“I can’t stay with you,” she repeated.
Nash leveled her with a glare. “Then who can you go stay with?”
She looked out of sorts, her shoulders slumping slightly. “I guess no one.”
“Then stay with me,” Nash insisted. “Just to keep you safe until we figure this out.”
She pulled up her phone and showed him a number. “Here’s the number that called. Maybe have your contact check into that number.”
Nash lifted his phone and took a screenshot of the phone number. “Will do.”
She nodded, looking hesitant. “Can I have your phone number? I left the card, but …”
Quickly, Nash swiped her phone and put in his number. “There you go.” He texted himself so he had her number too. He didn’t want her to leave, and he could feel her fear. “Why don’t you stay here until I’m done with this meeting, and then I’ll go with you.”
She waved her hand at him. “No, it’s fine. I’m just going to gather my stuff and head to your place. Thank you. Thank you.”
On impulse, Nash grabbed her and pulled her in for a hug. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out together,” he said, knowing that he would do anything to figure this out now.
She seemed to melt against him. “Thank you, Nash. And I’m sorry.”
He pulled back and saw her eyes fluttering. It looked like she might cry. “Why are you sorry?”
She blinked, and then the side of her lip turned up. “For leaving after prom night and not telling you.”
His heart raced, and he let her go. “Well, I think I’m over that.”
“And for the fact I’m probably pulling you into something that really could be dangerous.”
He took her hand and squeezed. He marveled at how easy it felt to take her hand. To hug her. To want to protect her. “I’m all in on this. I’ve been all in on this gold hunt for a long time.”
She held his gaze.
Once again, he couldn’t believe that he had all these feelings for this woman. “I mean it.”
She snorted. “Okay. Thank you for helping me.”
“Of course.”
Nash walked her to the front of his office and watched her go, feeling somewhat scared and hating that feeling. He felt vulnerable too, because this woman hadn’t even been back in his life for twenty-four hours, and he was already invested.
It would be a straight lie to say he wasn’t attracted to her. Of course he was. And now he was doubly intrigued, because somehow she had ended back in his life after she’d been ripped away all those years ago. Chills washed over him. Maybe it was God’s work. He didn’t know. It wasn’t something that felt easy to accept, but he was surprised he was thinking about that at all.
He lingered in the lobby for a moment, watching through the glass doors as she limped to her Camry. Her blonde hair caught the sunlight, and Nash was transported back to their high school days—to that first moment she’d walked into his AP calculus class and he’d forgotten how to breathe properly. Some things, apparently, never changed.
He had a few minutes until his meeting, so he walked back into his office and called Brooks Stone.
“Nash,” Brooks said quickly.
“Hey, I just talked to Amanda, or Sadie, whoever,” Nash said. “She’s all shaken up. Someone called her phone, did some heavy breathing, and told her to stay out of the Rockwell gold investigation or else the same thing that happened to Bill Harris would happen to her.”
“Not good,” Brooks said in a gravelly voice.
“Right,” Nash said.
Brooks sighed. “So she’s in danger.”
“Yes, she has been threatened,” Nash confirmed, “but I have the phone number of the caller. I told her I was going to have someone look into it.” He rattled off the number to Brooks, who promised to get back to him as soon as possible.
