Page 79 of Protecting Christina

“Like what?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. You were making sense. I thought you could give me the answer or something.”

“Nah. You’ve got to talk to her about it. Sounds like something is holding her back.”

Then he looked at me. “Are you sure you’ve told her everything about yourself?”

I thought about my parents and knew the answer. “Why would that matter? I show her how much I love her.”

“Yeah, but if you’ve not been open with her, how do you expect her to be open with you?”

Shit.

Christian didn’t talk much, but all of us knew when he did, we listened. The thing was, I’d never told anyone about my parents. I wasn’t sure how I would even bring that up with her.

As we walked back to our apartment building, I remembered that Christian still hadn’t taken on any assignments since his last one. “Now that you’ve called me out, I think I owe it to you to do the same. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, opening the door for me. “I don’t have any woman trouble.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it. Why haven’t you been back at work?”

His jaw ticked as he pressed the button for the elevator. “I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

“You know that’s not healthy. You’ve got to get right back into things, otherwise these thoughts are going to fuck you up.”

“I did fuck up, Will. I let my client down. That’s why I’m not back at work.”

I shook my head. “No. You didn’t. How many times do we have to tell you that?”

“You don’t have to say it anymore. I’m over it. I just need some time to collect myself. That’s all.”

I nodded. “All right, brother. I’ll get off your back. But I won’t let you fall. You hear me?”

He nodded. “I hear you.”

“Good.”

***

After showering and shaving, I called Christina, but she didn’t answer.

I tried texting her instead. “I’d like to talk about last night.” Still no answer.

I went to work and focused on our next assignments. Jake would be back from protecting his mother-in-law soon and I could put him with a businessman that was coming in this week. I could take the assignment myself, but I wasn’t sure what was happening with Christina. If she would only just call me back.

Hours went by until finally, she texted me. “Yes. We should talk. Come by my place tonight around seven.”

I checked my watch. It was only noon. How the hell was I supposed to get through the next seven hours?

I put my head down and got to work. But after I’d responded to all my emails and returned every voice message, I still had two hours to kill.

I checked my phone. Tina still hadn’t gotten back to me. I texted her to see how she was, and apologized for interfering, but she was ignoring me, too.

“Jager, I’m heading out,” I called as I walked past his office.

He swiveled in his chair. “All right. Keep me posted on the Graff case. Hope that piece of shit gets what he deserves.”

---