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“Alright,” I reply, hanging up the phone before I’m tempted to apologize for making assumptions. Right now, I doubt he’s responsible for the shooting, but until we find out who is, I’m not taking Kimberly anywhere near Montana.
Somebody wants me dead, and I’m not letting her raise our child alone.
22
Kimberly
The day Avraam closes on the house in Nevada is the day I realize that he has a lot more money than he’s letting on. It’s a three-story mansion on the outskirts of town, with a little pool in the back and a garden full of herbs and flowers. He keeps promising to plant roses for me in the spring, but I’m already satisfied how it is right now.
It’s more than I ever dreamed of having, and the fact that he’s put my name on the lease with his isn’t just endearing.
It’s downright sexy.
I’m starting to forget about my boring life in Montana, and I’m embracing this new future together with Avraam. Even if he won’t say much about the shooting, preferring to act like it never happened rather than admit that we could still be in danger, I know he has my best interest at heart.
He chose this house because of the towering iron gate wrapped around the property and the thickness of the marble walls. It would take an army to breach this place, and a skilled sniper to get even a single shot off from the main road.
We’re safe, so far as I’m concerned.
But we can’t stay on this land forever. For one, I’d lose my mind if I never got to go into town again. I don’t mind walking outside and picking flowers to put on the dining table with dinner, but I need to see other people. I need a life outside of these walls.
For now, I don’t complain. It’s difficult to find fault in the way that Avraam is treating me, so I accept my current circumstances as necessary. I can think of a lot worse places to stay until we figure things out, and raising a child in a house like this is a dream come true.
“I’ve invited Damien over,” Avraam says, adjusting a few books on the shelf as I recline in a green velvet chair in the lounge. He finds little unnecessary things to fix a lot now that he’s quit smoking. I miss the smell, but we both agreed it’s better for the baby.
“Damien?” I ask, shooting up from my chair. “Didn’t he try to kill us?”
“My brother proved that to be false,” he replies calmly. “We talked over the phone this morning. He’s coming over with the full evidence, and we’re having him for dinner.”
“That’s… sudden,” I reply, my stomach twisting up in a knot at the idea of having someone so dangerous at the house. It feels like we’re inviting trouble in.
“Damien wants to talk business, and I suspect there’s some making up we have to do,” Avraam explains, his eyes meeting mine with an empathetic glow. “Don’t worry about any danger. I’ll have him searched and cleared before he can even step onto the property.”
My sigh of relief is small. I’m still not ready to believe that Damien isn’t the bad guy. Avraam seemed so sure he was behind the shooting, and I accepted that possibility as a fact. I actually feel less comfortable now that I don’t know who it was again.
I sit back down in my chair, running my finger over the armrest. “Are you sure this is safe?”
“We’re armed, he’s not. If anyone isn’t safe, it’s him.”
When he puts it that way, it seems so painfully simple, but it still doesn’t ease the anxiety that’s burning in my stomach. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. Everything is going to get worked out in the end. He’s already promised me that.
“I hope he’s not as messy of an eater as you are,” I say, trying to bring some humor into this conversation for my own sake. Usually, it’s Avraam that’s doing the joking.
“We’re basically twins, so he’s probably just as bad,” Avraam replies with a grin. “Think you can handle two of me?”
An absolutely filthy thought runs through my mind, but I keep it to myself. “I’m sure it’ll be an adventure, but I’m up for it,” I reply.
“Great, so I’ll get everything set up. You don’t have to do anything. I want you to relax today,” he says, looking at my belly.
“Come on,” I say, shaking my head at his proposal. “You really think I’m incapable of moving around? I’m hardly even pregnant. That baby is just a speck of cells at this point.”
“You’ve been under a lot of stress,” he says, adjusting one final book on the shelf and coming toward me. “You need to relax.”
He circles around the chair and places his hands on my shoulders. The warmth from his skin seeps through the thin layer of silk covering my shoulders, and I melt in the chair like a popsicle in the sun. It’s impossible to worry when he touches me like this. I feel like I’m floating on a cloud of ecstasy.
“Good girl, just take it easy,” he purrs, working his thumbs into my shoulders. “Release that tension.”
I roll my head back, looking up at him as he massages me. A smile dances across my lips. How did I ever get so lucky?
