Page 13 of Challenging Her Protector

“How do you know?” Her eyes burned. She was almost desperate for the answer. Part of her wanted him to be truthful. The other wanted his words wrapped up in a pretty ribbon of lies.

She wasn’t sure how she would know either way. Had her parents intentionally broken her down only to build her up into their ideal of what they wanted her to be? Or was she so unwilling to accept her own flaws she’d made them out to be worse than they really were?

“I know.” His grip was firm and steady. “How many times did someone tell you exactly what you just scripted to us? Think about it. How many times has your mother or father told you how ungrateful you were because you had all those things? How often did they make you feel dependent on them? Christ, did Scott?”

She fell silent. He was right. Scott had also said similar things to her, some worse. In a way, her ex’s betrayal hurt more than her parents’. He’d acted like he cared about her. She truly thought Scott was on her side until he started acting like he had his own agenda. In retrospect, all the signs that he was just using her were there, but she so desperately wanted to be loved, she convinced herself everything was fine. Until he started berating her and sleeping with other women. She looked down at her lap, before meeting his gaze. “Yes.”

“When you start thinking and saying those things, I want you to remember that. I know it’s not easy. It’s going to take time.” When his thumb slid over the top of her hand in a slow, back-and-forth motion, tingles fizzed over her skin. “Have you listened to or read any of the messages?”

She tilted her chin up, trying not to dwell on the hateful texts and calls. “I glanced at the first few this morning.”

“Is that when you got out of the shower?” Silver asked, looking back at her in the mirror.

“Yeah. I guess it contributed to my early morningnot-good-enoughepisode. I forgot to apologize for keeping you both waiting.”

“No more apologies.” Iron’s voice was hard, yet soothing at the same time. How was that even possible?

“Or thank-yous,” Silver added.

“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t want to be.” Iron gave her hand a quick squeeze and released it. She missed his touch and comfort immediately.

“If I can’t apologize or say thank you, what am I going to talk about?” Her joke fell flat, but Iron saved her yet again.

“How aboutI’m hungry and want to pick where we stop for lunch?”

“I could get behind that.”

“Good idea,” Silver said from the front seat. A text had popped up on the navigation screen and he quickly swiped it away.

“Who was that?” Iron punched the back of his seat. “And why are you so jumpy about their messages?”

She’d noticed Silver grinning when he glanced at his phone over the past few hours in the car.

“Fuck you.” There was no heat in his voice, and he turned on his directional to pull off into a gas station. “While you’re debating lunch choices, I’m filling up.”

“There’s half a tank left.” Iron smirked. “And last time I checked we weren’t headed toward a wasteland void of gas stations.”

Silver unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car, slamming his door without a word to Iron.

“How many times do you think we’ve stopped today?” She couldn’t stop the smile from forming on her face. Nearly every time Silver’s phone pinged with a text, he was pulling over and jumping out of the SUV.

“Each time the person with the initialsA.D.texts him. He was like this on the ride down too. I don’t spend much time with Silver’s team, so I was surprised when he was getting all flustered over answering his messages in the car.”

“It’s definitely a woman.” The excitement in her voice was audible. “Look.” She tilted her chin toward the window.

“Yeah, the only time I’ve seen him smile like that is when he’s answering one of his messages.”

“Maybe we could get two hotel rooms tonight.”

“Shit. We should have thought about that yesterday. You would’ve been more comfortable bunking on your own I bet. Silver and I can share a room tonight. Try to get one connecting for you.”

She laughed, feeling freer than she had in a long time. “I meant we’d stay in a room so Silver could have some alone time to talk with his girlfriend.”

His eyes darkened and her stomach felt weightless under his heated gaze. She blinked and the expression was gone. She was probably seeing what she wanted to and not what was there—just like she had with Scott. She’d only spent a day and a half with Iron, but the crush she’d started to develop on the man who’d selflessly jumped in front of a bullet for her was no joke. Still, she was determined not to go chasing love again, she needed to discover who she really was and lovethatperson first. When they delivered her to Hannah’s house, she’d probably never see Iron again. The thought made her heart hurt, and she ruthlessly pushed it down.

He cleared his throat. “Will you let me go through the messages? If there is anything remotely threatening, we need to report it to the authorities so there’s documented evidence of their harassment.”

“Of course.” Her clutch was in the bag from Silver’s Walmart trip yesterday. If she had any idea they’d planned to buy things for her, she would’ve insisted on paying. She had no shortage of money. When she closed her hand over the plastic phone case, she paused. Because of her early modeling career, her parents had insisted on being co-owners on her bank account. When she wanted to have them removed at eighteen, her parents refused. Her father was friends with the branch manager. She’d secretly opened another account through an online banking company, but she’d had to slowly funnel money there. Only a few hundred or thousand at a time. Enough that she could brush it off as a shopping trip or a spa day. Her private account didn’t have nearly the amount as the joint one.

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