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I shook my head and gripped on to the steering wheel tighter as I pulled into her apartment parking lot. I couldn’t let my mind wander to what had happened in the club. It wasn’t a choice. I’d needed to do something to keep her safe, and that was the only thing I could think of at the time. There was nothing else to it. There couldn’t be anything else to it.
“Not parking in the back?” Belle asked, and when I glanced at her, she had a small smile on her face. She remembered where I liked to park, with a view to see everything, but this time was different. The distance between the back of the lot and the stairs to her apartment was too far. Anything could happen in that time, so I opted to pull into a space near the stairs.
“Nope. I’m parking here from now on.” I expected Belle to comment about it, but all she did was nod and unclip her belt. I turned the engine off and grabbed my bag off the back seat, making sure I had my extra gun in there, then I scanned the area. “Let’s go.”
Her door flung open at the same time as mine, and I darted around to her side to make sure she was covered—just in case. She didn’t mention the fact I was so close as she walked up the outside stairs in silence. But Belle and silence didn’t really go hand in hand, so I knew it was because she was thinking. She needed to process everything that was happening and the fact I was here for an unknown time. Her life was about to change, but I’d do all I could to make sure it looked and felt as normal as possible.
I followed Belle as she turned at the top of the stairs and onto the walkway, which was exposed to the outside. I didn’t like how open it was, but there was nothing I could do about it. She halted in front of a door in the middle of the row, and I turned to look out onto the lot. I could see the entire lot and even part of the college campus from here, and I didn’t like it one bit.
My nostrils flared as I watched Belle insert her one key and push the flimsy door open, and my instincts to tell her we wouldn’t be safe here kicked in. “Is that all you have on this door?” I asked, stepping inside and right into the living room. It had a small kitchen attached to it, and only a waist-high wall separating the two rooms.
She closed the door behind me and shrugged. “Yeah. This block is mainly students, so we don’t need anything more than one lock.”
“You need more than one lock, Belle.” I scrubbed my hand down my face and glanced around the small apartment. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ, you can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
Belle huffed out a laugh and planted her hands on her hips. “Are you serious?” She paused, waiting for my answer, but when I just stared her down, she threw her hands up in the air. “I can’t believe you. This is my home, Ford. I’m safe here, I’ve been safe here since I moved in at the start of my sophomore year. There’s never been trouble here, and—”
“And you’ve never been threatened by a cartel boss, Belle.” I took a step closer to her and lowered my voice, trying to drive my point home. “This isn’t fuckin’ playground antics. We ain’t playin’ house here. It’s fuckin’ serious.”
“You think I don’t know that?” she whispered, and her throat bobbed. “You’re here because I came to that club. You’re here because I apparently can’t protect myself.” Her eyes welled with tears, and my shoulders tensed. If there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was Belle upset, but I couldn’t cave. It wasn’t safe for her here. “I know you’d rather be at home—anywhere but here.” She glanced down. “I’m sorry.”
Fuck. Jesus. I was too harsh. I…
“Look…” I pushed my hand through my hair and gripped on to it. “I’ll check the apartment over and see if I can make it safe, okay?” She didn’t answer me. Instead, she moved aside and stepped past me. “Be
lle.” I reached out and wrapped my hand around her forearm, the exposed soft skin sliding against my palm. The touch gained her attention, and she finally looked up at me. “I wouldn’t wanna be anywhere but making sure you’re safe. Got it?”
Her blue eyes looked lighter than they ever had before, like a clear, calm ocean. “Okay,” she murmured. “I really am sorry, though. If I hadn’t come to the club, then…” She trailed off, and even though I knew she meant I wouldn’t be here, I couldn’t help but finish the sentence off in my head: we wouldn’t have kissed.
I wondered if she thought about the kiss. Did she think I went too far? Maybe touching her now was crossing a boundary? I had to keep my mind focused on the job at hand: keeping Belle safe.
“It’s fine.” I pulled my hand off her arm and clenched it by my side. “I’m gonna check the apartment.” My gaze flicked around what I could see. A central room, which was the living room and kitchen, and a hallway leading off either side. “Is your roommate here?”
“She won’t be home until later, although I’m not sure how she’ll feel about you staying over.” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that we may not be staying here if I didn’t think I could make it safe enough, but instead, I remained silent. “Do you need to check her bedroom too?”
“I need to check every room and every entry point.” I placed my bag on the arm of the sofa, then pulled out a couple of pieces of equipment. The first was to check if there were any bugs in here, and the second was to see how easily I could gain access to the apartment.
“I’ll let you get on with it,” Belle said, but I didn’t turn to acknowledge her. The only thing on my mind was checking the apartment. Her footsteps echoed as she walked down one of the hallways, and I let out a breath. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea sending me here to make sure she was safe. There was a tension between us that had never been there. Maybe I was imagining it?
Instead of overthinking it, I got to checking the entire apartment. There were three entry points, four if you counted the front door. One window in the living room, one in her roommate’s bedroom, and one in her bedroom. All three needed to be replaced with safety glass and then fitted with sensors. The flimsy wooden door also needed to go, and an entire alarm system had to be installed. The list was getting longer and longer, but I knew I could make it safe for her.
I pulled out my cell, about to call Brody, when Belle stomped out of her bedroom, her face red and her lips pinched. “No, Dad, I can’t just stop my studies! I only have five months left of this year.” She halted in front of me, her blue eyes no longer calm but instead fiery. “Ford’s here, he’ll make sure I’m okay—no, Dad.” Her shoulders slumped. “That’s not fair. You can’t just demand…I’m a grown-ass woman.” My nostrils flared as I tried to hold in the chuckle, which was desperate to escape. She didn’t sound like a grown-ass woman right now. She sounded like a teenager arguing with her dad. “Here, talk to Ford. I’m done letting you boss me around.”
Belle handed me the cell with a raised brow, and I glanced down at it. “What?” I asked.
“You talk to him. He won’t listen to me.” She shook her cell between us. “He wants me to come home. He said I’m not safe here with only you.”
My back straightened at her words, and I took the cell out of her hands. It was one thing for me to be worried about keeping her safe, but for Brody to second-guess what I was best at didn’t sit well with me. I’d never let anyone hurt Belle, and he should have known that. I was all for taking chances, but only when the time called for it. And when I was protecting someone who was family to me, I didn’t take chances.
“Brody,” I growled down the line, and Belle’s brows shot up on her forehead. Yeah, she wasn’t used to the way I was talking. I always spoke so gently with her, but she was going to have to learn the different sides of me, sides I’d kept her sheltered from.
“You need to bring her home,” he demanded.
I widened my stance, almost as if I was standing face to face with him, but Belle didn’t move an inch. Her eyes were focused on me, her lips parted, and her head tilted to the side. She was fascinated by the way I was acting and talking, and I shouldn’t have liked seeing that look on her face.
“Why?”
“He got bail.”
