Page 266 of Hell Hath No Fury
“I’m going to take you to my place for a little while. Until things are cleaned up. Don’t worry,” I remind her. “You’re safe.”
“How did he get in? I don’t even know who he was. I have never seen him before that I know of.”
How did he get in? That’s a good question. One that makes me tighten my hands around the steering wheel until myknuckles ache. I checked everything, didn’t I? How the hell did I miss something?
I still have no answer to my question by the time we reach my place, which is a lot smaller than hers but clean and furnished well, thanks to the generous compensation I receive for my work. At least I’m not embarrassed to bring her here.
“You’re going to be fine now,” I tell her once we’re inside. She takes a seat on the sofa, wrapping her arms around herself. She hates me. She has to. There’s no other way this could go. It’s not that I didn’t want to tell her who I am and what I do. It’s only that I knew this would be her reaction. Keeping her safe meant more than anything, so I made sure to avoid telling her the truth.
Well, she doesn’t need me anymore, anyway. I’ve taken care of the problem. And I realize now the idea is almost enough to break my heart. The thought of her being unable to forgive herself for opening herself up to a killer like me.
We both jump when my phone rings. It’s one of the guys from the crew, and I hold up a finger to signal for silence before answering. “Speak.”
“He got in through the office window—the lock’s broken.” Dammit, he must have got in not a minute after I last checked it. Did he somehow know I was there? If he had, why would he bother breaking in? “ID says his name is Hugo Clark.”
I look at Dakota. “Do you know a Hugo Clark?”
I expect confusion or fogginess. Instead, she gasps, her eyes blazing. “Yes! He’s left, like, hundreds of comments on the blog! I just figured he was a lonely guy with too much time on his hands. He always signed his comments, too.”
Wonderful. “Then we’ll be purging him from your blog,” I say before confirming her place will be clean within the hour, then ending the call.
“I never thought he was a legitimate threat. I feel so stupid.”
“You have no reason to feel stupid,” I assure her, taking a seat on the other side of the sofa so she doesn’t feel crowded. “You can’t go around assuming everybody is a threat. Now you’re safe. We’ll have your window fixed and better locks put on, and you’ll be fine from here on out.”
“What about…?” She glances my way before averting her eyes. “You know. What about us?”
“After what you saw tonight, you want there to be an us?”
“I do wish you had been honest with me,” she admits in a soft voice, staring down at her hands. “But you saved my life. And now… this is going to sound really cheesy, but I feel like I have more of a reason to live my life. I don’t feel so alone. It’s okay for you to tell me I’m off-base here, by the way.”
I don’t want to because she isn’t. I slide across the space between us and take her hands in mine, engulfing them easily. “If you think you might still need a bodyguard, I could use the work.”
She giggles, finally looking at me. “I do like having you around. A lot,” she adds, squeezing my hands. “I could use a guard around me just in case things get scary again. You’re the only good thing that’s come out of this, and I don’t want to lose you.”
I pull her in for a hug, my heart swelling when she rests her head on my chest. “And you never will,” I promise, meaning every word.
“So you’ll be my live-in bodyguard? Always?”
I pull back and lift her chin so our mouths are aligned. “Dakota, I’ll be anybody you need me to be. Always.”
