Page 17 of Her Protector Daddies

Selena’s lips parted but no words formed. Instead, she frowned and crossed her arms.

“Exactly,” I remarked. Then I locked eyes with Tyler. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

Tyler nodded.

“We take her to Jay’s.”

7

SELENA

“If you wake up Dae, I swear to all hell that I will wax you both in your sleep.”

I stood in the doorway of an unfamiliar kitchen, fiddling with the hem of my t-shirt as the newest addition to the group, Jay, handed cold beers to my two new bodyguards. I’d learned on the drive over that Office Lamb’s name was Tyler, and Detective Grant was Bailey. It only took two slip-ups for Tyler to reveal that he was also a detective but that it was a story for another time.

Honestly, I was too tired to care.

I was running on fumes, with adrenaline being the only thing keeping me upright and awake.

“Please, sit.” Jay approached and waited for me to look at him. When I locked onto his warm brown, almond-shaped eyes, he gently took me by the elbow and guided me onto a stool near the central island counter.

He was just as handsome as the other two, with jet-black hair and thin lips that curved into a comforting smile. Despite my natural dislike of being around cops, at least these three were pretty darn handsome.

“Drink,” Jay encouraged, setting down a mug of steaming tea in front of me. “It’s sweet. Good for shock and should, with any luck, help you sleep.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, wrapping both hands around the mug. The heat was shocking against my palms at first but it quickly became a comfort so I pulled the mug closer.

Tyler sat on a stool two down from me while Bailey leaned against the fridge and took a large swig of the beer.

“Jay is a Private Detective,” Bailey said and I lifted tired eyes to meet him. “If you hire him – and you really should hire him – you’ll be under his protection and he’ll be able to work alongside the LAPD.”

“Aka, us,” Tyler cut in gently.

“And we’ll all be able to keep me safe.”

I was too tired to think properly. Every part of me throbbed and when I swallowed, I could still feel that asshole’s hand locked around my throat. I half wished I was still at the hospital but it clearly wasn’t safe there anymore.

“Why do I have to hire a Private Eye for protection? Isn’t that your job to do that anyway? You’re a cop,” I said, eyeing Bailey over the top of my steaming mug.

“Technically,” Bailey agreed.

“It should be that simple,” Tyler said and my gaze slid to him. “But right now, while we think we know the threat against you, it’s a lot harder to prove. Any good lawyer could talk their way out of this once and claim the connection between the man at the hospital and the men in the hospital is just circumstantial.”

“The connection being Andrés Dorame?” Jay asked, fiddling with the cuffs of his white shirt.

“Yes,” Bailey confirmed. “Protocol would have us releasing you back into the public since the attack didn’t occur at your home.”

“You’d be dead within the hour,” Tyler grimaced. “Sorry.”

Oddly, the thought of dying didn’t phase me. I was running on so much last-minute adrenaline and fear that part of me felt invincible. Which made the thought of being protected seem ridiculous.

“I just want to go home,” I muttered, taking a sip of the tea. The warmth swept down my throat and I bit back a small groan of surprise. It really was good.

“And they will find you,” Bailey stated. “Just like they found you at the hospital. There’s no hiding from these people and as much as it pains me to say so, they know the law. They knew attacking you in the hospital would force you out of there. If I took a guess, they were hoping we’d cut you loose since the lack of direct threat from Andrés would make witness protection hard to swing.”

“I swear that bastard thinks of everything,” Tyler muttered.

“You can say that again,” Jay agreed, rolling up his sleeves. He shoved his hands into a sink full of bubbles and began to wash up. They all spoke with a shared tiredness like they had been chasing ghosts for longer than any of them wanted to admit.

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