Page 42 of Surrender
“I didn’t know,” I snapped, a little too fast. Too defensive.
Nate wasn’t wrong to question my choice of boyfriend.
I was questioning it myself.
Wondering how I’d missed the signs.
Or maybe they’d been there the whole time, and I had just ignored them.
Nate’s jaw clenched, the vein in his neck pulsing as he leaned back in his chair, swiping a hand over his face.
“Sorry.” I sighed. “I just… I didn’t see it, and I’m already feeling like an idiot, so…”
“You’re not an idiot,” he stated simply.
I scoffed, looking down at my sweatshirt sleeves, tugging them over my hands. “Says you, who seemed to know right away what kind of man he was.”
“Because he was trying to put one of my guys away for a stupid traffic violation,” Nate said, his voice a little gentler. “He wasn’t trying to fuck me, and I’m sure he approaches the two things differently.”
A smile turned up the corners of my mouth, and I lifted my eyes to meet his.
They were the same eyes I fell in love with more than ten years ago. We were different people now than we were back then, but when it came down to it, those eyes were still the same ones that made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the world.
Like someone saw me, even when I didn’t want to be seen.
“I think he’s keeping tabs on me,” I said quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. “Probably more so now that he knows there’s a connection between us. I feel like I’m going crazy, looking over my shoulder, wondering if someone’s following me.”
Nate’s expression didn’t change much.
There was no shock or surprise.
“You’re not paranoid,” he said, firm and calm. “Don’t second-guess your instincts. You have them for a reason. Trust them.”
I nodded, licking my lips. “Oh, and I’ve heard things about a couple of his exes. How they left town, practically vanished, and their families are getting nothing from them except emails. Weird emails.”
He inhaled a long, deep breath and nodded once. “Okay. You don’t need to explain anything else. It’s my problem now.”
I couldn’t help but shake my head, sitting forward in my chair. “Nate. It’s not that simple.”
“It is,” he said calmly, his gaze locked on mine. “All you need to do now is get away from him. I’ll make sure he can’t hurt you. And if he tries, he can deal with me.”
His words were so steady.
Not a threat.
Not a boast.
Just fact.
And I believed him.
“So what do I do?”
***
“I’ll have one of the boys keep an eye on you,” Nate said as he paced back and forth across the room. “I shouldn’t have ousted our relationship with him, but you aren’t the only one who misjudged the level of crazy.”
Things started to make sense when Nate explained he’d had a tense interaction with Parker and mentioned my name to try to get beneath his skin.
