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Chapter 5
“How many did you find?” Billy’s shoulders tensed as his fingers gripped his iPhone tighter.
“Three.” Seth answered. “One in the front room. One in the bedroom and one in the bathroom.”
Lowering the device from his ear Billy fisted his opposite hand as he inhaled through his nose. His heart was racing with the rage-inspired adrenaline that he hadn’t felt since the last time he’d been in the ring. He stared at the wall in front of him and fought the urge to put his fist through it even though he knew it wasn’t the plaster’s fault that whoever had broken in had put up cameras. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that the last thing Maxi needed was holes in her walls.
As much as he was trying to stay detached, to treat this like any other job, he couldn’t.
Returning the phone to his ear, he heard himself ask a question that he already knew the answer to, “Are you sure you got them all?”
The line was silent for a moment before Seth responded, “Are you sure you can handle this?”
No. He wasn’t. He wanted this over. He wanted to stop feeling like someone was kicking his balls and punching him in his gut simultaneously over and over again. And that was only going to happen when they caught whoever was harassing Maxi. Until that happened, he wanted to keep her safely locked up in her room.
This was killing him, and as tough and independent as Maxi was, he saw it was killing her too. She was scared. When they’d first arrived at her apartment, she’d tried to hide how upset she was. But he saw it. He saw it in the way she held her back a little straighter. He saw it in the way she’d made light of the situation even though her voice was tight with stress. He’d seen it in the way her hands trembled when she’d picked up a photo that had fallen over of her and her dad that Billy himself had taken two Christmases ago.
“Marshall?”
“I’m here.”
“The condo is secure and we have twenty-four hour surveillance set up. We have eyes on every entry point. As of now, there are no leads. You need to get some rest. Pace yourself. You’re no good to anyone if you don’t sleep. Eat.”
“I know.”
“Call if you need any anything.”
“Will do,” he assured his boss before disconnecting the call.
Seth was right. He was going to need to sleep and eat. He reminded himself that as long as Maxi was here, she was safe. Even though she’d jokingly said Seth had made her condo as secure as Fort Knox, the truth was, he had. She was safe. So, once she was ready for bed, Billy would try to relax enough to get a few hours of shuteye.
“Who was on the phone?” Her soft voice drifted into the room and cut through his turmoil-filled inner thoughts.
When his eyes lifted and he saw her, his heart caught in his throat. Maxi was wearing a body hugging red dress with a neckline that left little to the imagination. The lipstick that highlighted her perfectly-plump mouth was the exact shade of her dress. Her blue eyes looked even brighter thanks to the dark liner she’d used. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders in waves. And the black heels she wore made her curvy legs look a mile long.
He stood there in shock. He’d expected to see her in sweats, or better yet pajamas. This was the opposite of sweats.
“What are you wearing?” The question came out much harsher than he’d intended.
“It’s called a dress.” Her brow raised as she answered in a sarcastically pleasant tone before she spun and asked, “Do you like it?”
Hell. Yes.
In all the years that Billy had known Maxi she’d never played games. Unlike his mom, she didn’t manipulate situations for her benefit. She was one of, if not the most, straightforward people he knew. She didn’t fish for compliments, or even appreciate them when they were offered. She didn’t flaunt her pin-up-worthy curves around the guys that were training. Not that they didn’t notice them anyway, under whatever material that was covering them. Every time she walked into the gym, they all drooled like the animals they were. But she never put them on display, or used them to tease and titillate.
Knowing that, he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that her actions weren’t meant to torture him. But if that was her intent, it damn sure was working. He tried to ignore the caveman instincts the dress inspired. The urge to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and show her just how much he liked it was stronger than almost any other desire he’d ever felt. His mouth watered and his dick twitched to life in his pants.
Damn. If that was all it took to get him excited, it really had been too long.
“Why are you wearing it?” he corrected, ignoring her question as he assumed it had to be rhetorical. What red-blooded man wouldn’t love that dress so much he’d want to tear it off of her?
The small glimmer of light that had been in her eyes before as she spun extinguished. “I have a date.”
“Cancel it,” he managed to grit out between clenched teeth.
The last thing he needed was to have her out in public wearing that dress. It would be like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Except in this scenario she was wearing the flag, and the bull was a crazy stalker.
Lifting her chin higher, her shoulders dropped back. The stance pushed her cleavage against the taut crimson fabric, causing the twitch to turn to a throb. “No.” She sidestepped him and walked her fine ass into her kitchen with purposeful strides.
