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She didn’t need to speak—he read her wishes on her face.
“Everybody out!” He swiped a hand through the air, sending three rushing to the door. Heidi left more reluctantly, spitting more oaths to fire him that held the weight of a baby hurling itself at a giant.
Once he firmly shut them out, he walked over and picked up her teacup. It only took seconds to return to the coffee machine and dispense hot water into a fresh cup with Avalynn’s favorite morning blend. The peppermint drink woke her up and soothed her vocal cords, but what he really thought she could use was some chamomile.
The water drizzled into the cup, and the scent of mint filled his nostrils. Keeping her favorite things around meant she didn’t have to leave the room and nobody had to enter to bring them to her. He could protect her better.
When he returned to her side and held out the cup, she took it from him. Her glassy eyes burned up at him.
“You okay?” He sank to the chair, aware that as soon as she gave the word to see her team, all hell would break loose again.
“Let me have a few sips of this. Then I’ll see them.”
He watched her for a moment. She appeared composed. Her shoulders weren’t slumped under the weight of what she faced. She was handling this better than he expected considering her age and what was happening.
But she had a natural fragility that she never exposed to the outside world. Seeing it now worried him.
His phone dinged with an incoming message. He glanced at the screen.
“My boss is here.”
Another text popped up.
“And your manager is threatening to fire me. Again.”
Avalynn’s gaze met his. Suddenly, a soft laugh broke past her full lips.
He met the sound with a crooked smile.
“Thank you, Julius. I needed that laugh. And I need ten minutes before I see my team. Can you make that happen?”
He looked her in the eyes. “You can count on me.”
* * * * *
Avalynn sipped her peppermint tea. The mint soothed her strained vocal cords, and the heat soothed her dry throat.
Knowing that Julius had her back one hundred and fifty percent helped more than she could ever express. In times like these, it was scary how on top of everything he could be.
That her bodyguard made the perfect cup of tea was a bonus.
Something she appreciated even more than the tea was Julius’s ability to just sit in silence with her. No expectations. No chitchat. No nervous chatter. Just his solid, strong presence that made her feel safe and comforted—two things she needed in this crazy business.
She’d held her breath, waiting for the terrifying threats against her life to start again after the silence of the past month. Now this.
Julius shot a text to someone and slipped his phone into the pocket of his black dress shirt. He always wore black. A black shirt and jeans, sometimes dress pants, with black cowboy boots and a black Stetson.
Usually he wore a black expression to match, and she liked that he could send people running with a single look.
After sipping half a cup of the fresh, hot tea, she set it on the nightstand. She stood, and the oversized sleeping tee she wore dropped to her knees. “You can let them in now.”
He caught her eyes. “You’re sure?”
She nodded and reached for her terrycloth robe draped over the foot of the bed where she’d dropped it the previous night before crawling between the cool, crisp sheets and letting sleep claim her.
If she’d known how disturbed she’d be this morning, she never would have slept a wink.
Julius preceded her to the sitting room. She took a seat in the corner of the big, modern sofa as he let the crew in.
