AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Phoebs, don’t say shit like that. You’re not in a fractured state. You freaked out is all. It happens.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes.
“I didn’t just freak out. I lost my shit. I feel so embarrassed.”
“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t. Trust me.”
I gave him a soft smile, but, on the inside, I wasn’t feeling it or the words he said. From the panicked looks in both Ayana and Noelle’s eyes, my panic attack was a freak show of epic proportions.
Reed sat with me for a little while longer trying to take my mind off everything by talking about a couple of calls they got to assist a few shadow warriors with pickups. Garrett joined us for a short time, too. They talked about what the police found or, more like, what they didn’t find. Apparently, Reed and Garrett had cameras installed on my floor.Thanks for letting me know that fellas…
They claimed they had done it to make sure I was safe. They even admitted to hiring the couple that lived a few doors down from me. They had been following me for weeks. No wonder I had thought they looked familiar that one night when they interrupted my first kiss with Lock. I bet you all the money in the world Reed had told them to ‘Vag’ block me.
I wanted to murder them, the two imbeciles in front of me, not the couple. To learn that they had me watched, invaded my privacy, had me seeing red. And to top everything off, the people they hired had lost their lives. In the name of protecting me? I felt like shit. It was my fault these people lost their lives, mine. And the worst part of all this was no one had a clue what happened or who killed them. There wasn’t anything on the camera recordings but a man’s head and shoulders. Nothing on who entered my room or who entered theirs. It made me feel downright sick to my stomach.
“How are you doing?” came a deep, welcoming voice from above me. I opened my eyes, not even realizing I had closed them and glanced up into the face of the man that continues to save me.
Lock stood in front of me looking hot and foreboding and sexy. He carried a bottled water in his hand, unscrewing the cap as he moved closer to me. He handed it to me, and I took it graciously knocking most of it down before he took his seat in front of me.
“You didn’t answer me. How are you?”
I let out a sigh and resisted screaming at the top of my lungs. For no reason in particular, but that it would feel good.
“Okay, I guess. Embarrassed. Shaky. Scared out of my mind. But other than that, I’m fine.”
I tried to add a smile to my admission, but it fell flat like the table in front of me.
Lock studied me for a long few seconds before he reached across the table and laced his fingers with mine, his thumb caressing my knuckles. My body relaxed under his simple touch, and I expressed a shaky breath. When he brought my hand to his lips and gently kissed my knuckles, I felt a tear fall from my eyes and drop to the table in front of me.
“Why is this happening to me?” I cried, doing my best to hold it together and failing miserably.
Lock touched his palm to my dampened cheek and brushed his thumb under my eye, catching my whopping tears as they fell.
“I don’t know, Kitten. But I promise you I’ll find out.”
I dropped my head, my chin damn near touching my breasts.
“Sweetheart, look at me,” Lock instructed, and when I didn’t, he raised my head with a bent finger underneath my chin. When our eyes met, I could see the determination and fierceness in his gaze. It charged me and scared the shit out of me all at the same time.
“I promise you on everything I hold dear, I’ll find out who did this.”
“I know you will, Lock, and thank you,” I said after a few heartbeats had passed. I gave him an encouraging smile that I felt deep in my heart.
Lock would protect me. Don’t ask me how I knew that, I just did.
“Do you think this had something to do with Miguel?” I asked him, praying that wasn’t the case.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I doubt it. Trashing your room like that for the hell of it isn’t Santos’s M.O. Grabbing you, yes, but they could have done that in the parking lot of the hotel, at work or hell at the grocery store. No, what happened in your room was something else.”
“Byron?” I asked him, but I dismissed that idea as soon as it came out of my mouth. But what Lock said next made me pause and rethink that notion.
Lock snorted, let go of my hand, and folded his arms against his muscular chest.
“He wouldn’t dare after the conversation we had.”
“Whoa, wait… what conversation?” Then my eyes grew wide from the implication of his words. “Oh my goodness, you have him in custody?”
“No, but he came to the station with the notion of clearing his name.”
