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My cell rang, and Brody’s name came up—a video call, something Brody only did when the team needed to talk, which meant there was no way I could take this outside, or in front of Stella. Belle had told her just enough so she wouldn’t keep asking questions, but not too much that she’d be in danger herself.
I stood, answering the call. “Two seconds.” I glanced back at Stella, but her gaze was fixated on the TV, and having noticed I’d stood, she stretched out on the sofa, getting comfortable. I was never going to get any sleep tonight.
My feet carried me to Belle’s room, and I knocked twice, but when there was no answer, I pushed the door open. I could hear her shower running from her bathroom, so I stepped inside and closed the door behind me and then sat on the edge of her bed.
“Brody,” I greeted, holding the cell in front of my face. The grim line of his lips was the first thing I noticed, and then Jord in the background, typing away on a laptop.
“Ford.” Brody huffed out a breath. “We’ve lost eyes on him.”
My stomach sank, but it was something I’d been expecting. I knew Garza would have gone underground, and I’d been waiting for this call to tell me. A man like him didn’t give you any excuses to create more of a case against him. He was going to make it difficult, or damn near impossible. But we already had everything we needed, at this stage, we had eyes on him so we could track his movements and keep Belle safe. “Thought he would.” I leaned my hand on the bed behind me. “When was the last time someone had eyes?”
“Two hours ago,” Jord said, not looking up in my direction. “He’s probably fleeing the country—”
“Nah.” I shook my head. “He won’t go back to Mexico, not when his business is still alive here. He’ll try to rebuild low-key.” My stomach dropped as I thought about what else he would do. He didn’t like to leave loose ends, and right now, I was a loose end, just like Belle was. And Belle was a tool he could use to tie up his loose end, one he wouldn’t hesitate to utilize. “You got eyes in his clubs?”
“Yeah.” Jord finally looked up. “But it’s on a loop.” I nodded. This wasn’t the first time Garza had been arrested and raided. He knew the score and knew how to rebuild without leaving a trail behind. But now that he was rebuilding, and we didn’t have anyone on the inside, we had no idea what was really going on. We could guess and estimate based on experience, but none of us truly knew.
“I’m posting extra men around you and Belle,” Brody’s gruff voice said. “I’m not taking the chance with either of you.” I couldn’t argue with him. Extras bodies meant there would be more protection, and I wasn’t willing to let Belle get hurt.
“Okay.” I heard the water from the shower turn off. “I gotta go. Ears.”
Both Brody and Jord tilted their heads in acknowledgment, understanding what I was saying. “Look after her,” Brody warned, although he didn’t need to. He didn’t need to tell me to look after the one person in this world who I would die to protect more than anyone else.
The line went dead, so I let my arms drop between my legs and hung my head. I was tired, and my brain was overloaded with so many things. I imagined what I would do and the steps I would take if someone managed to get past the apartment door. I played out the scenarios in my head time and time again, going over and over each route to the closest safe house.
A door clicked open, but I didn’t move from my position. I could still hear the sound of the TV playing some reality show in the living room, and the thought of going back out there wasn’t one I wanted to entertain.
Footsteps padded closer to me, and I made the mistake of looking up. I shouldn’t have. I should have kept my gaze focused on the light carpet between my booted feet, but instead, I stared up at Belle. Belle, who was freshly showered, her light-brown hair hanging loosely around her shoulders and only a towel covering her body.
She looked so much smaller standing there like that with a light blush on her cheeks. A blush I could have watched all day long. What was it about the redness on her face that drew me in? Was it the thought she was thinking something she couldn’t be?
“Ford?”
she whispered. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and I didn’t move a muscle. She was my prey, and I was afraid any movement would have my instincts kicking in, and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. But I had to. The kiss in the club was just to get her out of there safely. It was nothing more and nothing less. So why was I staring at her and taking in every contour of her exposed skin that I could see? Why was the thought of her lips pressed against mine making me rock hard?
“I need—” My voice broke, the deepness even surprising me. “I need you to walk back into your bathroom and not come out until I’ve left this room.”
“What?” Her eyes widened, and her hands clutched at the front of her towel. It would have been so fuckin’ easy for me to push up off this bed and yank it off her in one fail swoop. Then I’d have been able to see every single part of her body. “What’s happening?”
I shook my head, trying to get the image of her body out of it, but it was no use when she was standing there with that wide-eyed innocent look. An innocence that drew me in more and more with each day that passed. Belle was so much more than she let everyone see, and just following her for two weeks had taught me that. I’d put her in a box, a box I’d opened when our lips had first touch, and now I was tempted to peek inside and see what else was there.
My muscles screamed at me to stand, and I couldn’t deny them any longer. I moved slowly and with purpose as I stepped toward her. I was giving her the opportunity to do as I’d asked and remove herself from the situation, but she just stood there, her blue eyes getting darker the closer I got to her.
“Ford?” her breathy whisper asked, but I wasn’t sure even she knew what she was asking. Her chest rose on a breath, and I looked down at it and watched her hands let go of the towel. She was opening herself up to me, making sure there weren’t any barriers between us, and this was the one time I was so glad I could read people’s body language. She wasn’t offering herself to me because the towel still covered her, but she was being open. She was welcoming me closer, and damn if I wasn’t gonna take that chance.
In the back of my mind, I knew—I fuckin’ knew—I shouldn’t have been stepping closer to her and stopping only inches away. I knew I shouldn’t have lifted my hand and placed my palm on the side of her neck. I knew trailing my thumb into the dip of her collarbone and feeling her soft skin wasn’t a thought I should have entertained. And yet, I was here, my skin connected with hers, and my gaze focused on the lips she trailed her tongue over as she stared up at me.
She wanted it just as much as I did, and part of me wondered if she’d been thinking about the kiss in the club. Maybe I was imagining the signs. Maybe I was overthinking the way her body was talking to me. Fuck. I’d known Belle her entire life, and now I was practically drooling over her like she was my next meal.
What the fuck was I thinking?
I yanked myself away from her, putting three giant steps between us and feeling her bed at the back of my knees. My hands clenched by my sides as I tried to gain control of myself and not think about the way her smooth skin felt against my palms.
“What…” She paused, and I kept my gaze fixed to a spot on the wall behind her. “What the hell was that?”
“I need you to move, Belle,” I growled out. I couldn’t overstep the mark with her. I refused to destroy an entire lifetime of memories to the one girl in this world I cared about most. Girlfriends came and went, but Belle was always there with a smile on her face and an attitude to rival anyone who got in her way.
“Why?” I glanced at her as she slammed her hands down onto her hips. “Why, Ford? Why do you need me to move? You want to leave this room, then walk around me.” She heaved in a breath. “I’m not your goddamn toy to do with what you please. You can’t boss me around all the time and think it’s okay.”
