Page 34 of Out of My Flocking Mind

“That’s because I need to catch the attention of the supplier.”

“So you’re using yourself as bait? Is that the only plan you know of? I swear, anytime anything happens, you dangle yourself out like a worm on a hook for whatever shark is in the water.”

“Sharks eat chum—not worms.” As soon as I said that, I knew I’d fucked up. Still, I shrugged I went on. “I don’t want to see people hurt, so the supplier needs to be dealt with.”

“And why is that your problem?”

I opened my mouth to tell him the truth, but instantly regretted it. There was no reason he needed to know that. It was a bad idea for him to realize I’d gotten myself targeted.

Sadly, I’d figured that out a split second too late, and the severe look in his blue eyes told me he’d guessed. “What trouble have you gotten yourself into now?” he asked.

“She was targeted by a Mind who uses Cloud,” Harrison said, the words surprising me. He’d been rather tight-lipped about everything, so why was he spilling the details now?

“And you didn’t feel the need to tell me about that?” Galen asked me, seeming to want to take it up directly with me rather than Harrison.

“It’s not your problem. Besides, we’ve got it handled. We’ll find the supplier, figure out his customers, then deal with my stalker.”

“Stalker?”

Yep, the way he asked that said I should have said less. It was a lesson I should have learned a long time ago, yet never seemed to quite get through my thick skull.

“You’re telling me it wasn’t just a one-time thing?”

“It was close to one time,” I hedged. “I mean, it was two times, which is almost once.”

Harrison shook his head. He probably had no idea just how foolish I could be, yet here he was with a front-row seat. He turned toward Galen. “She was attacked at her neighbor’s house. The Mind behind the attack seems to have formed an obsession with her. She was attacked again after going out drinking. That is why I have kept her with me—to prevent such an attack from occurring again.”

“If it happened twice, why is it you think you can do anything to stop it?” Galen asked.

“Because I am the strongest known Mind. If she remains within my sphere of influence, she will remain safe.”

“Convenient,” Galen muttered under his breath.

“Not that convenient for me,” I said, then looked toward Galen. “I’ve been selling this for a few days, so I bet we’ll have this all worked out by the end of the week. And if you’re here, you know exactly how dangerous Cloud is. Are you really going to complain about me doing something about it?”

He huffed, the sound rough, as though he hated I was right. Still, Galen had never been the type to let me have the last word. “What can I do to help?”

“Nothing,” Harrison snapped.

And just like that, the tension between them grew yet again. They were like dogs circling each other, and every little sniff in the other’s direction set them off. It reminded me how exhausting men really were.

“I don’t think there’s much you can do,” I said, softening Harrison’s statement even if I agreed with the basic idea of it. “We’ve already got a plan. I just need to keep going with what we’re doing right now.”

Galen’s expression softened, his gaze moving between me and Harrison, the meaning clear.

“Can I have a minute?” I asked Harrison.

He nodded, even if he didn’t appear that happy with it. He left, though I’d doubt he went far.

“You always manage to slip just out of my grasp,” he said, his voice sounded as exhausted as I felt. He lifted his gaze to mine, the look so different from what he’d shown with Harrison in the room. “I keep trying to take care of you, but you just won’t let me. Every time I turn around, you just keep moving further and further away from me.”

“It’s not like I’m going anywhere,” I said.

His gaze moved from my face to the side of my neck, to the marks that hadn’t faded. He didn’t have to say anything for me to know exactly what he was thinking, what he was seeing. It reminded me that as much as I wanted to claim nothing had changed, it wasn’t true. Even if that bond hadn’t taken, even if I hadn’t wanted it, something existed between Kelvin and myself, and now I was living with Harrison.

It would be hard for anyone not to feel bad about that, not to see it as me moving further away from him, that I’d rejected him but run to others.

And as though that realization drew him to close that gap, he came forward, each step slow. Was he doing that after shoving me against the bathroom wall? Like he thought I might be afraid of him?

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