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“What’s going on with your charge?”
“I don’t know,” Nick mumbled.
He played with the lighting controls, so the giant screen that took up one wall would have the correct brightness.
Since the grocery store outing three days ago, Mulberry had lounged around and spoken to him very little.
“Here’s the photo of the guy Xander sent.” Nick pointed to the bulky muscular figure. “An electrician.”
“Right, if that’s an electrician, then I’m a rodeo clown.”
“There is something refined about him, right?”
“You mean professional. And yeah, he has to be military or something,” Erik said. “So you’re going to feed it into your search program and compare it to all the photos of Mulberry to see if this guy’s in the background?”
“Yeah, that’s the idea. Give me a few minutes.” Nick sat, and his hands flew across the keyboard, getting to work.
Erik started clicking through a series of freeze frames Nick had highlighted earlier.
“She’s been like that for days,” Nick said.
A few more clicks, and he had the search optimized.
“It’s your job to take care of her, Nick. That includes making sure she’s in a good headspace.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Really? Explain?” Erik paused the flickering images on the screen and turned to face him.
“I don’t think her plan is working like she thought. And she made an advance on me, and I refused her.”
Erik let out a low whistle. “Okay, but you need to treat her better than some moody houseguest, or you’ll lose her trust. Cheer her up.”
Nick sighed.
He tried to talk to Mulberry, but she ignored him or hurled one-worded answers at him. But he missed their banter. He missed hearing her laugh.
Mulberry’s nightmares the last two nights had been pretty intense.
Nick had held her until she drifted off to sleep.
In his arms, her rigid body relaxed.
And he liked how it made him feel…happy, like walking into his Mamie’s garden.
His head turned over the sensation. It was unfamiliar to him.
Usually, he played with women and loved giving them a good round of impact play.
Striking hard enough to leave marks was a point of pride for him. He liked seeing a woman strong enough to take what he could give.
And yes, after he cuddled them, got them water, or left them alone with a stuffy or a fluffy blanket, if that’s what they wanted, but none of that gave him the protective feelings Mulberry had stirred to life within him.
But when the sun streamed through the windows and daylight came, they were distant and cold to each other.
“I got to finish this.”
“I have time. If your system alerts you, I’ll text you. Go take care of her.”
