Page 71 of Blood Money

“How about you? Have you gotten what you needed?”

Thinking about myself had seemed like too big of a luxury. “Not until you.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He kissed me again, harder this time, and I let myself sink into it.

I truly wanted to believe staying here with him was possible, but as good as it felt, as warm as he was, as strong as his arms were around me, something in the back of my mind told me I didn’t deserve this.

33

VAL

After a lengthy kiss, I spooned myself around Liam and pulled him against me. It felt so good to relax with my body pressed to his. I had so many questions. Why hadn’t his parents left their money to him and Ava? And who was really after him? I needed answers, but I needed to hold him more. We dozed for a few moments before he said, “I need to tell you something,” and the peace was broken.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s possible there was someone following me today.”

I pulled him tighter against me. What had my people missed? Tony said they had eyes on the stalker. “What did the person look like?”

“Really tall, maybe 6'5". Italian with longish hair.”

Shit, he was describing Tony. “You don’t need to worry about him.”

Liam rolled over to look at me. “What do you mean? Are you going to send someone after him? Are you going to kill him too?”

“No.” Color rose into his face, and anger hardened his eyes. He understood now.

“You’ve been having me followed.”

“I put people on protection detail for you.”

He huffed. “So you have people following me?”

“For your own safety. You could’ve been killed the other night. And then at the diner—” How had I let that slip? I was really fucking it up today.

“At the diner…what?”

“There was a guy watching us from the parking lot. He looked a lot like the guy who attacked you the other night, like they might be brothers.”

“And you didn’t tell me? You just dropped me off at—Oh fuck, you’ve been watching the storage unit, haven’t you?”

“Yes. I’ve been there some nights, and when I couldn’t be, I’ve had someone else who works for the family keeping you safe.”

Liam tried to free himself from my hold. “No wonder you haven’t been sleeping much. I can’t believe I thought I had some autonomy when you were?—”

“Baby, I wasn’t going to let you get hurt.” I tightened my grip on him and rolled until I was on top of him. I knew he wasn’t serious about fighting me when he opened his legs so I could settle between them. “There’s another man after you. This is about something other than a horny asshole deciding he has the right to touch you.”

“What? Why? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Then why is there someone else watching you?”

I hated the fear in his eyes as he looked up at me. “Are you sure? Maybe you just thought he was watching me because you’re so protective.”

“No. He was at the storage unit last night.”

Liam froze. “What?”

“The man I had on duty saw him.”

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