Page 30 of Knight's Desire

“Are you alright?” He could see she wasn’t, but it was the best he could come up with to say.

She stared out in front of her, but Brick had the impression she wasn’t registering what she was seeing. “I wish I could say yes. Other than frightening me, this person hasn’t done anything directly to me. I haven’t been attacked or harmed. But he or she or whoever is doing this has done worse. They’ve messed with my mind. They’ve messed with my Shoppe. And they’ve messed with my dress.”

She finally turned to face him, and he could see warring emotions swirling in her eyes. “I know this doesn’t mean much to you, but that dress was my creation. I drew the sketch. I designed it. I commissioned a seamstress to make it. I agonized over every detail because I wanted it to be perfect. It was beautiful. It was mine. I was proud. I couldn’t wait for a bride to choose it as her dream dress. And this person destroyed it. In just a matter of minutes, they shredded all my work. I know I can have it remade, but it feels like a personal attack. They didn’t hurt me directly, but it hurts deeply all the same.”

He wanted to draw her close to him, but instead he dropped to his knee beside her. He refrained from taking her hand, but the kneeling position put him eye-to-eye with her. He snared her gaze, pausing long enough to ensure he had her full attention.

“This is going to sound like I’m an arrogant SOB, but we’re the best at what we do. We’ll find whoever’s doing this and make them pay for harassing you. They may not have physically harmed you, but I don’t want to take the chance their behavior will escalate to that. We’ll keep you safe. I promise you. No one will hurt you.”

Her sigh was faint, a soft exhale that Brick felt deep in his bones. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep. You can’t be with me twenty-four, seven. But I know you’ll try, and that’s more than enough. Thank you. You’ve been so kind.”

“I don’t.” Brick’s tone was firm without being harsh, but it caused her to raise a questioning brow. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep. So when I say I’ll protect you, I mean it.”

“Wow. I didn’t think men like you existed anymore.” He mimicked her raised brow, and she smiled. “Men of their word. I believe you’re one of those. I thought my father was the last of your kind.”

“I’m not sure what to say to that.”

“Say thank you. It was meant as a compliment. So what happens now? Besides signing my life away in paperwork.”

Brick stood, easing the ache in his legs, and leaned against Tristin’s desk. “I’ll need to check your security system at your store—”

“Shoppe. I call it a Shoppe. I guess it doesn’t really matter, but it just sounds strange to call it anything else. Never mind. Forget I said anything. You were saying?”

Brick bit back a smile at the heightened color in her cheeks and how she wrung her hands in her lap. She was cute when she was flustered, and he guessed it didn’t happen often. He’d already deduced that Hope paid attention to every detail, which meant she rarely missed a thing, and that trait gave her a sense of control that was important to her.

“We’ll start by assessing the security system at your Shoppe. I’m guessing we’ll need to make some upgrades. When the investigation is over, it’s up to you whether you want to keep those upgrades or go back to your simple system, but most clients stay with the upgrades. We’ll also need to ask you some questions to try and get a lead on who could be doing this. I want to warn you. The questions can seem intrusive, but we wouldn’t ask if they weren’t important to the investigation. We’ll need to question any employees and possibly those closest to you. We’ll even need a list of vendors, customers, and anyone else who could have had access to your Shoppe. You never know who might have noticed something that could provide a lead. The smallest detail can make all the difference in an investigation. I assure you that the intel we gather is kept as confidential as possible without compromising the case.”

“Is it really necessary to trouble my clients? I can’t imagine any of them doing something like this. I haven’t had the Shoppe open for very long. We’ve had a couple of dissatisfied customers, but the most they’ve done is leave bad reviews online. They’ve never threatened us or anything.”

“What about competitors?”

“We’re the only Bridal Shoppe in Grayson Cove. The closest one is forty-five minutes away in Greenville, but I assure you there is enough business to go around. I just can’t…”

As her voice trailed off, Brick could see her retreating into her own thoughts. “You thought of something. What is it?”

“Um,” she hesitated as her brow furrowed. “When you asked about competitors, I was thinking only bridal boutiques. But the dress that was destroyed…It was the only one in the store vandalized, and it was an original design. No other boutique would carry it. The design was mine.”

“You create your own wedding dresses?”

“Well, yes. I mean, I just started producing my own designs. It’s been a dream of mine to sell my own dresses in my Shoppe. I’ve only had two produced so far, but I have another custom piece in production with two more ready to go to the seamstress. The one that was destroyed was the only one of mine I had on display on a mannequin. It was also the central display in the salon, so it would have been the first one they came to when they broke into the Shoppe. So the fact that it was mine could be a coincidence, but I’m wondering if it could have been on purpose. I just don’t know.”

Tristin returned before Brick could reply. The paperwork took a few more minutes, and then Tristin reassured Hope that her case was in good hands before bidding her goodbye. She shook Tryst’s hand before reaching out toward Brick. He grasped her hand gently, memorizing the feel of her smooth skin next to his.

“I’ll walk you out,” Brick offered suddenly, only to receive another of her polite smiles.

“There’s no need. I can find my way out.”

He allowed her to pull her hand away. She backed up a step or two before turning to walk out of the office. Brick soaked in the graceful sway of her hips and the elegant way she held herself. The moment the office door closed behind her, he could feel a chill in the room as if all the warmth followed her.

Chapter Thirteen

The next few hours passed in a whirlwind of activity, and Hope felt like she’d been caught in a tornado that left her tossed about without any idea of where she was or what had happened. She finally had Kayla cancel her last two appointments of the day, so she could retreat to her office.

Her head pounded, and her body ached from lack of sleep. She kicked off her heels under her desk and leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed. With her door closed, she effectively shut out the noise and activity in her Shoppe. She allowed the quiet of her office to calm her. Fatigue made her limbs feel heavy, and she wasn’t sure she would be able to keep her date with Parker tonight. She’d picked up her cell more than once throughout the day to call and cancel, but she always stopped before making the call.

She hadn’t told him what happened. She wasn’t sure why. Sure, she didn’t want to worry him while he was at work, but she could have reached out before he went to the office or called him when she thought he’d be at lunch. What would his reaction have been if she had? She couldn’t be sure.

One moment, he was concerned with her safety. The next he was questioning her reaction — or overreaction as he called it. They fought as if they were enemies, or they talked as if they were strangers, or they kissed with all of the passion of a new relationship or they shared about their days as if they were an old, married couple. They ran hot and cold with no middle ground. If she were honest with herself, that exhausted her more than a sleepless night worrying over the person harassing her.

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