Page 61 of Shattered

“Who the hell is Brian?”

“Aren’t you listening to me? I just told you Brian is the man who will be watching over you when I can’t.”Sarcasm encased his tone, diminished only by the slight smile on his face.

“And where, pray tell, is Brian going to be?Is he going to be glued to my side the whole day? How am I going to explain his presence to the people at work? Huh, Alek?Tell me.”

“He’ll be camped out in his car, making occasional trips into the shop to verify everything is okay.He has a picture of Samuel, so he knows who to look out for, just in case.And as far as explaining him, that’s up to you.Whatever you want to tell people is fine with me.”

Knowing I wasn’t going to win the battle, I shrugged, shook my head and walked away from him.I grabbed an outfit I’d brought with me, getting ready in record time.

My mood probably had something to do with it.

“Can we please go now?”There was no missing the annoyance in my voice.

“You can be as pissed off at me as you want, Sara.” He followed me from the room and down the long hallway leading to the steps.“Oh, and by the way, if you try to leave the shop without him, he’s instructed to follow you and call me immediately.So don’t get any crazy ideas.”

I knew I was being irrational.I should have been grateful he cared as much about me as he did, going the extra mile and hiring someone to watch out for me when he couldn’t.

Yet I couldn’t help but feel as if it was only the tip of the iceberg. Knowing Alek, he wasn’t going to let me breathe unless he or someone else was there to witness it themselves.

~34~

Sara

Weeks passed by, and although I loved playing house with Alek, shacking up in his enormous home, I started to go a bit stir-crazy.

I hadn’t gone anywhere without either him or Brian.At first, I was a bit afraid of the man, all six-foot-four-inches of him.He was a wall of hard muscle, with a shaved head and dark, intimidating eyes.The only thing which put me at ease was when he smiled, which wasn’t often at all.He was a quiet guy, intent on only doing the job he was hired to do.

I needed a night out with my friends.Onlymy friends.When I talked to Alek about it, he flat-out refused.Mentioning Matt would be there with us didn’t anger him as it used to, which I found both odd yet refreshing.But he still told me no.Maybe next time.

Both my good friends knew what was going on with me.Alexa had known the entire time, of course, but I’d had to fill Matt in right after Alek told me about Samuel being released from the institution.Once Matt had gotten over the initial shock of it all, he looked about ready to kill.He became almost as unbearable as Alek, ensuring I wasn’t making any more deliveries by myself, even threatening to call Alek if I gave him a hard time.

Damn those men for wanting to look out for me.I knew I was blessed, truly I did, but they were just too much sometimes.

I was in the middle of filling out an order form when Alexa called.

“Hey, girl, what’s up?” I asked, leaning back against the counter, taking extra time to focus on my conversation.

“Since I haven’t seen much of you lately, do you want to grab a drink after work tonight?That is if Alek will let you out.” She chuckled.

Not funny.

Initially, I felt bad leaving Alexa in the apartment all by herself, but the reality was she spent half the time shacked up with Braden anyway.

“I would love to.I really need to go out.You know, hang out with my girl.”A bit of tension fell away as I looked forward to the night ahead.“There’s no way I’m going to be able to ditch my bodyguard, so I’ll be picking you up.Or should I saywewill?”

“What?Alek’s not going to be glued to your hip?” she asked, as I heard her muffle a laugh.

“Nope.He’s tied up in business meetings until late this evening.He already told me.”

“Okay, then I’ll see you later.”

I phoned Alek an hour later to let him know of my plans.He wasn’t happy about it, but once I pleaded my case, he came around.Well, enough to let the issue go, knowing Brian would be there to watch over me.

One of the other conditions was we had to go to Throttle.He said he would feel better not being with me if he had multiple sets of eyes on me, his security at the club being the other babysitters for the evening.

I feigned inconvenience, but in reality I didn’t mind.We loved the place, although that was going to remain my little secret.

Walking into the club, I realized people were staring.I was sure it had something to do with the giant walking too close behind us.We were drawing attention and I told him as much, ushering him to the far corner where he could still keep tabs on us but be out of the way of prying eyes.

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