long way, actually.”
Just how far had she intended to go? “And he stopped you?”
B.J. shook her head. “I had already turned back when he spoke to me.”
He wasn't sure whether relief or surprise was uppermost in his mind when he asked, “What did he say to you?”
“He merely commented that I'd gone a long way from the resort. I did my best airhead impersonation and told him I'd been daydreaming and walked farther than I intended. And then I came back here. That was pretty much the extent of it. I, um, haven't been in the mood to go back out.”
He squeezed the back of his neck. “Bernard won't hurt you as long as he doesn't suspect anything.”
She didn't look particularly reassured. “I hate being watched. Especially without being aware of it.”
“He was probably just curious about where you were going.”
She gave him a seething look. “It was none of his business.”
Sinking onto an ottoman near her chair, he clasped his hands loosely between his knees and studied her face. “So you had already turned around? Before you knew Bernard was watching you?”
She glanced down at her hands. “Yes.”
“How tempted were you to keep walking?”
That brought her eyes back up to his. “Very.”
“What made you change your mind?”
Her scowl told him she wasn't going to directly answer that question. Instead she asked, “Would Bernard have stopped me if I'd kept walking?”
“Yes,” he replied simply, and he didn't imagine he needed to tell her that Bernard would have used whatever means necessary to do so.
“Then I guess it's a good thing I turned back, isn't it? Whatever my reasons.”
She had tried to speak offhandedly, but the faint quiver in her voice confirmed that she hadn't needed the details.
The certainty that she had returned for his sake roused feelings in him he didn't want to examine too closely at the moment. He hadn't thought to warn her not to try to leave the resort while he was meeting with Drake; he'd thought he'd made it clear before that she wouldn't be allowed to leave. The fact that he hadn't reminded her again and that his carelessness could have gotten her—and perhaps him—killed made his stomach clench.
“I promised I would keep you safe,” he reminded her. “But you have to be careful, too.”
Her chin lifted. “I have been careful. And I'm fully capable of keeping myself safe.”
“I know that.” He reached out to take her hands in his. “You simply don't have experience with men like these, B.J. You can't imagine how dangerous they can be.”
“I imagined clearly enough what they would do to you if I suddenly disappeared.”
His fingers tightened around hers for a moment, and then he said gruffly, “I can take care of myself, too. But thank you for caring.”
“I'm not sure that I do care about the man who got me into this mess. But maybe I still care—a little—about the boy I used to know.”
Sometimes her frankness caught him off guard, slipping beneath the thick barriers he had erected around his emotions. It was a trick she had first demonstrated thirteen years ago, when they were both just kids—and it seemed she still possessed the talent.
