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The lobby guard revealed, “I thought they were together. You’d have to know Mr. Cohen; he’s friendly with everyone.”
Caleb scowled at the flimsy excuse. “This is not acceptable. The person you allowed to walk in with Mr. Cohen is a disgruntled employee from my company who has been harassing me. You compromise the safety of the entire building by letting people slide in with residents. Make sure this doesn’t happen again. Question any strangers that walk in with residents of the building. And that goes for everyone.”
“Yes, sir. It won’t happen again,” the guard said.
Yeah. He couldn’t trust that. Caleb left the guard and front deskman to head to his apartment. He had to check on Tiera and devise a plan to make sure she remained safe. As soon as he arrived at his floor, he was relieved to see Dimir still standing post outside the condo.
“Is she okay?”
“All is clear, Mr. Fitzgerald. But you look a little shaken up. Did you see him?” asked Dimir.
“He was in the gym with me. He didn’t approach me, but he was there.” Caleb updated Dimir on his pursuit of the hooded figure that jumped into an illegally parked car in front of the building. “He looked over his shoulder and right into my eyes. And he’s driving the same car he had when we hired him. Stuart Braswell is definitely the culprit.”
Dimir looked like he wanted to wreck some shit. “Since he’s able to get into the building and walk around freely like he did, we’ll add more security to the building to include all entrances and the gym,” Dimir suggested.
“Get that started ASAP.”
Dimir gave him a curt nod. “Consider it done.”
Caleb entered his condo with a different tension than when he left. His desire to make love to Tiera was second only to his desire to protect her from harm. He went to his bedroom and slammed the door. He put in a call to Dean Collins to give him the update on Stuart. It might be time to track Stuart down and handle him before he hurt someone he loved.
For the rest of the week, he awakened early each day and made her breakfast. She didn’t leave her room until it was time to go to work, each day refusing to eat. Their rides to work were quiet. His mind was on what he would do to track down Stuart. The man had been radio silent and unable to locate.
Her gaze remained on something outside of her window. He wondered if she was biding her time to see when she could quit working with him and leave his condo.
On day seven, she’d shocked him when she walked into the kitchen and sat at the table.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
“Do you want breakfast? I’ll make you a plate.”
“Yes.”
She placed her laptop on the table and started typing. He hadn’t known what she was doing in her room every evening after work besides talking to Vivian. He suspected it had something to do with the laptop she’d placed on the breakfast table and given her attention.
“What are you working on?” he asked, hoping to spark a nonconfrontational conversation.
She snapped the laptop shut. “Nothing.”
He glanced at the laptop, slid a plate with an omelet in front of her and gave her a glass of juice. “I was just trying to start some small talk. We’ve hardly talked for the week that you’ve been here. I think we’re better than that.”
Pointing the fork, she glared at him. “Are we now?”
“We’ve been friends all of our life.” He tried to reason with her.
She tossed a couple of her braids over her shoulder and used the fork to cut the omelet. She scooped a chunk into her mouth. “We were friends when we were younger. Now, you’re only Terrance’s friend. As for us—” She pointed from her to him. “We don’t have to pretend to be nice to each other. We don’t have to pretend at all.”
“I’ve never pretended with you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Listen, I’m here to do a job, and I’ve been doing it, right?”
“Yes. You have but—”
She cut him off. “But now I’m stuck with you because your ex-employee wants to show his ass, my mother is on a cruise that I don’t want to interrupt, my brother is out of the state, and Vivian swears the company will crumble if you’re left on your own.”
“Wow.” He’d known she’d grown cold again. But he thought they’d made some ground over steaks earlier that week. He didn’t appreciate her remarks, but he honed in on her being stuck with him. “Is being stuck with me so bad?”
