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She raises her eyebrows. “Oh. That’s...is that necessary?”
Mark narrows his gaze at me. He thinks I’m being too cautious by not telling her everything, and I know he’s right. But she’s already freaked out enough by Scotty. I don’t want to keep piling it on. I sigh and bring her knuckles to my lips. “Trust that it’s all necessary. I won’t take any more chances with your safety.”
“Ok. Tell me what I need to do.” Determination shines in her eyes.
“Be vigilant. And do whatever Mark tells you.”
She looks over at him and nods. He nods back with a smile.
“I can do that.”
We eat a quick dinner, then head to bed. Liv hugs them and Jordy smiles at her in his quiet way. “Thank you for being there for me today,” she says to Mark.
“You keep being a fighter and we’ll come out of this just fine. I’m proud of you.”
She smiles at him and follows me to the bedroom. She sits on the edge of the bed facing me and wrings her hands. I kneel in front of her. “Why don’t I draw you a bath? It’s not as big as the one at home, but it will work.”
“That would be nice.” She covers her mouth as she yawns.
We move into the bathroom and I turn on the tap for her as she strips. I head into the closet and pull out clean underwear and her favorite pajamas.
She smiles when I set them on the counter, then sinks down into the tub. I pull out her soap and shampoo from her toiletries bag on the counter and set them near her. “Call out for me when you’re done, ok?”
She nods and meets my eyes again. “Thank you.”
I hesitate, then kneel next to the tub and swallow before I speak. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to stop him today,” my voice wavers, and she takes my hand, wrapping her fingers around mine.
“You can’t protect me every second of the day. It’s not your fault.”
“They’re going to catch him. He won’t be able to hurt you again.” I lean over and kiss the side of her head. “I love you.”
She squeezes my hand. “I love you too.”
She watches me go and I leave the door open a crack. I head to the closet for my backpack.
She needs some time to process, and she can’t do that if I’m hovering over her like a mother hen. So I give her the space she needs and open my laptop to go over the details of the contracts with the Maddox officers. I dig in my backpack for my reading glasses and plop them on. I smile when I remember how much Liv likes them. I wear them more often now because of it. My optometrist should give her a medal.
I let out a long breath as I settle in. We’re as safe as we can be here in the mountains. I can relax knowing we have reinforcements coming. I’m going to make this work.
The next afternoon Jordy, Liv and I are in the gym that’s attached behind the garage when Nova pauses the hard rock music blaring through the room.
“Sir, a vehicle is approaching. Mark is in the vehicle with two unknown operatives. Threat level moderate.”
“Visual,” I say, and a video appears on the wall of the approaching SUV.
“Are they being followed?”
“No, Sir. No threats detected.”
“Thank you, Nova. Please open the garage door.”
The gears whir as the door lifts on smooth tracks. We head through the sliding glass door into the garage as Mark pulls in.
He gives me a subtle nod that means everything went well, and I take Liv’s hand as the men climb out. They’re wearing matching black suits, the standard Maddox uniform.
A redhead, who’s about an inch taller than me, approaches first. He takes off his sunglasses and holds his hand out to me. “Garrett Stone, Sir. Nice to meet you.”
“Please, call me Luke.” I take in his features and frown, turning to Liv, then back to Garrett. They look similar. Mark notices because he always notices everything.
