Xander’s defense of her had her falling even harder. This amazing man was something else.
“So what, Frey?” Axel grumbled. “You think this rent-a-cop can help you? You could be in legitimate danger and mall cop here is your savior?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
Axel continued as if he hadn’t heard her. Hell, considering the rant he was on, he probably hadn’t. “Shit happens, and instead of calling me—your brother who’s a fuckingdetective—you turn to a security guard?”
Utterly confused, she glanced at Xander, who shrugged. “I may have said I worked in security. Didn’t feel the need to clarify.”
Shaking her head, she chuckled. “Of course you did.” Letting out an exasperated sigh, she turned to her brother. “Xander works for Hudson Security. Pretty sure he’s more than qualified to keep me safe.”
Axel’s eyebrows rose, and for once, he was silent.
Then Finn laughed. A loud guffaw of a laugh. “Holy shit, Ax, evenI’veheard of Hudson Security.” He turned to the twins and gestured to Xander. “They protect billionaires and shit.”
“Anyway,” she said, trying to rein the conversation back in. “I just wanted to let you all know what was going on.”
“You should move back here,” Axel said. “We can keep an eye on you.”
She shook her head. “I love you, but no. Besides, I have a job.”
“But between all of us, we can keep an eye on you.”
She was shaking her head before he’d finished speaking. “Did you not hear what I just said? Xander works for Hudson Security. I’m fine.”
“This person knows where youlive. That’s?—”
“Ever since the photos were left at my apartment door, I’ve been living with Xander.”
It was complete silence for three blessed seconds.
“For fuck’s sake, Fre?—”
“Axel, it’s fine. When I’m not with him, he’s assigned one of his personal-security officers to be with me at work.”
Axel’s mouth snapped shut. Finally.
“After the shooting at the resort earlier in the month,” Xander began, his voice calm, “Hudson Security was hired to revamp and upgrade the security at Pacific View. Not only do we always have a PSO within a hundred feet of Freya, but we have another security officer on-site as well. Part of the upgrade involved their cybersecurity. Trust me when I say we have nearly every inch of that place under video surveillance.”
Axel crossed his arms over his chest and remained silent, but that judgy look remained. God, it took everything she had not to clobber her brother.
“Look,” Xander said, releasing her hand. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “You and I may not see eye to eye right now. Hell, maybe we never will. But one thing I can promise you is that I’m taking this threat to Freya seriously. Seeing as nothing has happened over the last couple of weeks, I may be going overboard with the round-the-clock security, but I don’t care. Overboard or not, I’ll do everything I can to protect her.”
Axel let out a breath and ran his hand through his hair, nodding. “We can agree on that.”
Freya was taking that as a win. “Axel, I’m safe on Hudson. I just wanted to let you all know what was happening.Andgoing forward, I’ll be better about communicating with everyone.” She met each of her brothers’ gazes. “I promise.”
Oscar nodded. “We will too.”
“And we’ll get out there and visit you soon,” Jasper added.
“Do you get an employee discount at your resort? I mean, shit—” Finn made a face. “Have you seen the daily rates at that place?”
She chuckled, and when Xander’s arm wrapped around her waist, she leaned into him. After telling her brothers and being honest with them, she felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest. Yeah, she was sure Axel was still pissed, but at least he knew. Baby steps, right? “I’ll see what I can do, Finn. Now, how about dessert?”
The next few minutes were chaos. On top of the three pies she and Xander had brought, there was also ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and cranberry crumble cheesecake bars compliments of Oscar and Jasper’s long-time receptionist.
“Looks like I’m going to need to hit the gym tomorrow,” Xander muttered, adding a cheesecake bar to his already full plate of pie. He shot her that lopsided smirk she loved. “Unless you can think of another way we can burn off these calories.”
