As I’m looking up, he reaches around me and pulls the latch on the gate, his shoulder bumping the back of my head. The heat from his chest warms my shoulders, and the soft material of his shirt brushes against my skin.
The gate swings open, and I step into an oasis. There is ahuge in-ground pool with loungers on the wide concrete deck all the way around it. Flowering bushes line the perimeter of the yard against the tall privacy fence and a small pool house that is situated off to the side of the pool.
He points to more cameras mounted on the pool house, the back door and porch corners, and each corner of the fence. “No one is going to get close to the house without my knowing it.”
The entire area is beautiful. My gaze jumps from one thing to the next. The lawn is immaculately taken care of, and that’s when it dawns on me. I turn and tip my head up to look at him, the sun is behind his head, and I close one eye as I shade my face with my hand. “This is your house.”
His eyes move over my face, and he slides his hands into his pockets again. “It was a seedy hotel or this. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like seedy hotels.”
“Do you often bring business into your home?”
He shakes his head as he takes a step back. “This is a first. Don’t make me regret it.”
I’m about to smart off when I hear another man’s voice on the outside of the gate. “Knock, knock, you back here?”
One of the men I saw the other night pokes his head through the opening of the gate. He’s dressed in the same slacks and button-down shirt type clothes with dress shoes like I see Abbot in, but not quite as expensive looking. His blond hair is cut short and parted on the side, and his light blue eyes dance as he looks around.
“Yeah.” Abbot’s answer is sharp.
“Do you know your front door is open? You left your bags on the porch.” He asks as he points his thumb over his shoulder.
“Ms. Harlow wanted to see the cameras.” His large hand rests on the small of my back, the heat from his palm scorching my skin through my shirt, and he starts to gently lead me toward the man. “This is Agent Swan. He is mybackup, so he’ll stay with you when I’m away. Swan, this is Ms. Harlow.”
My head swivels in his direction, and anger rushes through me. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me.”
His eyes volley between mine for a moment, trying to decide how to answer me, before he says, “I said you would never be alone. I didn’t say it would always be me with you.”
He’s right, I made an assumption. My mind skims over all our conversations, trying to find a reason I would think that, but I don’t remember him even alluding to that. He assured everyone that I would never be alone. I’m the one who made that jump.
A small part of me is disappointed it won’t be him.
“You want me to just blindly trust any man you decide to push next to me, Special Agent?” I stare back at him. “I think maybe this was a mistake.”
I turn to walk to the gate, but as I’m deciding to call Mason or Gray, my heart sinks when I remember my phone is at home. Then, a large body blocks my way, and I almost bump into his chest.
He reaches for my elbows to stop me from losing my balance, and I take a step back out of his reach. His hands go in his pockets again, and he doesn’t attempt to get close to me. His eyes lock on mine. “Swan is not just any man. I’ve been working with him for a long time. Hecatchesthe bad guys, he’s not one of the bad guys.”
Leaning to the side to look around the mountain of a man in front of me, I make eye contact with Swan, who is leaning against the fence with his arms crossed over his chest. He smiles and untucks a hand to give a single-swipe wave.
I lean back and look up at Abbot. “How do you know? The guy who came through my window had a mask on.”
Without breaking eye contact with me, he turns his head slightly and yells over his shoulder. “Swan, where were youaround two a.m.?”
“Hard to say exactly. My daughter is sick, so that could have been when she was vomiting on my lap, or when I was sitting with her in the rocker, afraid to move or she might wake up again.”
Why does it feel like a man becomes more human when he mentions having children? I don’t plan to ever have children, so I know that makes me a super fucking hypocrite, but my distrust of Swan just fell about three levels.
“You have pictures of your daughter?” I ask, my eyes still locked with Abbot’s sharp brown ones.
I can almost feel the smile that lights up Swan’s face. “Do I? You want to see?” His excitement fills the whole yard.
“You asked for it.” Abbot says and steps aside. “I’ll take the bags into the house.”
The man is walking toward me with his phone out, and he is swiping the screen, his blue eyes shining.
CHAPTER TEN
RHYS
