Page 66 of Control

“Fair enough. Maybe that’s not the right phrase. I’m still determined to do this, and I feel a bit more confident that we’ve added another Harper Security Ops team member to the mixto help. There’s something about this thing in two days that’s leaving me unsettled.”

I hated that.

After Alana had spent a couple of days attempting to work out where she stood with continuing her coverage of the Annie Sanders story, she’d finally decided it was something she couldn’t walk away from. There were too many unanswered questions, and she had this determination in her to finish what she started.

Given how things had changed between us, there was certainly a part of me that wanted to lock her up away from anything that stood to harm her while I worked to take down that threat. But there was the other part of me, the much bigger part, that couldn’t stand to do something like that. Alana would hate it, and it’d take away everything that made her the woman she was, the woman I adored.

The desire to get to the truth and figure out what happened to Annie was even more imperative now that there had been this added threat. So, in an effort to speed up the process, I enlisted the help of Blaze Matthews, one of the private investigators I worked with. Alana and I both believed there was a justifiable reason to look a bit deeper into Annie’s ex, Mark Watson. Blaze had spent a couple of days doing what he does best, getting precisely the information we needed to carry out the next part of the plan.

“What’s making you feel unsettled?”

“Aren’t you just a little bit worried?” she questioned me, her body tensing. “My concern is that this guy has too many things that make him seem like he could be the guy. He turns up less than two months before Annie is murdered, and he’s pushing for them to get back together. And now Blaze has learned that every morning since Annie was murdered, Mark visits the same coffee shop and buys two coffees. Then he goes to the cemeterywhere she was buried and sits there while he finishes his coffee, the other being left untouched on the ground in front of her headstone until he leaves and tosses it in the trash. It’s just strange, don’t you think?”

“Of course, all if it makes him a potential suspect.”

“Well, if he is the guy, and we make our move, aren’t you worried about how he’ll react?”

“If I didn’t trust in my ability to keep you safe, I would tell you this is a bad idea. I’d get some of the other guys involved. But the fact that this guy has been doing this uninterrupted for weeks tells me he’s not going to be expecting to see anyone when he shows up at the cemetery. He’ll be unprepared. And if he’s guilty, that might mean getting the information you need to break this story wide open. If he’s innocent, he might have some additional insight to provide.”

She inhaled deeply, her body relaxing slightly. “As long as you’re sure.”

“I can’t promise what’ll happen with him, but I do know that I have no intention of letting anything happen to you. Regardless of how he responds, I will protect you.”

The corners of her mouth tipped up in a gorgeous smile. Sometimes, I found it difficult to catch my breath when she looked at me like that.

Her stomach growled again, and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

I let out a laugh and reasoned, “If you’re feeling better about all of this, I should probably get up, so I can feed you.”

“I need to call my parents,” she said. “It’s been a few days since I last talked to my mom, and this will be about the time she’ll panic if she doesn’t hear from me.”

“Why don’t you go and take care of that while I get dinner started?”

She tapped her finger on her chin, pretending to think. “I’m trying to figure out the downside to this? He keeps me safe, and he cooks.”

I kissed the corner of her mouth before burying my face in her neck. “That’s not all I can do.”

“Mmm,” she hummed. “I have no doubt you’ll want to demonstrate those talents later.”

After peppering kisses along the side of her throat and to the skin where her neck met her shoulder, I smiled and squeezed an arm around her. Then I pressed a final kiss to her cheek and urged, “Go call your parents. I’ll be in the kitchen when you’re done.”

Ten minutes later, Alana was upstairs on the phone with her parents while I worked on putting dinner together for us.

I could have spent that time thinking about what our morning out in two days would bring, but I preferred to spend it thinking about Alana, about how unexpected she’d been. I was lost in thoughts of things I wanted us to do after her foot was fully healed and this threat was no longer hanging over her when someone rang my doorbell.

Not expecting anyone, I immediately considered the possibility of there being someone who was looking to cause Alana harm. I approached the door and cautiously looked outside.

It was strange to feel such a mix of relief and fury at who I saw.

Because on the bright side, at least it wasn’t someone unknown who might have come here looking for Alana.

But the downside was that there was somebody I wasn’t exactly interested in seeing.

Evangeline.

I considered ignoring her completely, but when she rang the bell again, I lost it. I pulled the door open harshly and spat, “What are you doing here?”

“You haven’t called.”

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