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The fourth ring had him meeting her gaze again with a sense of his own resignation. She’d caught him staring at her breasts. Best just to own it. So, he did. By holding her gaze openly. Not saying anything. No excuses. Or awkward explanations. Her breasts had captivated his attention for a moment, and now he was looking her in the eye.
“It’s my mother,” she said.
Taking him out of his own sordid world with a shot back to reality.
“What do I tell them?”
They needed to talk about that.
“Can you call her back?”
She nodded, watching the phone until it stopped ringing.
“Obviously, you have to tell your family you aren’t home,” Clarke said, back in business mode, with a swear to himself that he wouldn’t stray again. “What you tell them as to why is up to you. But you shouldn’t tell anyone where you’re staying. Not until we know who’s after you.”
“You think it’s a member of my own family?”
“No.” He shook his head, but not emphatically. He’d seen stranger things than relatives after each other. “But it could be someone you all know. Someone Fritz knew better than you were aware he did.” He shrugged, not wanting to hurt her any more than she’d been already but knowing that he wasn’t there to protect her emotional health. He was there to rid her of the threat to her physical safety. “The fact that someone is after you, right after you are exonerated of your husband’s murder, and is going through your home... This tells me it’s personal. Which means, most likely, the perp is someone you know.” He couldn’t emphasize the “knowing” part enough. If she underestimated...trusted where she shouldn’t...
“How do I know you aren’t just isolating me here for some nefarious reason of your own? Taking advantage of what happened this morning?” The question didn’t hold a lot of fear, or even a totally serious note in her voice, but he saw the doubt lingering in her gaze.
He handed her his phone. “Find my sister’s contact. It’s under ‘Melissa Colton,’” he said, completely serious, and when she hesitated, he nodded toward the phone without breaking eye contact with her. “Please. I should have done this already. Because you’re absolutely right to question me and I’m not going to be able to keep you safe if you don’t trust me.”
She touched his phone screen. No way he should have been aroused by her slender, gentle fingers on his phone, and it wasn’t like he was getting hard or anything, but...jeez. What in the hell was the matter with him? Being attracted to a woman was one thing... Getting all het up about keeping her safe, feeling all überprotective...
“Okay, so your sister’s contact information is on your phone,” she said.
“Call her.”
“I’m not calling the chief of police.”
“Call her. She’ll understand. That’s her personal number. She’ll see my name come up. She’ll answer.” Older brothers had some perks after all, even when they’d spent years bucking the system little sisters stood for.
He watched while she dialed, got a little distracted when the glass that had so recently pressed to his face pressed to hers, and then listened as, with apparently no trepidation at all, she said, “Chief Colton? This is Everleigh Emerson. We met the other day outside the prison...”
A pause followed. His sister would be putting her at ease, letting her know that she remembered her, or some other such thing meant to reassure her. Melissa was a great cop. But she also knew how to deal with people a whole lot better than he did.
Mostly because she had more patience than he did.
He didn’t stay in relationships long enough to grow any patience, and after the last debacle...he’d lost a lot of confidence in his ability to set any woman at ease.
“Yes, ma’am. He told me to call, actually, so that...”
Then, “Yeah.” The last was accompanied by a somewhat knowing smile, though Everleigh wasn’t looking in his direction. And Clarke reassessed the wisdom in his choice to sic his sister on a woman he suddenly wanted to think well of him.
Not just a woman he was trying to protect, but one he wanted to impress?
He tapped on his keyboard. Hard. Looked at the screen he’d brought up. Telling himself he was working when, in fact, he wasn’t focusing on a single thing the computer was showing him.
“I will. And...thank you...”
He continued to stare at the screen.
“She said she asked you to keep me safe.” He glanced over to take the phone from her. Had himself back under control. Or more so, anyway.
It wasn’t like he was getting all randy and ready to jump her bones, in any event. Noticing beautiful women was just part of being him. Had been since he’d hit puberty. Flirting with them came naturally, too.
Taking it any further than that... He’d never had a complaint in that area. Never pushed himself on a woman, or even came on to one who hadn’t already indicated that she’d be open to his advance.
