Page 34 of Guardian Daddy

Cate shook her head. “I’ll be all right. But you need to be safe,” she said to him. “I take it that Ethan and Seth are going with you to Samantha’s? Does she have a decent security system?”

“I’ll be fine. Her apartment has a good security system. There will be lots of her friends there. Some will stay the night. It would be difficult to get to me there. And Seth will be with us. But Ethan will be staying here.”

Wait. What?

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” she said quickly.

Rhodes raised an eyebrow. “I’m worried about you.”

Why did he just change the subject? “Why are you worried about me? I’m not the one with a crazy stalker after me.”

Nothing could happen to Rhodes. She didn’t know what she would do without him. Just the thought of not having him made her ill.

“You’ve barely been out of your office or room since Ethan and Seth got here.”

“That’s not true. I’ve gone to the kitchen to get food and coffee.”

Rhodes sat across from her and leaned forward. “I know it’s hard having strangers in the house. Is it too much? Do you want me to get rid of them?”

What? What was he talking about?

“I don’t want you getting stressed,” he added in a soft tone.

Right. Because bad things happened when she got stressed. Her stomach tightened into a knot. She didn’t want to think about that.

About what she’d done . . .

“I’m not stressed.”

“Cate,” he said warningly. “This is me you’re talking to. And you promised to be honest with me about when you were stressed. I know you’re finding it hard having them here. I need to know if you’re having any negative thoughts. If you’re thinking about hurting yourself.”

She was tempted to touch her wrist. To flick the hair tie. But then Rhodes would know her secret.

And he couldn’t know about it. It wasn’t like she was actually harming herself. It was just a bit of pain to keep her mind on track and clear.

“I will admit that it’s taking me some time to get used to strangers being in the house. But I’m not that stressed. I promise.”

Rhodes just stared at her for a long moment. “I believe you. And though I’m not happy with how you’ve retreated, I know you need time. I wonder if there are other ways we can help you feel more at ease with Ethan and Seth.”

Like what?

“I asked them to stay in the background as much as possible, but now I’m wondering if that was the wrong decision. You won’t be comfortable with them if you don’t know them.”

“I’m hoping they won’t be here that long.” Although she wasn’t sure how long it would take to figure out who the stalker was.

“So am I. But there’s no way of knowing how long they will be need to be here. Brody has been unable to trace the owner of the blog, so we still don’t know if there is any connection between them and the stalker. The stalker has been quiet lately. Perhaps they’ve been scared off.”

Or they were waiting until the heat went off . . . until Rhodes got rid of the bodyguards and then they would strike again. She swallowed heavily.

“I’m just wondering if you’d feel more at ease if you spent some time with Ethan and Seth. Then they wouldn’t be strangers. You got used to Samantha being around.”

If by ‘got used’ he meant that she barely tolerated that woman, then sure.

“Did Ethan say something to you?” she asked.

“Say something to me? What would he say to me?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly.

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