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There.I was totally making the right call. So much easier to get out of his hair. Poe would do her thing and find out why someone was watching me.
If I was in the orchard, I’d definitely be out of the way.
Maybe he could do a few of those perimeter checks that Rachel told me he used to do when Clay was on the tree farm. He was a careful guy and that would be more than enough.
It wasn’t as if this dude—probably a dude, right? —was doing anything overt. I was perfectly safe. So, he’d sent me a few packages. It wasn’t a huge deal.
Ransom pulled up in front of my apartment and expertly parallel parked his tank of a truck. I couldn’t park mine if I had two spaces available, but whatever.
“Are you done?”
I stuffed my hand in the opposite sleeve of my coat to hold in heat for my frigid fingers. “I’m just making things easier.”
He unclipped his belt and the metal tab smacked on the glass as he turned toward me. “Let’s get one thing straight. You will never be alone again. I don’t care if you’re in the middle of fifty people. I’m going to be right next to you for the duration.”
I plastered my back to the door as he reached for me.
“I don’t know what conversation you just had with yourself in your pretty little head but get used to the fact that I’ll be taking care of you until we get this settled.”
I narrowed my eyes.Taking care of me?“Pretty little head?”
“That’s what you focus on?”
The far safer question. I still couldn’t get over thetaking care of mestatement. “I’m not some idiot woman.”
“You’re sure acting like one.” His fingers dug into my thigh as he leaned in. “You were there when Poe and Aidan showed us the slide show from hell, right?”
I swallowed, my heart rate kicking into overdrive. “Yes.”
“This isn’t some rich kid having a power trip.”
I stiffened. Jason had been a bit more than that.
“And I’m not negating what you went through when you were younger, but this is someone with a lot more knowhow and some fucking scary tech knowledge.”
I flinched.
He slid his hand away and raised it to cup my face. “I don’t want to frighten you again, but you have to know this isn’t just a regular stalker. This guy is focused—and yeah, I think it’s probably a guy. Maybe it was just a job at first.”
I frowned at him, but I found myself leaning into his touch. His thumb gently glided along my cheek.
Was that us too?
Just a job, just a responsibility at first, and now it was becoming more? Should it? The tangled strings between us were a lot to navigate. My sister, his best friend, my family—it was worse than Rachel’s yarn after her mischievous cat Gary got ahold of it.
“Is that how you think it started?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes were hard as flint and those lips that had kissed me stupid earlier were thin slashes of anger.
I was sure he hated fessing up to not knowing for certain. I lifted my hand to cover his. “I’m used to doing things alone. After Jason, I told myself I’d never be in a position to be afraid like that again.”
“Maybe this guy really is just doing it for a payday. Cryptocurrency is big on the dark web, and I’m sure he’s getting paid in some way or another. But sending you gifts makes it different. I just don’t know.”
A shiver racked my system. I was used to being watched. I literally put my face out there every day and wanted to be seen.
This was different. So very different.
I broke our locked gaze.
