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Wrapping an arm around my waist, he pulled me close and tipped my chin up, forcing me to meet his worried stare. Eyes taking me in for long seconds we didn’t have before he whispered, “This is why I kept my distance.”
“You don’t understand,” I said as I pulled my head from his grasp. “I have to go.”
“With me.”
“Diggs—”
“Until I know you’re safe, you’re not going anywhere,” he said resolutely, then effortlessly took my suitcase before leading me through my apartment. The entire way to my car, he kept his hand on me in one way or another. But rather than controlling, the touch felt like a reassuring connection. As if to let me know he had me, would protect me, no matter what.
I was so wrapped up in his comforting presence and touch that it wasn’t until we were standing at the passenger side of my car that I remembered what we were doing. Why we were doing it. It wasn’t until Diggs was reaching for the handle of the door that my fear came flooding back and had me uncontrollably shaking.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered as I looked wildly around, waiting to see neon popping out against the cloudy evening sky.
“Wait, you—no, this is my car,” I stammered as I began stepping inside it.
“You don’t know where we’re going,” he said as if that were the only answer I needed to continue sliding into the passenger seat. As if that alone should be enough to placate me, even after everything he’d said in the past ten minutes.
The rational part of my brain was screaming that Diggs was sure someone had been in my apartment because of him. That I was also in danger because of him. That he’d been holding a gun as if it were an extension of him.
But I’d let Diggs take me anywhere if it got us far from the men who covered their faces to get away with their macabre sins.
Besides, I wasn’t sure I knew how to react rationally when it came to Diggs. Every decision I’d made with him since that first night in the bar had been crazy and reckless. Probably a little risky.
And I was sure I’d make them all again, so long as they were with him.
“How’d you know?” I asked once Diggs was tearing out of the parking lot in a way I wasn’t sure my car could survive. When he slowly looked at me, eyebrows drawn together in bemusement, I clarified, “That someone had been in my apartment.”
“That’s your first question?” he asked with a perplexed huff. “Not where we’re going or what kind of danger you’re in?”
I knew what kind of danger I was in.
Twisting in my seat to better face him, I gripped my seatbelt tightly and said, “Answer that first.”
“I’ve told you.” One of his shoulders lifted as he straightened the car from the too-fast turn. “I’m a bloodhound.”
I resisted the urge to look at the chills that always rose on my arms whenever he said that word. That claim that seemed so unnerving rather than amusing. “You really mean that,” I said softly.
His head dipped slowly. “I track things. People.” He spared another look at me when he added, “That’s how I knew your car was safe to get into.”
My mouth fell open when I realized I’d blindly gotten into my car without ever checking to see if someone had messed with it or tagged it.
It’d never been a thought.
But throughout all of this, my thoughts had been on a spiral. Diggs had remained my strength, pushing me to continue going through each step, even when that whisper of fear had leaked into his words.
A shuddering breath escaped me when I was hit with the memory of Diggs’ large hands gripping me tight as he’d said my name during one of my spirals. Pleaded it to bring me back to him.
“You know my name,” I realized dully.
Hesitation billowed from Diggs before he finally acknowledged, “Zara’s supposed to keep me updated on everyone who works in the school. She finally gave me the files on the new staff last week.”
“What, and you’re someone who’s allowed to know things like that?” I asked with a laugh that bordered on desperate. When he stayed focused on the road, jaw twitching with his unease, I took a moment to digest that as my mind raced and mixed with Rorie’s warnings.
Before I could ask one of the dozens of questions gathered on my tongue, he said, “Saw the name Bennett and went past your file without opening it. I’d already seen your name though.”
“Pull over.”
“Tree—”
