Page 84 of Rectify

“But she didn’t. Caden took care of things.”

“What if Miller hadn’t been with you? She could have killed you before Caden knew there was a problem.” He rubbed his hand over his face.

Caden had been watching the door the whole time. When he saw Blondie enter, he moved close enough to hear Miller yelling for help.

“Next time, Caden goes into the bathroom with you,” Aedan dictated.

Natalya bit back her answer. There was no use arguing with him; his protective instincts were in overdrive, and there would be no talking him around. Not that she agreed with his dictate. At all. But she knew when to pick her battles. Aedan would calm down.

Eventually.

“I should have taken her phone calls more seriously. If I’d reported that I had a stalker to the police, this would never have happened.”

“You don’t know that,” Natalya told him. “You thought she was just a nuisance.”

He pinched the top of his nose. “At least now I know how she got my phone number.”

“Poor thing,” Natalya sympathized. “I guess you’ll just have to settle for my massages from now on.”

Turned out Blondie’s name was Melania Franc. Aedan had used her massage services several times, and she’d fixated on him. She had deluded herself into thinking that he loved her.

When Aedan had stopped going to Blondie for massages, she’d started stalking him, believing that he was cheating on her. Really, she’d actually thought that. She’d deluded herself into thinking they were an item. She’d followed him to Natalya’s apartment and turned her attention to her, waiting for a chance to scare her away from ‘her man.’

“Doing all those massages must have really built up her strength. Her fingers were like steel around my throat.” She lightly touched the skin of her neck.

“Do you need some painkillers? More pillows?” Aedan asked. After insisting she’d go to the hospital to get checked over, Aedan had brought her home and put her to bed. She’d tried to protest that she wasn’t an invalid, but he wasn’t having any of it. Instead, he’d helped her into her pajamas and had hovered all day.

“My pillows are fine. I have to get Mateo ready for bed.”

“I’m going to handle that,” Aedan countered, standing. “You’re going to lie here and relax. Once he’s in bed, I’ll run you a bath to help you relax. Will you be okay by yourself?”

She smiled at him. “I’m fine, Aedan. Send Mateo in to say good night.”

Aedan feltlike he was going insane. He wanted to take Natalya in his arms and never let her go. At the same time, he’d like to shake her, to yell at her . . . for . . . for what? For going to the bathroom?

This wasn’t her fault. If anyone was at fault, it was him for underestimating the threat. Never again. He let out a deep breath, trying to calm his raging fear. If anything happened to her . . . it didn’t bear thinking about.

He walked downstairs, coming to a stop as he saw Caden standing by the door to the living room, looking uncomfortable.

“Everything okay?”

“I don’t know anything about kids.” There was genuine fear on Caden’s face. “If you wanted me to babysit him, you should have made that clear before you hired me. I’m going to need combat pay.”

“What are you talking about? Where’s Declan?”

“In there.” Caden shuddered. “With the kid.”

“Today wasn’t your fault, you know,” Aedan told him.

“I should have noticed someone was following us,” he replied stiffly. Clearly, he did see it as his fault.

“If anyone was at fault, it was me. I never told you or Declan about the messages I had received. I honestly thought that was all over. I never realized she had fixated on Natalya.”

His gut had failed him this time. He’d had no idea that Natalya was in danger.

“If you need to fire me, I understand.”

“Actually, I think you’ll be a better guard now. Because you won’t make that mistake again.”

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