Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“You’re already a target. You’ve always been a target. Strength in numbers.”
“I didn’t ask about me. I asked about you.”
“I’m one of the few people safe from his wrath, at least for now. I’m the heir he wants to conform, not make go away.”
“For now?”
“You’re moving in with me. Say it,” he repeats.
“Damion—”
“Nothing else divides, Alana.”
“Right. You’re right. Yes. I want to move in with you. I’ve been excited about it all morning long.”
“Good. One more thing, though.”
“Do I want to know?”
“Probably not, so I’ll just tear off the band-aid. The minute he knows you stand by me and can’t be swayed to step away, he’ll act quickly and swiftly. I need to know you’re protected. You need a bodyguard.”
“What? No. Wait.” I blink and will my thundering heart to calm. “I’m just putting this all together. You think…he’ll try to kill me?”
Chapter twenty-six
You think…he’ll try to kill me?
“Not yet,” Damion replies.
“Not yet?” I gasp and pop to my feet, Damion following me. “Not yet?” I repeat. “Are you serious?”
His hands settle on my shoulders. “Easy, sweetheart. It’s always best to plan for the worst. That’s where my head is.”
“Has he killed other people?”
“I’m protecting you. That’s all you need to know right now.”
My hand balls between my breasts. “That’s a yes. Who? How? How do you know?” I grab his lapels. “Why?”
“He’s vicious, Alana. That’s all I can tell you right now. The rest has to be when we’re alone, at home, our home.”
Our home.
The way he says those words, in a roughened-up voice leaden with emotion, almost scares me more than anything else he’s said to me. He’s worried. Really worried, and I think of his statement about losing me. He needs me with him, but more so, he fears his father will win, and I’ll leave him. I wrap my arms around him and hold him tight, pressing my head to his chest, and before my chin lifts, my gaze finds his.
“At home,” I whisper. “I just hate that you have hours to worry over what I’ll think about whatever you have to tell me.”
“I just told you my father might try and kill you, and you’re worried about me.” His forehead presses to mine. “I do not deserve you.”
I press my hands to his face. “Stop saying things like that already. We’ll get through this.” I pull back to look at him. “We’re finally together.”
“And I want to keep it that way,” he says. “I hired Adam to be your bodyguard. He’s a retired Navy SEAL and works for an operation I trust. He’s your shadow until further notice. He’s elite. He will keep you safe.”
“Why do I need someone of that caliber?”
“Because the man who works for my father is of that caliber.”
My mouth goes dry, cotton thickening my words. “And he’d—kill me?”
“I believe he’d kill for money. Adam is necessary. When we’re done eating, I’ll bring him in and we can talk to him together.”
Obviously, there was a reason Adam set me on edge, and it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Damion’s father. Even so, there’s still a part of me that wants to reject this idea of such an invasion of privacy, but I’m not a fool any more than Damion is an exaggerator. I give a tiny nod of my head. “Yes.”
He strokes hair behind my ear, the tender touch sending a shiver down my spine. “It’s going to be okay,” he promises.
I catch his hand and pull it between us. “You need to remember that, too. But will he ever stop coming for us?”
“He will.” His voice is pure steel, but he offers nothing more, and I’m just not in the mindset to accept that answer.
“How?” I ask, pressing him.
“I have a plan. Trust me.”
“We do this together. I want to know the plan.”
“Tonight. We have a lot to talk about, but it has to be tonight.”
There’s a heaviness to that repeated statement, a darkness that twists me in knots. Just what is it he has to tell me that he can’t share here?
“Right now, let’s enjoy lunch together,” he adds, pulling my chair out for me again.
I’m not sure that’s even possible, but his eyes, his energy, compel me to sit down. I do as he’s bid, settling into my seat, and he scoots me to the table again, and I have this sense of him using that act to rein in control.
I shiver and hug myself. He’s scared. And because he’s scared, I am, too.
Chapter twenty-seven
Our food arrives immediately after we sit, and it’s as if we’ve made a concerted effort to disappear into the moment together. We dig in, and after a few bites, we’re already chatting up a storm. We decide fairly promptly that we must return one evening when we’re not rushed. “And when I can try their famous mac n cheese and take a nap after,” I say. “Joking. Okay, I’m serious. I will eat all the pasta and need to be rolled home.”