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My carefully constructed control on my emotions evaporated, and anger replaced it at lightning speed. “What the fuck?” I backed away from Belle and started to pace the apartment. “How the fuck did he get bail?”
“They said he wasn’t a flight risk, but we all know it was the fuckin’ judge. He’s on his payroll,” Brody boomed over the line, and I could imagine him pacing just like I was.
“But I thought he had Judge Weston?”
“He got replaced thirty minutes before he was due in court.”
I slapped my hand on the wall next to the front door, the vibrations shooting up my arm. “Motherfucker.”
“Which is why I need you to bring my daughter home. Now. She’s not safe there, Ford. She’s not—” Brody’s voice faded away as I turned to look at Belle. Underneath the anger at being told to go home, I could see her hope. She wanted to stay here because both she and I knew, if she went home, it could be months until she’d come back, and then she’d be a year behind. But I also knew, if she went home, there wasn’t anything there for her. Her mom and dad had no idea what she’d dealt with at school, but I did. Belle had confided in me so many times over the years, and I hated the thought of her going back to the way she was before she left for college.
Making friends wasn’t easy for Belle. She talked…a lot. She wasn’t afraid to say what she was thinking. She was outspoken and had an opinion on everything. She was exactly who she was meant to be, but that hadn’t sat well with the kids at her school. Belle had made out like she didn’t care, but I knew what it was like to feel like an outsider at school. I’d been that person. I’d been the one you could pick out in a crowd because they were different.
“I can keep her safe,” I heard myself croaking down the line. “I need some things to be installed into her apartment, but I can keep her safe.”
“I’m not asking for your opinion, Ford. I’m giving you a goddamn order,” Brody growled.
“Yeah?” I tilted my head to the side even though he couldn’t see me. “And I’m telling you, as the agent on the ground, that I can keep her safe.”
The silence stretched for so long, I was afraid of what Brody would do. There was no one in this world he’d protect more than his kids, we both knew that, but sometimes you had to trust other people to do what you couldn’t. And in this case, that other person was me.
“I don’t fuckin’ like this,” Brody started. “Tell me what you need. I’ll have it there within two hours.” I blew out the breath I’d been holding. “But, Ford?”
“Yeah?”
“She gets hurt, I’ll fuckin’ kill you with my bare hands. I don’t care about the shit we’ve been through or how long we’ve known each other. You understand me?”
“Understood.” I nodded. “I’ll email you the list.” I ended the call and sauntered over to Belle. “You can stay, but there’s gonna be a hell of a lot of changes to the apartment.” Belle took her cell from my grasp. “You might want to tell your roommate to stay somewhere else tonight because your dad is sending everything we need, which includes a new front door and windows.”
Belle’s eyes widened. “New door? Maybe I should have just gone home.”
I shrugged. “If that’s what you want, we can leave right now.”
She was silent for a beat and then shook her head. “No. I can’t go home like this. I want to stay.”
“Okay.” I pulled my cell out. “I’ll email this list to your dad, and then we can get started.”
Belle raised her hands in the air with a bored look on her face. “Yippee.”
The chuckle I’d held in earlier came bubbling up to the surface, and I let it out, staring at her back as she walked down the hallway to her bedroom. I wasn’t sure how long I’d have to stay here with Belle, but I knew it wouldn’t be uneventful.
* * *
BELLE
The inside of the car was silent, the only sound the roaring engine of Ford’s car. He hadn’t said a word since I’d won the argument on whether we would stay in or go out tonight. Ford obviously wanted to stay inside to keep safe, but after the last couple of days I’d had, there was no way I was going to stay in.
I needed a drink. An alcoholic one. And STAT.
The apartment had been a flurry of activity for the entirety of Friday night. Thank god Stella agreed to stay at Justin’s place, although I knew I’d have to explain to her what was going on. But Ford’s orders were that she was the only one to know, and I couldn’t tell her everything. I was sure Justin would wonder why the old wooden door was now replaced with a different one complete with five locks. I doubted he’d notice the windows and alarm system, but the red door turning white was a definite change you couldn’t miss.
My brows rose as I spotted the flexing of Ford’s jaw and the tenseness of his shoulders. If he was going to be like this all night, then maybe we should have stayed in. But what was the point of me staying at college if I wasn’t going to do what I normally did? Wouldn’t it have been more suspicious if I completely changed my schedule? That was the final line that had caused Ford to give in not ten minutes ago.
And now we were pulling up outside the bar, and Ford was double-parking, not having a care in the world that there was a clear no parking sign on the sidewalk.
“You can’t park here.”
Ford turned the engine off and unclipped his belt. “The rules don’t apply to me.” He pushed his door open and exited the car, so I did the same, only my door opened out into the road, and a car whizzed by.
