Page 6 of Guarding Fable

Icheck on Fable for the third time in fifteen minutes. Her breathing is still soft and even, telling me that she’s getting some well-needed sleep. I didn’t miss the dark circles under her eyes. She’s been through hell. I just wish I knew what it was.

I pace away from the door and back into my living area. I want to push her, make her tell me there is no man in her life. The truth is it doesn’t matter. If there is a man, he failed to keep her safe. Hell, he could even be the asshole who hurt her.

Fisting my hands, I close my eyes and count back from twenty. Then I do it again. I had a real problem with rage when I separated from the military. My last mission was…well, it went completely FUBAR from beginning to end. It left me with some issues and a medical discharge. I had to work with a therapist to get my rage under control, and I had until I met Fable.

How could someone hurt a woman like that? I was brought up to revere women to make sure they were protected. Whoever it was, he left her on the side of the road, battered, and broken. As my irritation starts to spike again, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out and see that it’s Frank calling.

“Yo, Leo, how’s the woman doing?”

“She’s fine.”

“Good. I went through the area and surrounding counties' reports and couldn’t find anything. Want me to cast a wider net?”

“Yeah, but Frank, don’t inform anyone about her.”

There’s a beat of silence.

“I did put that post on the site.”

“Well, yeah, but other than that.”

A heavy sigh sounds over the phone.

“What did you do?”

“I told Mirabelle.”

I roll my eyes. Mirabelle is Frank’s wife, his former high school sweetheart, who is also our dispatcher.

“That’s fine. Just make sure she doesn’t spread the information around about the woman.”

I hear a noise behind me and turn and promptly lose my ability to think. Frank is yammering on in my ear about something, and I don’t hear a word of it. Instead, my entire focus is on Fable, who is standing there wearing my shirt. It’s huge on her, but the knowledge that she doesn’t have anything on beneath it has my head feeling light as all the blood drains to my dick.

Mine.

There’s that word again. This woman is my other half, the one to make me complete.

“Listen, Frank, just try to keep a wrap on it because we don’t know what happened. We have no idea who the assailant was.”

“Okay. Where are you keeping her?”

“At my house.”

Another beat of silence.

“What?”

“It’s just that…well, everyone knows that you never have awoman over at your house. Now you take this strange woman there. People are going to talk once they find out.”

“Let them, as long as we keep this all under wraps for the next few days while Fable tries to figure out what happened.”

“Okie dokie.”

“Also, I have her bracelet. We need to have it dusted and see if there is any chance to pull DNA off it. It might take a while to get it back, but I want to do everything we can.”

“You got it, boss. I’ll come out there and get it from you. Devon is here to take over the calls.”

Shit. I’m supposed to be on call, but Frank is a mind reader today.

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