Finn gives a small smile.“We already called it.”
Wren blinks at the three of us.“I don’t want to be a problem.”
“You’re not,” Kael says.
“You’re not,” Finn echoes.
“You couldn’t be,” I tell her.
She looks overwhelmed.A little startled.Like she’s trying to figure out how she ended up with three hockey players forming a perimeter around her like she’s the only thing in the world worth guarding.
Maybe she is.
“Okay,” she whispers.
Kael leads the way to his SUV.Finn walks on her right.I stay on her left, half a step behind so I can see everything.Every shadow.Every doorway.Every car.
Wren notices, because she glances at me with this tired, grateful expression that hits me like a punch to the sternum.
“You don’t have to hover,” she murmurs.
“Yes,” I say quietly.“I do.”
She lets out a soft breath.“Okay.”
Finn opens the back door.She steps in.I slide in beside her without thinking.Finn gets in on the other side.Kael takes the driver’s seat.
It feels natural.
It feels wrong that it feels natural.
It feels right anyway.
Wren leans back against the seat, eyes fluttering closed for a moment.Exhaustion is all over her.
“How long has it been like this?”Kael asks, voice low from the front.
She hesitates.“A while.”
My throat tightens.“He’s been bothering you since you moved?”
“Longer,” she says.
Finn sighs softly.“She told me last night.”
Kael doesn’t react outwardly, but the shift in the air is unmistakable.Quiet.Sharp.Focused.
I lean forward slightly.“Wren.”
She opens her eyes.
“If he’s anywhere near here—if he tries anything—if he texts from a new number or shows up at work or you even think you see him—”
I stop because I don’t know how to finish the sentence without sounding like a threat.
Finn finishes it for me.“You tell us.”
Kael adds, “Immediately.”
