Page 38 of The Agent
Tully’s scowl returned. “So she was one of your guests.”
“The one who’s dropped off the radar,” Natalie said.
“You know about her guests?” Dawn asked Tully.
“I told him because of the stalker,” Natalie explained. “Their ex-husbands fit the typical profile in a sort of twisted way.”
Dawn nodded. “Makes sense. Well, now that I know you’re in good hands, I’ve got to get back to the gym.” She pinned one of her steely trainer looks on Tully. “You keep her safe, or you’ll answer to me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tully said with false meekness.
The moment Dawn spun out of the room, Tully was behind the desk, his hands on Natalie’s shoulders, pulling her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her so that she was pressed against his warm, hard body, then looked down into her face. “Are you really all right?”
“Trust me, I’ve dealt with much worse in my years at the salon. Generally related to weddings. Bridezillas, you know.” She smiled at him.
He gave her a little shake and didn’t answer her smile. “Not a joke when there’s a stalker after you.”
“Seriously, what would have been different if Pam had been here?”
“I’d feel better.”
The tension in his voice softened her resistance. “Okay, Pam can stay at the salon tomorrow.” She relaxed into him, his protectiveness sending a sexual buzz through her. She had to remember that protecting people was just his job. “This situation is so strange that it seems unreal. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that someone out there wants to do me harm. Or at least make me believe that he wants to.”
He brushed his fingers through her hair, his touch featherlight, a disarming contrast to his powerful physical presence. “You’re a strong person, so you keep living your life. It’s a positive response to a bad situation, but you have to temper it with caution. The threat is real. Maybe this Dobs guy isn’t your stalker, but you have to assume he could be and act accordingly.” His expression was grim as he asked, “Do you understand me?”
She avoided his gaze by laying her cheek against his chest with a sigh. “Yes. I just wish this was over.” Although that meant Tully would go back to his skyscraper in Manhattan while she stayed in New Jersey. At least she had tonight to look forward to.
“Sweetheart, I’m doing my best to make that happen.” He tightened his embrace, and she felt the hard edge of the gun nudging her rib cage.
“Who did you scare this morning?” she asked, allowing herself to feel safe in his arms.
“I’ll tell you later.” He put a finger under her chin to tilt her face up so he could kiss her in a way that promised more. Then he eased her away from him, making sure she was steady before he released her. “Did Van Houten say anything I should know about?”
He was back in security mode. Natalie shook off the fog of sensual contentment he’d enveloped her in and decided there was no point in keeping Regina’s secret any longer. “He says his wife is pregnant.”
Tully’s eyebrows rose. “Did you know that?”
“No. She didn’t mention it and she wasn’t showing at all, so it must be early in the pregnancy.” She looked a question at Tully. “Or Dobs is lying to try to get me to tell him where she is.”
“Yeah, I thought of that too. What’s your take on it?”
Surprised gratification flickered through her. He respected her enough to ask her opinion about Dobs’s truthfulness.
“It would explain why he’s so desperate to find her. Regina told me that he was obsessed with having a son to carry on the family name. She said that after they got married, she felt like a brood mare because of the way he talked about her hips and how she was built for childbearing. He became angry and frustrated every time she told him she wasn’t pregnant.”
“Obsessed. Angry,” Tully repeated. “That’s moving into stalker territory, especially if he feels that you helped his wife take his unborn child away from him. Have you checked your email today?”
“There was nothing this morning, but I’ve been too busy since.” She flipped open her laptop and logged in, skimming through the list of messages. There was an email from an unfamiliar address that hadn’t gotten dumped in her spam folder. “Crap!”
“Let me look at it first,” Tully said, using a big shoulder to edge her away from the computer.
“Why?” She could handle a random quotation about beauty.
He turned his head to look her in the eye, so close that she could see the black ring around his irises. “The broken mirror was a major escalation. I have a bad feeling.”
A quiver of nerves ran through her. “Okay. It’s the one from dk2118. It came in about two hours ago. So it was before Dobs came here and got nothing from me.”
She watched his face as he swiped into the email message and flinched when she saw his expression change from focus to fury. He muttered a curse, typed something, and turned the computer completely away from her.
