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I finished going through the bin, since it was mostly large objects, while she pored over the contents of the shoebox.
I got up and wandered toward her window. We weren’t that high up. High enough for someone who was very motivated to get up there with some inventive climbing onto fire escapes. I tried the window, and it opened. I shut it again and tried to click the lock back into place, but it wasn’t working.
“Your window lock is broken, too,” I said.
She looked up at me, a rare look of pure annoyance on her face. “We’re not on the ground or first floor. What does it matter? Is someone going to climb the wall like a mountain goat?”
I stuffed down my irritation. “I’m serious, Brooke. You have to take this shit seriously.”
She set the box aside, her jaw tight. “You really think I don’t care? I care a lot about my own safety. It feels like you don’t think that I understand how to keep myself safe.”
I ran my hand over my face. “It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?” Brooke asked, raising her voice slightly. She closed her eyes for a moment and rested her hands on her lap. “Because you’re freaking out and boxing me in. And I know you care about me, but I promise you, I can take care of myself at least alittle. You don’t need to hire security and have me wrapped up in bubble wrap to get through my commute. Me living with you is more than enough. I want that.”
We stared at each other for a few moments, the silence between us tense. I’d never heard her sound so upset before. Not that she was screaming at me, but her raising her voice a few notches was close enough. She was dead serious.
I wanted to respect that, as much as it hurt.
“Fine.” I held my hands up and put the window back as I’d found it.
“Thank you.” She went back to going through the shoebox of receipts and mementos.
I sat back down on her bed, poking through the receipts that I’d pulled. The pit in my stomach was growing by the minute, the feeling familiar. It was the same way I felt when my mom insisted that the guy she was dating was just fine, that he never yelled at her like that, at least that often.
Helpless.
Busting my ass and being in the right place at the right time had let me grow my wealth. And when I sat down and looked at the reasons why, at least some of it was to feel safe. To make the people I cared about feel safe. It gave me control and power.
And now it was slipping through my fingers. As much as I wanted to keep Brooke safe, the real fear that I couldn’t was settling in.
CHAPTER26
Chase
Ikept my office door closed every day, all week. I didn’t want to face anything right now. Life didn’t look anything like the comfortable routine that we’d fallen into.
Since Brooke was living with Hunter, we mostly stayed there together, having dates at home instead of going out. All of us could tell that Brooke was going stir crazy, but we didn’t want to let her out of our sight.
In the rare instances that one of us couldn’t be there, she had a security guard follow her from a distance. And even then, a security guard following her at a distance had cut off a car from following us home. He’d tried to track the plates of the car, but they were from a car that had been reported stolen months ago.
Mac had found the guy who stole the car through his contacts, ones from the street that the security team hadn’t been able to get in touch with. He’d tried his hardest to get information from him, but the man didn’t talk. And he didn’t survive Mac’s attempts to get him to confess, either.
So we were back at square one.
In some ways, it was easier for me to keep my distance from Brooke. We were all tense from whatever was going on, and my contact hadn’t gathered much more information. Hunter’s friend from childhood hadn’t told us much, either, besides that he was “working on it.” The mysterious person following her hadn’t shown up again, so we didn’t have more to go on.
But inside, I was a wreck. I missed her, then I tried to make myself not miss her. All of our business interactions had a weird energy, like we were trying to be more formal than we needed to be. That was my fault. I wasn’t sure how to pull away from her, and the only way I knew how was to be as business-like as possible.
And in the rare moments when we were alone and all of us were just relaxing, I kept my hands off of her. Once I touched her, I’d go back five steps.
I tried to focus on my work again, but my mind kept drifting back to her now that the office was clearing out for the day. We’d had so many good nights here, either working or having sex or just talking. And now those had to live in my memory.
I’d already gotten too deep, so it all hurt.
“Hey, did you see this?” Brooke asked, appearing in my doorway. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and she had her glasses on. I was a sucker for her glasses, which wasn’t helping me resist her.
“See what?” I asked.
